It should be obvious to any professional accountant that trust should be the cornerstone around which our client and business relationships should revolve. Regular readers will know that I have been scathing of the Big 4 in particular across multiple dimensions: tax, audit quality, fraud…you name it. So when McKinsey says:
Most recognize the perception that some companies in certain sectors (particularly financial services) have violated their social contract with consumers, shareholders, regulators, and taxpayers. They also know that this perception seems to have spilled over to business more broadly. In a March 2009 McKinsey Quarterly survey of senior executives around the world, 85 and 72 percent of them, respectively, said that public trust in business and commitment to free markets had deteriorated.1 According to the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer, those executives are reading the public mind correctly: 62 percent of respondents, across 20 countries, say that they “trust corporations less now than they did a year ago.”
[my emphasis added]…then you know this is going to spill over to the profession. The last year or so has seen plenty of finger pointing. Now is the time to be helping management rebuild the trust they see as vital to recovery in the new economic reality. The question is how?
Earlier today I saw a few brief Tweets from Mark Lee who was attending the ICAEW AGM. He implied that CEO Michael Izza thinks 2008 was a good year for ICAEW. On the basis of my interactions, I agree. Many operational changes occurred and there is little doubt ICAEW is endeavouring to present an image, backed by facilities and change in thinking, that positions ICAEW as a modern, forward thinking body. For that ICAEW management should be praised. But now is not a time for ICAEW to be sitting back on its laurels. And to that extent, Izza’s Tackling sacred cows is a welcome addition to the political debate that will no doubt gather steam over the coming months.
It may no longer have the regulatory authority it once had but ICAEW certainly has the disciplinary and educational clout to show the world it means business. This is not just window dressing but a pressing need. I’d like to see the profession’s leadership acknowledge that it can take a stronger role in driving a new direction within the context of the membership. That way, its responsibility will be seen as one that is taken seriously. At the moment that is lacking and in turn, that impacts credibility.
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