News from the profession

A summary of current CICA projects and initiatives
 
Branding the CA profession: a highly strategic initiative

By Daniel McMahon, FCA, & Christine Montamat, MBA, CA

Last year, as the Strategic Planning Task Force worked through its process, the importance of branding to the profession’s future became increasingly clear. Although the current CA brand is strong, it faces some major challenges due to increased competition, market confusion and the aftershocks from various scandals that rocked corporate America. In fact, the profession’s strategic plan — newly completed, with a thorough strategic analysis and visioning exercise — identifies branding as one of the four key areas of action in which initiatives should be taken by the CA profession. As members, we are the main power behind the CA brand, so we felt it was important to better inform you about the CA Branding Task Force and its accomplishments to date.

Members of the task force include:
Christine Montamat, MBA, CA (chair), director, strategic development, external affairs and communications, OCAQ

Joy Barkhouse, communications consultant, ICANS

Angela Kooij, manager, media relations, CICA

Lesley MacGregor, director, external affairs, ICABC

Sonia Maryn, director, communications, ICAA

Daniel McMahon, FCA (CSE rep), president and CEO, OCAQ

Nora Murrant, FCA, FCBV, executive VP and COO, ICAO

Michel Zins, PhD (external consultant), president, Zins Beauchesne and Associates

Branding means more than advertising
Branding is different from advertising. While this may be obvious to some, it is confusing to others. Advertising is generally based on the concept of a campaign that is limited in time and focused on a specific message to be transmitted to a particular target audience. Branding is much larger in scope — deeper and more encompassing in its goal and objectives. In addition, while some organizations choose to build a new brand, others choose to strengthen or modify an existing brand. In our case, it is about strengthening and actualizing the CA brand in a new business, social and legal context.

The good news is that effectively establishing, positioning and promoting the CA brand would contribute to achieving all of the objectives identified in the strategic plan. In particular, it would help communicate the core values of CAs and strengthen their identity, inside and outside the profession. It would also help defend and enhance our market share and international influence by creating a consistent, integrated and powerful picture of the profession and the value it delivers to employers and clients.

Finally, a strong CA brand would provide a solid and coherent basis for promotional efforts to employers, clients and shareholders, as well as toward prospective students.

Through this branding initiative, our goal is to achieve instant recognition for our CA brand — recognition for what the brand stands for; for what it means to be a CA; for what you get when you recruit or engage a CA; for the type of person a CA is and the values he or she adheres to; and for the attributes and personality traits you can generally expect to find in a CA. The CA brand should encompass and convey all this to the stakeholders significant to the profession and to its members, in whatever context they work.

While branding may seem like a tall order, every step of the initiative is important. Moreover, building a brand will involve the use of many tools. In fact, publicity is a major means of building the brand and it involves much more than advertising. It includes media coverage, public relations and other means of communication, as well as the experience stakeholders have with CAs in their work or social lives. In the end, CAs are the brand — as individuals, as a group and as a profession. Together, CAs must live the brand and deliver its promise.

Meaning of the CA brand
The branding exercise for the CA profession must address the following questions:

• what does the CA brand stand for?
• what is the DNA of the CA brand identity?
• what characterizes CAs as a group and a profession, and what do they want to become? That is, how do we as CAs want to be perceived and what do we want our designation to tell and promise the world, especially our clients, employers and prospective students?

This is the essence of the brand and it must be relevant and inspirational. It needs to be explained, communicated and nurtured. And, eventually, it needs to be enhanced or changed to represent what CAs are today and what they will become tomorrow.

To do this, all CAs will have to seize every opportunity to share the meaning of the brand and build the brand and its culture. The meaning of the brand must be unifying — it is a rallying point, used to build consensus. The meaning and essence of a brand builds synergy and precedes any presentation of a visual solution. It becomes integrated in the culture of the profession and constitutes a source of motivation for members.

A strong and authentic CA brand
Building a strong and authentic CA brand requires a clear vision of:

• the markets to be served;
• the positioning in relation to competitors;
• the unique value proposition CAs bring to clients and employers and offer to students when joining;
• the competitive difference and advantages CAs hold and want to build upon.

The brand dynamic
A brand is a dynamic concept. At its heart is a vision, with goals and a strong belief in its meaning and essence. A brand also carries values and is characterized by a set of attributes and an underlying personality. For clients, the CA brand is a promise and a value proposition. On the surface, it has an identity that everyone can recognize (e.g. a logo), but underneath its strength stems from a core culture that supports the brand. In our case, this is the members’ connection to the brand and their daily contribution to it through their work, practice, teaching and community involvement.

Brand strategy
The brand strategy will be the central unifying thrust and idea around which decisions, actions and communications are aligned in a long-term perspective to strengthen and promote the CA brand.

Brand strategy should be built on:

• the strategic vision, mission and plan just developed
• the profession’s history, culture, membership and organization
• an in-depth understanding of clients’ needs and perceptions. Brand strategy should define positioning; essential promise; unique value proposition; differentiation; and competitive advantage.

Brand strategy should impact and influence members; students; business; government; the general public; and institutes and staff.

The imperatives of such a strategy are the following:

• seize every opportunity to position the CA profession, uniquely and strongly, in the mind of clients, employers and students;
• consistently repeat a strong message and idea, over the long term;
• communicate and demonstrate a unique competitive advantage;
• understand stakeholders, their perceptions and expectations;
• use all touch points in a coherent and convergent way;
• yield emotions to build aspirations, admiration and loyalty to the brand.

CA brand success factors
The success factors that the CA brand will have to meet to increase its value and strength are:

• roots and authenticity: it must not be just a shiny image;
• substantiation: as a profession we must be able to explain and prove our claims and statements;
• credibility: the brand’s promise and value proposition must be credible;
• sustainability: as a profession we must be able to deliver on the brand promises;
• differentiation: the CA brand must distinguish itself from other designations;
• inner coherence: the CA brand must have more than just surface consistency.

Branding process
The CA Branding Task Force has developed a process that is built around five phases and will last several months.

• Phase I: situational assessment, diagnosis and identification of the challenges and decisions to be made;
• Phase II: strategic brand vision development;
• Phase III: CA brand vision validation;
• Phase IV: CA brand positioning strategy;
• Phase V: brand strategy implementation plan.

Currently, the task force is working on Phase III and conducting a number of focus groups with members, clients, employers and students. Previous phases included work sessions with CA groups in Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and the West.

Key issues and challenges
The task force faces the following key issues and challenges:

• the diversity of the profession, especially members in industry;
• the changing marketplace and the branding initiatives of our competitors;
• the changing brand perceptions of students;
• the fact that as members we are actually the brand and therefore its most powerful and extensive expression.

So far, the task force has established some major strategic directions, such as to include industry within the brand; to make a commitment to fight our competition; to sell to students the benefits of being a CA that have already been established; and to work closely with our members.

This branding initiative has been a long time coming. However, today we are pleased to say there is tremendous commitment and energy around this area among our leadership across the country. Furthermore, in the following months, more CAs will become involved in the branding process and the Branding Task Force welcomes any comments you may want to share with its members from your region. The task force is committed to keeping you informed of this important process as it unfolds.

Government of Canada shows leadership in financial reporting

The Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) has presented federal Treasury Board president Reg Alcock, PC, MP, with an award that recognizes the government’s significant contribution to the advancement of excellence in public sector financial reporting.

The government of Canada is the first senior government in the country to adopt the new full accrual reporting model standards issued by PSAB in January 2003 — a full three years in advance of the effective date of the standards, March 31, 2006. In so doing, it joins a small group of international governments such as New Zealand and Australia that have moved to full accrual accounting, recognizing that it provides improved information for decision-making and accountability and a more comprehensive picture of government finances.

The award also recognizes the federal government as the first government in Can- ada to provide extensive financial statement discussion and analysis (FSD&A) to explain and provide context for its financial statements as part of its public accounts. 

“We are delighted that the government of Canada has taken a leadership role in adopting the new reporting model standards,” said CICA president and CEO David W. Smith, FCA. “The new government reporting model is a significant move forward for government reporting. It requires governments to report a comprehensive set of five indicators in their financial statements, eliminating the one-dimensional focus on a government’s annual deficit or surplus number and encouraging the presentation of a fuller picture of government finances. In addition, the provision of financial statement discussion and analysis information is an important step to help Canadian taxpayers better understand the finances of their national government.”

Information about the new government reporting model and FSD&A can be found at www.cica.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/7080/la_id/1.htm. 

Standards Digest