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I wonder if there are any other trades or professions that are as ‘glass half full or half empty’ as accountancy? I spend much of my time digesting the thoughts of people in and around the world of accountants and bookkeepers. I come across lots about what we are apparently getting wrong, less so about what we get right, and I see the decline of the profession forecast more often than the hopes of a rosy future.  It feels different when I’m out in the field.

If I may steal a line from Take That: “We've come a long way But we're not too sure where we've been”  In music terms, the digital pathway is clear. From the time it took to record your music onto a C90 cassette (ask your parents!) and then spend ages fast forwarding and rewinding to find the right track, to today’s instant download options from thousands of songs, the progress and time saving is tangible. Our music is available to us in an instant.

In 2008, Professor Jens Krause and PhD student John Dyer of the University of Leeds, conducted an experiment into human herd mentality and how people, quite literally, follow the crowd*.  Groups of people were asked to walk randomly around a hall. They were not allowed to communicate with one another but had to stay within arm’s length of another person at all times. Among the groups, a few individuals were given more specific instructions on where to walk. The researchers found that, very quickly, people started to follow the select few who appeared to know where they were going. The researchers found that it only took 5% of confident looking people to influence the direction of the other 95%.

Too much water of the wrong kind was the misfortune of the Ancient Mariner, quite literally the albatross hung around his neck, but, to paraphrase Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s rime about the cursed sailor, the modern day accountant will feel the frustration of ‘data, data everywhere nor any time to think’.  Historically, the challenge of our profession has been the time it has taken to produce meaningful data, either on a client’s business or on the accounting firm itself. Incomplete records and the difficulty of extracting information has always held back our decision-making and actions.

I’m 65 this year. That used to be a significant milestone before the government shifted the statutory retirement age but, whilst I must wait longer for my state pension, I’ll still qualify for cheaper haircuts at my local barbers and a discount on my Leicester City season ticket so it’s not all bad news.  Besides, I have no intention of retiring. I love what I do and have plenty of passion and energy for working with fellow accountants for a good few years yet. I mention my age because I came into this profession long enough ago to remember how simple the profit equation was for accounting firms once upon a time.

Our teams are a precious resource. Like any relationship, there are times when they frustrate, disappoint and annoy us (rest assured, the feeling will be mutual) but, I know from my own experience and from the many accounting firms that I visit, that your typical accounting team member is hardworking, loyal and endeavouring not to let anyone down. With recruitment being costly and challenging these days, and with firms being so leanly resourced, I come across very few team members that the firm leaders would be happy to see go.

The words that you use matter not only in the way that you express your thoughts but in what they say about your mindset, to yourself and to others. I’m going to take issue with a simple four letter word that I hear too often within the accounting profession and a word that does us no favours. Just.  “I’m just an accountant”

The roles for people owning or working in accounting firms are changing. Digitalisation is transforming the ways in which we work and many of the tasks that have traditionally consumed the time and focus of accounting employers and employees are becoming far less dependent on human hands and minds. The demand for the core services that we offer hasn’t changed significantly but the way in which we deliver them has. The demand for wider services is growing and so too is the desire among accounting firms to offer them. The ability of firms, their leaders and their teams to evolve is being tested and this is leading me to challenge some deeply rooted issues, fundamental to how firms and individuals have worked to this point and now have to address as they approach their future in the profession.

The accounting profession has always found recruitment to be an effective solution for a range of operational challenges. Want to grow your top line? Bring in some more fee earners. Need to add some skills? Select from a range of candidates who tick the right boxes Losing a team member? Seamlessly get an oven-ready replacement within the notice period  Today we face a very different situation with recruitment proving a major headache for firms right across the accounting spectrum. There are numerous factors at play here: