The 2022 Top 100 People: Making a change

December 29, 2022 9:00 AM

Accountants are constantly navigating new waves of change, but what would accounting's most influential choose to change about the profession?

We asked the Top 100 Most Influential People to share what they would adjust or transform in their field, and the responses ranged from education to branding to diversity, and everything in between.

Below, a selection of the thoughtful ideas that sprouted from our question: "What is one thing you would like to change about the accounting profession?"

(To see the full responses of all the candidates for the Top 100, click here.)

Right now, I'd put next generation leaders into firm leadership positions within their firms. I'd pay them more, give them responsibility for running their firms and empower them to make the business model changes necessary. They carry a great deal of risk being on the hook to pay firm buyouts in a very uncertain future and they have very little authority to make the business changes needed to ensure that they'll have the talent to sustain their firms into the future. It's time.

— Jennifer Lee Wilson, co-founder and partner, ConvergenceCoaching LLC

Its image. Our profession is exciting and dynamic. The work is interesting and fulfilling, and has a significant and positive impact on businesses, communities, environments and economies. We need to do a better job of telling that story.

— Susan Coffey, CEO, public accounting, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants

The perception of the profession. And that of the accounting professionals. The pandemic proved that accountants were frontline people who saved businesses from closing down, helping millions keep their jobs. So, the profession needs to be rightly seen as a profession of "real-life heroes who do extraordinary stuff" to protect, nurture and enhance people's future. We need to create "celebrity accountants" – several of them. We must widely publicize and share real stories of unbelievable "life impacts" accountants are delivering to their clients.

— Hitendra Patil, head of customer success, AccountantsWorld by IRIS

Get rid of the partner model and adopt a corporate model. It's holding our profession back from what it needs to do to compete, such as invest more for the future and move quickly.

— Gale Crosley, president and founder, Crosley+Company

Besides losing our monopoly on the audit, the most important change the profession needs to make is to innovate its business model. The old "We sell time" model is dead, but many firms refuse to hold the funeral. Making knowledge workers account for every six minutes of their day is abuse, and is another reason top talent either doesn't enter the profession, or remain in it. Other industries deploy business models that allow for exponential growth, not tied to what gets recorded on a timesheet.

— Ron Baker, founder, VeraSage Institute

I'm invigorated by the forward-thinking that is happening in the accounting profession, but the pace of technology adoption could and should be moving faster. The advantages of emerging technologies in tax, audit and firm management and their delivery through cloud solutions and their efficiencies are real, yet many firms have clung to the past. The collaboration and innovation happening in our industry is exciting and continues to make us all better. I think the more we can embrace the rapidly changing market landscape and leverage technology to solve intractable problems, the better positioned we will be as a profession to serve our clients.

— Jason Marx, president & CEO, Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting, North America

Stop focusing on the "up or out" mentality. There is a need for technicians and viable paths for those who aren't interested in sales or management. Don't discourage these professionals, but celebrate them. Find new and creative career paths for these valuable contributors.

— Diane Yetter, president and founder, Yetter Consulting Services & Sales Tax Institute

I can't think of another industry that offers as many opportunities to learn and grow. You learn how a business operates right from the beginning of your career. Part of our work is to do a better job of communicating that to students as we compete for the best talent. It's also essential that we make the profession more diverse. Diversity makes your organization stronger, more innovative, and more competitive.

Another thing I'd like to change is our willingness to embrace change. I want to see our people take the lead on incorporating ESG and sustainability into the way we work with clients – from helping them map their ESG journeys to helping clients stay accountable to their ESG goals in their financial reporting. There is ample opportunity for leadership within this space if we are willing to embrace new ways of thinking around our work.

— Wayne Berson, CEO, BDO USA

Per the AICPA's 2021 Trends report, 62% of non-CPA professional staff in public accounting firms is white and 77% of CPAs in public accounting firms are white. While in my role at the AICPA, I would like to see these numbers change. I want to help these numbers change. It's time for diverse people to stop being the only one in the room in this profession. In college my basketball coach used to say, "whatever you do, leave it better than you found it" and that's what I want to do when it comes to diversity in the profession.

— Crystal Cooke, director, diversity and inclusion, AICPA

The profession is going to have to address and remedy the perception (and reality) of improving opportunities for work/life balance. In the world of social media, potential candidates can read of the experiences of recent hires, and it is often not positive.

— Ken Bishop, president and CEO, National Association of State Boards of Accountancy

I would like for the accounting profession to continue to make strides toward enhancing diversity and inclusion. While RSM and the profession, as a whole, have made some good progress, much remains to be done. As Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP, recently stated in Fortune, "It is not only a business imperative to keep society moving, but it is also a business opportunity…" We need to seize the opportunity to enhance inclusion. Not only is it the right thing to do but we know that the diversity of thinking that comes when people with different backgrounds come together leads to enhanced innovation and better outcomes – for our clients, for our people, for our firm and for our profession.

— Brian Becker, managing partner and CEO, RSM US

I think there is a common misconception that accounting and auditing is boring, which couldn't be further from the truth. Quality audits protect people. When we talk about protecting investors, we are talking about people: from workers saving for retirement, to parents saving to put their kids through college, to anyone who depends on the soundness of our capital markets to invest and build their own version of the American Dream. All of those people depend on quality, accurate audits to make decisions that impact their futures. And there is nothing boring about that.

— Erica Williams, chair, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

The profession needs to improve how they define, document and communicate a variety of career pathways that are available as a CPA. This will help evolve the brand of the profession and attract top talent.

— Jim Boomer, CEO, Boomer Consulting Inc.

Our profession and firms of all sizes should do more to foster diversity of thought and experience. Having people from different educational, cultural and professional backgrounds can help create a diverse experience for accounting professionals and, importantly, our clients. At PwC, we strive to give our people opportunities to work on various projects and take on new roles in different areas so they gain unique skills and perspectives. We believe creating a multidisciplinary skill set is tremendously valuable—and the diversity of skills enhances quality and benefits clients and stakeholders.

— Tim Ryan, U.S. chair and senior partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Workload compression and hustle culture. It's unhealthy and another reason the profession is less attractive than other jobs. Let's reduce the amount of time we spend letting other people's lack of planning become an emergency on our end.

— Kristen Rampe, managing partner, Rosenberg Associates

I would love to change its brand! I'm continually blown away by the impact that accounting professionals have on their clients far beyond the financial aspects of the work: coach, mentor, business consultant, and even therapist. Aligning the brand to the impact would go a long way to resetting why this community is so fundamental to small businesses' success for small business owners.

— Ted Callahan, director, Intuit QuickBooks partner segment

EY Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio

The accounting industry lacks diversity and this needs to change. A report published earlier this year by IMA (Institute of Management Accountants), CalCPA (California Society of CPAs), and IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) observed a 'diversity gap' between senior leadership of the profession and the whole of the accounting and finance workforce. I've seen firsthand how diversity in all its forms - including gender, ethnicity, age, experiences, skills, social background - can lead to high-performing teaming and exceptional leadership. I'm incredibly proud of EY's Global Executive, our highest EY leadership body, for signing a public statement to lead inclusively and elevate our focus and accountability around diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DE&I) progress. This is also the third year we've used a Global DE&I Tracker, and we've seen continued compounding progress of results across the EY organization.

— Carmine Di Sibio, global chairman and CEO, Ernst & Young

The standard age of retirement. I think for the most part, most people are living longer and want to continue to work past the age of 62…

— Julio Gonzalez, CEO, Engineered Tax Services Inc., The Growth Partnership, ABLE CRM for Accountants, Rosenberg Survey, Inside Public Accounting

I think it's important for accountants to speak the language of their clients. Accounting is the language of business, but accounting is so much more than the nitty-gritty of the numbers. Accountants have an important role to play in telling the story behind the data, which drives additional value to their clients.

— René Lacerte, CEO and founder, Bill

I would address the dogma associated with the profession that for many will inhibit open-minded, adaptable thinking, and ultimately diminish the entrepreneurial spirit and the freedom to express creativity as a business owner.

— Darren Root, chief strategist, Right Networks

I'd like to see the accounting profession become more diverse and inclusive. For this reason, I launched Accelerate 2025 on July 1, 2020 – the first day of my tenure as chair and CEO. This strategic initiative is focused on ensuring that more individuals from underrepresented groups choose KPMG as their employer of choice, build careers at KPMG, and advance to leadership positions within our firm and within the profession.

— Paul Knopp, chair and CEO, KPMG LLP

CAQ executive director Julie Bell Lindsay

Think outside of the box. For talent, this would include how we position the profession to the post-millennial generation and how we reach this generation. For practicing auditors, renewing the sense of purpose and public interest nature of public company auditing, all for the benefit of the long-term relevancy of the public company audit profession.

— Julie Bell Lindsay, CEO, The Center for Audit Quality

One aspect of the accounting profession that I would like to change is the perception of all of the crazy hours that are worked. Yes, during tax season there are times when you need to work a little longer along with some weekends. However, that is the exception and NOT the rule. Once the tax season is over in April, that is the time we curtail hours and focus on the work without specific deadlines. There is also period with shorter work weeks, flex time and simply more of a laid back approach to working.

— Stephen Mankowski, co-chair, National Tax Policy Committee, NCCPAP

Shimamoto-Donny-IntrapriseTechKnowlogies 2018

I would like to see the profession embrace automation, outsourcing, and gig work more. We're having a major people crisis right now, and the only way to solve that is by automating out the mundane work, outsourcing lower level work or utilizing gig-workers for non-core work, and then allowing our people to focus on the work that requires more professional judgment, deep thinking, or ethical decision making.

— Donny Shimamoto, founder and managing director, IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC

From our three decades of experience and recent research, we have a clear understanding of auditors, and we can see that they are changing. Their needs are evolving beyond the functional level. They no longer simply want to complete engagements, they are eager to do more work that meets their transformational needs as professionals. Work that helps them to answer bigger questions and build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their clients. This change in perspective is already shaping what auditing will look like in two to three years. I know because we are leading it.

I hope people gain more confidence and openness with advisory services and build more trust in technology. The growing demands for efficiency and flexibility mean we are now tasked with building tools that give our users the time and brain space to do more tasks that technology cannot. That's a huge focus for us as we update our existing solutions and build new ones.

— David Osborne, CEO, Caseware

The profession continues to suffer from a reputation of requiring long hours. We spend too much time focused on input measures: how many hours our people work and how long it takes to complete a task. We do not devote enough attention to the output. What value was created, who was responsible for it, and what is the value created?

— Terry Putney, managing director, Whitman Transition Advisors LLC

Thomas-Ralph-New Jersey Society of CPAs 2018

A more inclusive environment is needed for today's accounting professionals to thrive. If people do not feel welcome and included in meetings or discussions, they will not stay. They will jump to that sales job or higher-paying finance job elsewhere. The impact on women in the profession, as primary care givers, needs to be taken into account as does hiring and promoting more diverse applicants. In addition, the hours that are required and face time demands in the office need to be adjusted to keep employees wanting to return on Monday.

— Ralph Thomas, CEO and executive director, New Jersey Society of CPAs

I would like to see the accounting profession step up to the challenges it currently faces better by embracing greater agility. We need to be more flexible and attuned to rapidly changing events and requirements of the job in an evolving world. And, as I've said, we need to be better at telling our powerful and compelling story that accountants make a positive and lasting impact on our world.

— Jeffrey Thomson, President & CEO, Institute of Management Accountants