What are the Top Competencies (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) needed by CPAs, Accounting and Finance Professionals today? The Business Learning Institute shares its latest research and correlates it with other leading global research (Conference Board, AICPA, CGMA, IFAC, CPA Canada, Burrus Research, Bersin by Deloitte). These skills were identified and then surveyed across over 1,000 finance and accounting professionals to identify the top five skills needed today. In our survey work at the Business Learning Institute (http://www.blionline.org) we found that the top five skills ranked by survey respondents covered 75% or everyone's top five list, providing a great starting point for skills development and targeting in talent development. 1. Strategic and Critical Thinking 2. Communication 3. Anticipating and serving evolving needs 4. Inspiring and motivating others 5. Collaboration and mobilizing consensus BLI also developed a framework, called The Bounce to describe the career trajectory of today's finance and accounting professional. The Bounce is the natural career trajectory for accounting and finance professionals. It talks about the process of acquiring technical mastery in the early career and beginning to supplement wit the critical skills (competencies) needed for long-term success. BLI has been leading the training and development of accounting and finance with these ‘success skills’ for eighteen years. The Business Learning Institute (BLI) is the largest talent development and and learning provider to CPAs, accounting and finance professionals in the US. We bring our leading approach to ‘success skills’ and competency-based curriculums to the leading organizations, public companies and CPA firms all over North America.

1. “Skills make dreams happen.They build economies.They make people rich and famous. In
today’s world, the demands for skills are staggering. Government, business and individuals
have too much to achieve, their goals are huge.They are constantly, and I do mean
constantly, looking for people with the right skills. People that can get the job done.”
- Emi Iyalla

2. Talent Development &
Competencies
For
CPAs, Accounting
Finance Professionals

3. Table of Contents
1. Context – Why the skills gap is getting bigger? ……….. 4-8
2. Research - What Competencies are needed……...….. 9-13
3. How you can get these competencies AOAF……… 14-19
4. How you can get these competencies MBA Express....20-21
5. About Business Learning Institute…………………….22-27
The Business Learning Institute is the largest talent development and and learning provider
to CPAs, accounting and finance professionals in the US.We bring our leading approach to
‘success skills’ and competency-based curriculums to the leading organizations, public
companies and CPA firms all over North America.

4. Why?

6. Borrowed from the US Army War College,VUCA was coined byThe Institute for the Future to
describe the rapidly changing and complex business environment since the Great Recession of
2008.

7. From the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2016

8. www.blionline.org
Source: CPA.COM Insight into the CPA of the
Future Study 2014
92% of CPAs are NOT Future Ready
Future Ready is the capacity
to be aware, predictive, and
adaptive of emerging trends,
challenges, tech innovations,
and changes in business,
population, and social
environment.

9. The Research
The latest research inside and
outside the CPA Profession re-
affirms theTop Competencies and
Skills needed by Accounting and
Finance Professionals

10. Leaders need new skills
in aVUCA world
• Anticipating and reacting to the
nature and speed of change.
• Acting decisively without always
having clear direction and certainty.
• Navigating through complexity,
chaos, and confusion.
• Maintaining effectiveness despite
constant surprises and a lack of
predictability.
Source: Conference Board 2015 Ready-Now Leaders Report
25% are notVUCA ready
3X Performance inTop 20%

11. CPA Horizons 2025 (AICPA)
The CPA Horizons 2025 Report by the AICPA
researched theTop Competencies needed by the
CPA Profession for the future (2025) and was
validated by thousands of CPAs in a grassroots
electronic and in-person facilitations.

12. The Chartered Global Management Accounting Competency Framework was developed in
2014 by the AICPA and CIMA JointVenture and follows the BLI ‘Bounce’ Framework’.

13. Top Skills Needed for Accounting and
Finance Professionals
BLI Research in 2015 with over 1,000 responses from all segments of the CPA
Profession identified these top skill needed to be successful in these rapidly changing
times.This confirms and reinforces the research from the Conference Board, AICPA
CPA Horizons 2025 report, CGMA, IFAC, Bersin, and Burrus Research.
75%
covered by
theseTop 5
Skills

14. This led to our work with world renowned futurist and business
advisor and best-selling author, Daniel Burrus of Burrus Research.We
worked with Dan to add the context of the accounting and finance
profession to his Anticipatory Organization learning system to create
the Anticipatory Organization:Accounting and Finance edition
(AOAF) .
http://www.blionline.org/ao

15. • An#cipa#on
• Strategic
Thinking
• External
Awareness
• Vision
• Con#nuous
Learning
• Innova#on
• Crea#vity
• Problem
Solving
• Priori#za#on
• Business
Acumen
• Decisiveness
• Influencing/Persuading
• Emo#onal
Intelligence
• Consensus
Building
• Collabora#on
• Inspira#on
• Risk
Management
• Communica#on
In November, 2015 we developed a strategic partnership with Daniel Burrus, a world-renowned
global futurist and business consultant who had researched the top competencies requested in his
work with many Fortune 500 companies.These aligned with own research at BLI.

16. 28 lessons in 4 modules of this innovative learning
system with nano-learning (3-5 min videos), job aids
and rapid on-the-job application exercises.

18. Mapping the AOAF learning
program to the CGMA
Competency Model
shows comprehensive
coverage of these skills
ANTICIPATION
Strategic
Thinking
External
Awareness
Vision
Con#nuous
Learning
Innova#on
Crea#vity
Problem
Solving
Priori#za#on
Business
Acumen
Decisiveness
Influencing/Persuading
Emo#onal
Intelligence
Consensus
Building
Collabora#on
Inspira#on
Risk
Management
Communica#on
An#cipatory
Organiza#on:
Finance
/
Accoun#ng
Edi#on
CGMA
Competency
Framework

19. AOAF recognized as 2016 Top
Learning Product
As knowledge workers and professionals
whose value springs in large part from
their expertise, accountants are both
serious about their ongoing education,
and well-positioned to capitalize on new
ideas and new ways to demonstrate
their competence to clients…
The point of the coursework is to teach
you, literally, how to predict the future by
identifying reliable trends — and it
actually works. The applications for firm
strategy, client service, and guiding your
own career are endless.”
It also saw a push on different ways to
educate the profession, including in small
bites…offering to help accountants
boost their careers by bringing more
value to the table.

21. Mapping the MBA Express
learning program to the
CGMA Competency Model
shows comprehensive
coverage of these skills
• ADDING
VALUE:
Ge1ng
the
most
by
giving
the
most
• BUSINESS
STRATEGY:
Thinking,
planning,
acGng,
and
leading
• LEADERSHIP
STRATEGY:
Taking
people
to
new
places
and
higher
ground
• PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT:
Ge1ng
to
beOer
results,
faster
• POWERFUL
COMMUNICATION:
Conveying
meaning
and
earning
an
audience
MBAexpress
(All
modules)
CGMA
Competency
Framework

22. http://www.blionline.org

23. www.blionline.org
The Five C’s ofTalent Development
1. Competencies
2. Career Path (Ladder)
3. Curriculum Content
4. Compliance Governance
5. Communicate and Inspire
And no. 6 including Cloud for
hosting and managing your
talent development and
learning platform

24. www.blionline.org
‘The Bounce’ Framework

25. www.blionline.org
BLI Future of Learning
1. Social Learning.
2. Mobile / nano, or Just WhenYou Need It” learning.
3. Cloud-based platform for managing blended
learning (LMS/Compliance/Curriculum).
4. Collaborative: MBSN (Management by Sticky
Notes and other tech supported collaboration.
5. Competency-based learning (The Bounce
framework + CPA Horizons + CGMA)
http://cpa.tc/6a7

26. http://www.blionline.org

27. If there is a conversation about the future
of the profession, you're bound to hear
Hood's name mentioned as one of the
people leading the way.
– Accounting Today
Tom Hood, CPA, CITP, CGMA
CPA Practice Adviser Accounting Hall of Fame
Named the Second Most Influential in Accounting
by Accounting Today Magazine 2015
Top 150 Influencer by Linked-In
Top 25 Influencers in Learning HR by HR
Examiner
Top 25 Public Accounting Thought Leaders by
CPA Practice Adviser
Working on Learning Management with AICPA/
CPA2Biz, Cloud Curriculum, Performance
Management /XBRL, Leadership Generations
CEO
Maryland Association of CPAs
(MACPA) www.macpa.org
Business Learning Institute
(BLI) www.blionline.org
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhood/