Which is more important? Protect your own members or crusade to protect 'accountant'?

Which is more important? Protect your own...

Didn't find your answer?

The KEY INDICATOR is always your READINESS to do so.

So, let me ask you - are you READY?

READY to crusade for 'accountant' to be protected?

I hear people say, the CCABs are but why is 'accountant' still not protected in the UK whereas in Ireland, it has already done so long ago.

Malaysia did that longer ago.

How many more countries had done that longer ago than Malaysia?

Accountants are professionals. Just like engineers, IT specialists, doctors, etc, they are all professionals. Why not legalise it as soon as possible?

You don't need to see more corporate mega financial fiascos to sound the alarm to kick-start the legalisation.

I see AIA CEO has commenced topics here to crusade for the protection of 'accountant'. But it appeared that only the handful here supports him. And some supported the theme well enough like I do, but in turn came up with more important points to digest in the process providing good advice to CEOs before an association or professional body can do so. All these has got to do with one thing - READINESS.

Look at this situation - if there exist different categories of memberships in your own professional association of accountants, how can you be ready to crusade for the protection of 'accountant' especially when your own association is not in order with different groups of members arguing over certant important points such as READINESS to crusade for the protection of the term 'accountant'.

I support Lambada very much. Lambada's the latest post in Protecting the term accountant thread by Philip Turnbull.

Lambada suggest strongly that you need to protect your very own members first before you go round crusading for the protection of the term 'accountant'.

This is especially so, when your association had in the past admitted members from various sources of qualifications, especially those without holding any degrees or professional qualifications equal to CCAB level.

Note - everybody like to spell C C A B when the topic of accountants are brought up. Why do you think this is so, Philip Turnbull?

CCAB is likened to the accountants' brand-name in the market. I remembered S L mentioned before in one of his learned posts, that brand is the name that spells success as soon as one hears your successful brand name said, it spell success.

Isn't this true to say so? CCAB brand spells success. How successful are the CCAB members, in other words, the CCAB brand name.

To quote a little further, brand names like YSL, Bonia, Crocodile, Shangrila, Hilton, Microsoft, Dell, HP, IBM, etc they are brand names of today and they have a long trail of success following all their pursuits.

They are READY for everything, READY for success.

Coming back to topic concerned, how can a professional organisation then be READY when it is not ready in the first place?

Firstly, we need to identity our weaknesses and threats, followed by our Strengths and Opportunities.

We must be able to acknowledge our weaknesses and threats that can befall onto us. If we are weak, but unable to accept this constructive criticism, that organisation will never succeed.

A proof would have been to find out how much has that organisation succeeded every 5 years (CIPFA got 5 year strategic plan). You should do an analysis on your failures(weakness), your threats(that threaten your success). Do one very similar to Ishigawa's fish-bone theory. Simple as that, simply as that!

Do it - Plan, Do, Check and Act. Does your organisation has it? Look at those successful organisations - Motorola's 6 -sigma DMAIC which is actually a coverage of PDCA, if you care to look at it in detail. Study it, study DMAIC of the 6 -sigma, Practice it, Practice PDCA and identify your problem areas as in Ishigawa's fish-bone theory. Go ahead and do it without fear of success. DO it without fear of success. If you fear success, then don't do it.

How do you overcome your weaknesses to be successful? Name it, list down the weaknesses and brainstorm and think of ways to overcome them in group discussion and not 'group-think'. I think an organisation I know who failed to achieve much expansion practised 'group-think' and as a result, as of today, they are still just small, and employers hardly know them. It was even commented that an accountant working in the same street does not even know this association. What an inferior situation it has gotten itself to? Fine, acknowledge it, accept it, and do something to change it for your organisation's future and expansion plans.

If you think some of your members are not "well-qualified" enough, as Lambada said, qualified by experience instead of qualified by exams/experience, then do something to change it for your organisation's future and expansion plans. Acknowledge it, accept it, in the first place. If you don't, I agree with those professional contributors to this website that this could hinder the progress of your own organisation to achieve the success you want.

Someone suggested workshops, someone suggested two paper exams, someone suggested interview exams. Examine all the good points and how they can erase the doubts of the public and professionals of this category of members qualified by experience and without an equivalent CCAB degree qualifications.

Take a look at the ICAEW, MICPA, and some other professional bodies. They are now having open book exams, workshop courses with the other half done up in exams. Isn't this good or is it bad? Look how good the CPAs, CAs are. Then compare them to your organisation's quality, especially those looked down upon by their same members as qualified by experience/qualification lower than CCAbs.

Ever thought of such?

Start thinking, if you haven't.

I produce Lambada's contribution for easy reading here.

ANONEther Prof

"Lambada, 16 June 2008 @ 06:51 AM

Protect your own members first!!!
Since there are two categories of members - one that went through exams and got qualified and the other category that went in direct admission via qualification not up the CCAB level as commented here, may I ask how is the rights and privileges of those who qualified via exams be protected?
What I am afraid of is that in case there is a judgement needed on the overall members for higher level recognition consideration, wouldn't the QBE bring down the fate of those qualified by exams?

Protect the rights of qualified accountants first!!!"

ANONther Prof

Replies (2)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By AnonymousUser
10th Jul 2008 18:44

TL;DR
too long; didn't read.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By User deleted
10th Jul 2008 17:10

The Answer is 42?
You appear to be posting from Accountingweb Malaysia or similar.
Does any of this have any relevance to the UK?

Thanks (0)