Ep. 25 - Bill Sheridan: Chief Communication Officer at the Maryland Association of CPAs

Welcome to the Improv is No Joke podcast. Today’s guest is Bill Sheridan, the Maryland Association of CPAs’ Chief Communications Officer, editor, and resident social media cheerleader. He is creator and co-author of the association’s acclaimed blog, CPA Success; Certified Association Executive and thought leader at the Business Learning Institute; and manager of the association’s numerous social networks.
Today we’re talking about what Bill sees on the horizon for information and technology, and how CPAs and other business professionals will need to adapt as technology changes.
“I see a lot of change. It's going to get crazy, and it's going to get crazy really, really fast.”
In 1965, Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since their invention – or, more simply, the processing speed of computer technology is doubling every year. This observation is called Moore’s Law, and 51 years later it still holds true.
“It's doing more than giving us really cool gadgets to play with. It's fundamentally changing everything.”
Moore’s Law suggests that computer technology experiences exponential growth, which can be hard to comprehend. In The Future of Professions by Daniel & Richard Susskind, they illustrate exponential growth with a simple mental exercise: imagine folding a piece of paper in half over and over and over again (it’s not actually possible to fold a piece of paper more than a few times, but this exercise gives you an idea of what exponential growth looks like).
4 folds = thickness of a credit card
11 folds = thickness of a soda can
21 folds = taller than Big Ben
31 folds = tall enough to reach outer space
43 folds = tall enough to reach the Moon
100 folds = thickness of 8 billion light years
“Things are are changing radically, and they're changing for CPA's as well.”
CPAs will have to come to terms the fact that computers will outperform them on some tasks, but nothing will change the fact that people will still need accounting services. CPAs need to adapt to new technology and clients’ changing needs, and if you don’t adapt then the generation below you will – so you’ll still be out of a job. The profession will still exist, but CPAs will need entirely new, adaptable skillsets. CPAs will need to be better improvisers.
“I'm not here to tell anybody that you have to do this stuff, because you don't, but you also don't have to stay in business.”
The young professionals who are going to be leading the CPA profession in a very short period of time are completely comfortable with moving from new technology to new technology, because that's just the way life is for them. The pushback from the old guard is fine and it's not unexpected, and very soon the accounting profession is going to shift to something that's much more capable of embracing new things, just because of the shift in leadership.
“If we can get there first, if we can figure out how to become a little bit more future ready and then show our clients and customers how to do that as well, then our role as trusted business advisors just gets stronger.”
As Chief Communications Officer, Bill’s philosophy is that the MACPAs needs to be wherever their members are and reach them in whatever way that they like to be reached, and they try to do that across all of the different platforms. By reaching out to their audience and adding value to their social media experience, Bill helps the MACPAs maintain their role as trusted business advisors when information is more available than ever.
At CPA Success they write about what members of the MACPA need to know today – breaking news, new standards, etc. At the Business Learning Institute they focus on what might be happening down the road that they should be paying attention to. Similarly, they shared important news on their Twitter feed and engage more personally with their clients on Facebook.
I always enjoy sitting down to talk with Bill, and I greatly appreciate him taking the time out of his busy schedule. We’re going to touch bases again on the podcast, in about a year, to see how technology is changing and discuss how we have adapted.
  Resources:
Follow the CPA Success blog
Get educated with the Business Learning Institute
The Future of Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Daniel Susskind & Richard Susskind
A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger
The Second Machine Age by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
Humans are Underrated by Geoffrey Colvin
  Production & Development for Improv is no Joke by Podcast Masters

Welcome to the Improv is No Joke podcast. Today’s guest is Bill Sheridan, the Maryland Association of CPAs’ Chief Communications Officer, editor, and resident social media cheerleader. He is creator and co-author of the association’s acclaimed blog, CPA Success; Certified Association Executive and thought leader at the Business Learning Institute; and manager of the association’s numerous social networks.

Today we’re talking about what Bill sees on the horizon for information and technology, and how CPAs and other business professionals will need to adapt as technology changes.

“I see a lot of change. It's going to get crazy, and it's going to get crazy really, really fast.”

In 1965, Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since their invention – or, more simply, the processing speed of computer technology is doubling every year. This observation is called Moore’s Law, and 51 years later it still holds true.

“It's doing more than giving us really cool gadgets to play with. It's fundamentally changing everything.”

Moore’s Law suggests that computer technology experiences exponential growth, which can be hard to comprehend. In The Future of Professions by Daniel & Richard Susskind, they illustrate exponential growth with a simple mental exercise: imagine folding a piece of paper in half over and over and over again (it’s not actually possible to fold a piece of paper more than a few times, but this exercise gives you an idea of what exponential growth looks like).

4 folds = thickness of a credit card 11 folds = thickness of a soda can 21 folds = taller than Big Ben 31 folds = tall enough to reach outer space 43 folds = tall enough to reach the Moon 100 folds = thickness of 8 billion light years

“Things are are changing radically, and they're changing for CPA's as well.”

CPAs will have to come to terms the fact that computers will outperform them on some tasks, but nothing will change the fact that people will still need accounting services. CPAs need to adapt to new technology and clients’ changing needs, and if you don’t adapt then the generation below you will – so you’ll still be out of a job. The profession will still exist, but CPAs will need entirely new, adaptable skillsets. CPAs will need to be better improvisers.

“I'm not here to tell anybody that you have to do this stuff, because you don't, but you also don't have to stay in business.”

The young professionals who are going to be leading the CPA profession in a very short period of time are completely comfortable with moving from new technology to new technology, because that's just the way life is for them. The pushback from the old guard is fine and it's not unexpected, and very soon the accounting profession is going to shift to something that's much more capable of embracing new things, just because of the shift in leadership.

“If we can get there first, if we can figure out how to become a little bit more future ready and then show our clients and customers how to do that as well, then our role as trusted business advisors just gets stronger.”

As Chief Communications Officer, Bill’s philosophy is that the MACPAs needs to be wherever their members are and reach them in whatever way that they like to be reached, and they try to do that across all of the different platforms. By reaching out to their audience and adding value to their social media experience, Bill helps the MACPAs maintain their role as trusted business advisors when information is more available than ever.

At CPA Success they write about what members of the MACPA need to know today – breaking news, new standards, etc. At the Business Learning Institute they focus on what might be happening down the road that they should be paying attention to. Similarly, they shared important news on their Twitter feed and engage more personally with their clients on Facebook.

I always enjoy sitting down to talk with Bill, and I greatly appreciate him taking the time out of his busy schedule. We’re going to touch bases again on the podcast, in about a year, to see how technology is changing and discuss how we have adapted.

 

Resources:

Follow the CPA Success blog Get educated with the Business Learning Institute The Future of Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Daniel Susskind & Richard Susskind A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger The Second Machine Age by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson Humans are Underrated by Geoffrey Colvin  

Production & Development for Improv is no Joke by Podcast Masters