Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Companies should use their business intelligence to let CIMA professionals add maximum value.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorLowth, Glynn
PositionIn business

The idea of an accountant as a good storyteller isn't the first thought that springs to many people's minds when they think about the profession. Indeed, we would hope that accountants don't indulge in fiction. But factual narrative is important and, when it comes to management accountancy, that's exactly what CIMA members are trained to do. Given the opportunity, chartered management accountants are fully equipped to gather financial and non-financial information and turn it into a story that shows how certain decisions will benefit their organisation. The skill lies in disseminating complex information and turning it into a clear narrative with simple illustrations that non-financial people can grasp easily.

This is the essence of CIMA's strength. Our reputation is based on members' ability to add value and be part of the solution to a business's needs. It's a message that has always been broadcast by the institute and which has recently reached a wider audience as leading companies restructure their finance functions to improve efficiency. The growing trend towards outsourcing or centralising core accounting services has freed a growing number of management accountants to do what they do best: helping businesses to grow by delivering clear narratives of how they can add value.

Although leading organisations have already realised this, elsewhere a lack of shared managerial vision has left many CIMA members too busy dealing with the reporting cycle to exercise their real talents in decision support. This needs to change. To retain their competitive edge, it's imperative that businesses across the board capitalise on the skills offered by their chartered management accountants.

One potential solution is for financial managers to champion the virtues of business intelligence (BI). This subject is of particular interest to me as a senior manager of an IT company. Decision support technology has come a long way in the past few years. Big companies in industries that accumulate a lot of customer data--banking and aviation, for...

To continue reading

Request your trial
COPYRIGHT TV Trade Media, Inc.
COPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT