Honoured guests, dear colleagues,
The topic of today’s Congress focuses on the three dimensions defining the evolution of the accounting profession, that is, integrated thinking, globalisation and technology. As a profession, we need to concentrate on these three dimensions and understand that the working paradigm of this profession is radically changing both in terms of the business model and in its manner of practice. This process has already begun. It is evident that, from the point of view of the business environment, this new concept of integrated thinking requires a slight change of philosophy, meaning that value creation needs to concentrate on more than just the financial capital perspective, or shareholder distributions. All other capitals used in the operation and development of a business need to be considered. We are talking about the human capital, the technological capital, the environment, society as a whole. This is how the role of the business environment more or less transcends from an exclusively private sphere to the public interest. The expert accountant needs to have an important role here in facilitating this transition and, if you will, in educating entrepreneurs in this direction. There is more and more talk about the transition from financial reporting to integrated reporting.
Globalisation is currently a certainty. The business environment capitalises more and more on the economies of scale effect, with businesses being designed today with a focus on volume and small added margins. Evidently, this lack of borders also affects our profession. There is an increasing need for international standardization and for a change in focus towards management accounting from our profession.
The professional accountant needs to become the right hand of the entrepreneur, because the use of technology means the automation of those tasks that have a lesser added value for the company, and we will have to use our skills to practically translate the numbers we obtain from financial statements to a language that is easier to understand by entrepreneurs and, moreover, to bring actual solutions ensuring the stability and evolution of the business.
Last but not least, we need to focus on technology. We have all witnessed how our society is becoming more and more dependent on technology, and our profession must naturally become more dependent on technology as well. As already said during the CILEA Seminar, we needn’t be frightened, but see that the glass is half full – we will finally have enough time to concentrate on those services that have a real added value for the business environment and, I might add, for the authorities and institutions regulating our country’s economic system and the global framework, to ensure the development and performance of the business environment. We must also ensure that Romanian entrepreneurs are not overshadowed in the competition with foreign entrepreneurs that maybe benefit from a greater know-how in terms of corporate governance and business management.
What do we do, as a profession, in Romania? We are aware of all these realities. We are aware that we need to change. We are aware that we should take urgent steps to better respond to the needs of the business environment, our clients, and the authorities and regulatory institutions. We are undergoing through this change. We have approached several directions, launched several outreach campaigns, and also have the education component that seeks to broaden the skills of an expert accountant to include these new areas that may have been neglected for too long. And since we need to make all this public and because our image, of both the professional body and the profession, is represented by the marketing elements, the logo and tagline, we have decided to transpose our tradition, established since 1921, to the realities of today and tomorow. This is why we have decided to use this occasion to launch the new identity of the profession and of our professional body.
Count on us. Count, with us. Always!
