Foreword

The Financial and Management Accounting Committee (FMAC) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) explores emerging trends and seeks to represent contemporary best practice in the domain of accounting work concerned with the management of organizations. This is done primarily through a range of publications: annual theme booklets, an annual collection of articles of merit, research studies, International Management Accounting Practice Statements (IMAPS) and guides for practitioners. These publications are available through the IFAC website at www.ifac.org.

 

Past theme booklets have covered topics like Management Accountancy in the Year 2004 and The Senior Financial Officer in the Year 2005. Such has been the speed of change that these documents describe practice today.

 

A recent study (No. 11) examined A Profession Transforming: From Accounting to Management. This explored emerging trends from the view of 12 member bodies of IFAC representing six countries. Four of the bodies are specialist associations looking at the field of management accounting; the remaining eight are professional bodies seeking to be more responsive, and more representative, of their members working in management-related roles, in business and public practice.

 

The study explored the 12 professional associations in varying stages and states of transition to the future and each told their own story to date. The insights and changes they were pursuing individually were collectively indicative of an underlying or imminent transformation in the profession.

 

This is best summarized by stating that the findings identified that the finance function in organizations was transforming – in terms of a value added managerial focus, its area of organizational involvement, the capabilities expected from it and its leadership (the Chief Financial Officer), the consolidation, elimination or outsourcing of much of its work responsibilities, and the radical reduction of its headcount.

 

It seemed sensible, therefore, to canvas the views of 10 leading chief financial officers to get them to tell their stories. This theme booklet is the result of that exercise. Once again, the members of FMAC identified leaders in their field across many countries, businesses and public sectors. They agreed that this story would be best described through the facilitation of a leading author, and enrolled the help of Robert Bruce, Accountancy Editor of The Times.

 

The Chief Financial Officers are all from companies with easily recognizable names and with views from North America and Europe, together with countries like Argentina and Hong Kong. We thank them for the time they gave to the interviews, but especially for their candid comments and for sharing their insights. It was encouraging, from an FMAC viewpoint, to note that all of them address the role of the CFO in the strategic direction of their companies.

 

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