Leading futurist Daniel Burrus to teach CPAs how to anticipate future trends and game-changing opportunities
BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) April 07, 2015 -- May 4, 2015 – The most important competency in the business world today – the ability to anticipate future trends and position our organizations to take advantage of them – is a mystery to most of the accounting and finance profession.
World-renowned technology forecaster, innovation expert, and New York Times best-selling author Daniel Burrus wants to change that.
Burrus will join forces with the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA) and the Business Learning Institute (BLI) on May 4 to launch “The Anticipatory Organization: Accounting and Finance” The event, part of the MACPA / BLI Speaker Series, will be held at the Hilton Baltimore BWI Hotel .
The need for future-focused strategies has never been greater. In a recent national survey, 76 percent of small business owners say their CPAs are not proactive, and 75 percent have changed firms because their CPAs are providing reactive services rather than proactive advice. Another recent survey found that only 6 percent of CFOs, controllers, and management accountants say they are future-ready.
The Anticipatory Organization™ model, created and developed by Burrus and Burrus Research, Inc., has changed how many of the world’s most successful businesses plan their future and accelerate growth.
Now, Burrus is bringing what he calls the greatest missing competency – the ability to anticipate change – to CPAs, CFOs, controllers and management accountants. This model represents a new way of thinking, planning, and acting – a paradigm shift that’s required in a world of accelerating change, competition, and uncertainty.
Competencies such as reacting and responding (crisis management), being lean and agile, and executing strategy well did not help Blockbuster, BlackBerry, Dell, HP, Sony, and many others avoid major problems. The ability to anticipate the future is a skill; it can be learned. In today’s business landscape, it is the most important missing competency.
This special edition of the Anticipatory Organization is about anticipating problems, disruptions, customer needs, and new opportunities before they happen. It’s about adjusting the way we approach our businesses, our profession, and our customers to see beyond the media-induced hype of today and identify actionable solutions that will be the catalysts for innovation and competitive advantage. It provides the confidence we need to make bold moves.
The Anticipatory Organization model teaches accounting and finance professionals to actively anticipate what will happen, identify related opportunities, and take action to shape the future by becoming an “Anticipatory CPA.” By learning how to identify and take action on fully predictable “hard” trends (trends that will happen) and more easily manipulated “soft” trends (trends that might happen), we can elevate our relevancy in a world of transformational change.
This exciting new approach has been customized with a customer co-creation group gathered by the MACPA and the BLI. The group – representing CPAs in small to large firms, CFOs, controllers, young professionals, and other segments across the profession – worked with the Burrus team in November 2014 to gather examples that have been built into The Anticipatory Organization: Accounting and Finance Edition. This group will reconvene on May 4 with a special keynote by Burrus and a panel featuring our co-creation group members and moderated by Daniel Hood, editor-in-chief of Accounting Today.
As the rate of change accelerates, uncertainty and disruption also accelerate. The importance of being able to anticipate disruptions, problems, and new opportunities will become increasingly important in both our professional and personal lives. It’s true that you cannot predict everything, but you can accurately predict more than enough to make the best strategic decisions.
Burrus has been helping stakeholders to see and shape the future for more than 30 years. The Anticipatory Organization synthesizes his approach into an “accelerated learning system” with rapid-application tools. This system has been customized for CPAs, CFOs, and management accountants with the MACPA and the BLI. This transformative learning approach will help CPAs be proactive and anticipatory in less time than traditional professional development programs.
About Daniel Burrus
Daniel Burrus is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology-driven trends to help clients understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous untapped opportunities. He is a strategic advisor to executives from many of the world’s most innovative companies, helping them develop game-changing strategies based on his proven methodologies for capitalizing on technology innovations and their future impact. He is the author of six books, including The New York Times best-seller Flash Foresight.
About the Business Learning Institute
The Business Learning Institute is the leading talent-development organization for CPAs, finance, and accounting professionals in the United States. It provides customized, competency-based curriculums and a portfolio of “success skills” and technical programs designed for the finance and accounting profession. Founded in 1999 by the Maryland Association of CPAs, the BLI is an innovation and learning center that facilitates the development and sharing of competencies and strategic knowledge required for leadership in today's rapidly changing business environment. For more information, visit http://www.BLIonline.org
About the Maryland Association of CPAs
The Maryland Association of CPAs exists to help CPAs connect with each other in strategic ways, to protect our members’ interests, and to help them achieve greater success. We provide the resources and services that CPAs need to excel in their profession. Since 1901, the MACPA has been a national leader in the CPA profession. We are honored that the Baltimore Business Journal and Washington Business Journal have named the MACPA among the largest networking organizations in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., for each of the past five years. For details, visit http://www.MACPA.org
Tom Hood, Business Learning Institute, http://www.blionline.org, +1 (443) 823-7711, [email protected]
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