News from the profession

A summary of current CICA projects and initiatives

Strategic crossroads for the CA profession

When the Council of Senior executives (CSE) established a task force to develop a new strategic plan for the CA profession, it provided specific direction: "Develop a plan that identifies the component of the financial and business markets for which Canadian CAs are to be the market leaders."

It's a clear mandate. For a profession as diverse as ours, operating in a complex and changing environment, it's also a challenging one.

As its first step, the CSE Strategic Planning Task Force undertook a thorough assessment of the current state of the profession. To date, our research has included reviewing existing research documents, compiling economic and market data from various sources, conducting one-on-one interviews with key internal and external leaders, and hearing from nine CA focus groups across the country.

What did we hear in the focus groups? Members said they derive strong personal satisfaction from their work and take great pride in their qualifications and in the quality of services they provide. They are concerned about marketplace confusion caused by the proliferation of designations and they want to ensure the profession continues to attract the best and brightest. Some also have lingering concerns about the impact of high-profile business failures.

Our next step was to identify the various environmental factors affecting the profession and to analyze their implications. Major factors include demographics, competition, globalization and market diversity.

Just as they are affecting many aspects of society, changing demographics are affecting the CA profession. The "boom, bust, echo" trend is affecting the size of the workforce and the school system. A growing number of Canadians, including professionals, are seeking a more balanced lifestyle. Canada's cultural diversity is growing. As well, a higher proportion of the population has, and is seeking, post-secondary education.

Competition affects the profession at many levels, from competition for clients and positions to competition for students. The proliferation of business and accounting designations creates confusion in the marketplace and undermines the automatic prestige afforded our brand in the past.

Businesses of all sizes are increasingly affected by international events, so CAs must possess international knowledge and competencies. As well, globalization means Canada must play an active role in the international governance of the profession, particularly in standard setting for accounting, auditing, ethics and education.

The dichotomy in Canada's business environment — a large number of small public and private companies combined with consolidation and concentration in such sectors as financial services — affects CAs and the range and diversity of services they provide.

We also identified changing technology, recent business failures and the need for further liability reforms as significant environmental factors affecting the Canadian CA profession.

Each of these factors poses challenges for CAs and the clients and employers they serve. But they also create significant opportunities — our major focus going forward.

We are in the process of carefully analyzing the CA market, including defining boundaries and segments, assessing the growth potential and competition in these segments, assessing key success factors in the major markets and defining CAs' competitive advantage.

Our research would not be complete without a deeper examination of the attitudes of those who employ and engage CAs. Therefore, we are planning focus groups across the country with senior decision-makers in public and private companies of all sizes and in public-sector and nongovernmental organizations.

In addition to identifying the component of the financial and business markets for which Canadian CAs are to be the market leaders, the task force has been asked to recommend strategic directions that are consistent with the market position, and to work with the CSE's branding project team to establish the characteristics of the CA brand and how that brand is to be positioned and promoted. Ideally, strategic options will be developed that provide growth potential while preserving the values and distinguishing attributes of today's CA.

After consultation with key stakeholders, CSE members will present recommendations to their Councils or Boards for decisions. All national and provincial leaders attended a briefing and presentation on the task force's work at a February meeting in Toronto.

As I said at the outset, it's a complex and challenging undertaking, but we are making significant headway. Updates will be included in future issues of CAmagazine. In the meantime, we welcome your input and feedback.

Guiding Principles The Strategic Planning Task Force has established the following guiding principles: Commitment to core CA values — The task force will pursue its work in an open-minded way that fully explores all issues, challenges the status quo and at the same time ensures that the profession's core values — integrity, objectivity, independence and the protection of the public interest — remain paramount. Market-focused — Its major focus is to define the markets in which CAs are to be the leaders. Goals, objectives and action plans will flow from this strategic vision and from the profession's core values. Research-based — Its deliberations will be based on existing data, research and information and on new qualitative and quantitative research as required. National in scope — Its vision will be national in scope, while being sensitive to and reflective of regional variations and concerns. Inclusive — It will seek input from a wide variety of groups, both inside and outside the CA profession. Open and transparent — It is committed to an open and transparent process that ensures that members, the CICA board and provincial institutes/ordre are involved and informed throughout.

Steve Glover, MBA, FCA, is the chair of the Inter-Institute Strategic Planning Task Force. He welcomes comments at future@cica.ca.

New tax professionals advisory committee

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has appointed 11 chartered accountants from across the country to serve on a new committee that will address the specific needs of Canada's tax professionals and their clients. The 15-member Tax Professionals Advisory committee is part of the CRA's Future Directions initiative, aimed at reengineering the way it does business by better understanding the needs of its clients.

Committee members provide the CRA with advice and comments on matters that reflect the tax professional's perspective; help the agency identify opportunities for closer, more efficient working relationships with tax professionals; provide the agency with the opportunity to communicate its plans and initiatives to tax professionals, and help the agency develop policies, procedures and forms that will have an impact on tax professionals and their clients.

Committee members, who are appointed by the CRA, do not represent associations or organizations with which they are linked; they act independently to provide advice in the interest of tax professionals in general. Typically, members are appointed for staggered terms of two and three years to ensure continuity. 

The inaugural meeting of the advisory committee was held in Ottawa on November 28, 2003.

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