As a rainbow nation of colourful and proud South Africans, we celebrate our rich and diverse heritages and cultures every year, especially during the Spring month of September. We dress up in the most visually appealing traditional attire and enjoy food and drink to our hearts’ delight. We love noting how our cultures have, over time, borrowed from and enriched one another in so many ways and how there truly can be unity in diversity, underlined by mutual respect.
Another prevalent aspect of the celebration of our heritage is, of course, our unquestionable willingness to defend it when threatened. Our pride of and love for our heritage drive us to protect it and ensure that we sustain a healthy cultural legacy for the next generation.
Aligning the above to our beloved accounting profession, which includes accountants, auditors, finance and tax professionals, and many more, one cannot help but see similarities becoming evident. The accounting profession, being one of the oldest in the world, is without a doubt a rich and diverse heritage that evolved over numerous centuries, handed down from one generation to another with a great sense of pride. Being characterised by trustworthy tradition, branded by noble integrity, and beaconing sense and direction through the ages, it has withstood the test of time by being able to adapt, evolve, and reinvent itself as markets became plagued by increased transactional complexity.
A question that frequents discussions among professionals nowadays, however, is whether the accountancy profession will, once more, be able to successfully navigate its survival route through the more recent onslaughts against it?
Our profession, and therefore by anomaly our professional accounting heritage, are currently being vandalized by acts of ethical misconduct and moral transgression. Far too often are scandalous corporate failures enabled by accountants turning the proverbial ‘blind eye’ to the misconduct of others or, even worse, taking part therein themselves!
Furthermore, the traditionality of the roles and responsibilities of accountants operating in the profession is being nudged, with a great sense of urgency, in a new direction, by the radically different principles underlying the future world of work, evidenced especially by the ever-increasing role played by technology.
Accountants are being called upon to consciously learn, unlearn, and relearn, as part of a journey of lifelong learning sustained by the amended professional skill sets that the accountant of the future is required to possess for this profession to remain relevant… and competent.
In conclusion, perhaps considering our heritage this September month should also include some deeper reflection about our professional heritage as accountants, and how we, as proud contributors to this heritage, can support our profession by ensuring that we are, at all times, the best professional versions of ourselves that we can be, acting unquestionably ethical and assuming the responsibility of ensuring that we remain relevant by reskilling ourselves in those professional competencies that will sustain us, and our profession, into the next century.
Perhaps then we will be able to hand over our professional accounting heritage to the next generation in a way that does not resemble jumping from a sinking ship!
For more information on your one-stop-shop for CPD compliance and professional development, contact Anton van Wyk at www.cpdcampus.com