The Accounting Educator

The Newsletter of the Teaching and Curriculum Section
American Accounting Association
Vol. X No. 2 - Winter 2001

A Message from the Chair

Donald E. Wygal, Rider University

Perspectives on Strategic Thinking

Just when you thought you had seen the last reference to The New Millennium, you are now going to be reading one more. For those of us who thought that the new century is only now beginning this year, I want to start this first message from the chair in the 21st century with a perspective on strategic thinking and the perilous future ahead.

The Executive Committee of the Teaching and Curriculum Section is working to develop ongoing dialogue on ways to enhance curriculum development. It may be that the "teaching" part of our name receives due attention from our members, but we should also direct our thoughts toward program-wide responses as well. As those in accounting education are aware, the Albrecht/Sack monograph proposes that there may indeed be a perilous future ahead. Clearly, we will benefit collectively to the extent that relevant stakeholders develop strategies to mold more desirable outcomes, both for individual course delivery and for programs as a whole.

It is interesting to make a few comparisons between our entry into the 21st century and that of 100 years ago. At the turn of the 20th century, while everyday life could not be characterized by present creature comforts, many people believed that we had reached the apex of human ingenuity. A serious proposal was made to close down the United States Patent Office on the ground that everything worth creating must already have been invented.

Hindsight tells us that more than a few inventions did come to pass in later years. And while the United States was only beginning to emerge as a world power, the optimism of the time was counterbalanced by the stark reality that in a very few years, The Great War (World War I) would be fought, and the U.S. would shortly be immersed in it as well.

It is interesting to note that many scholars today believe that World War I came about at least partly because strategists of the day failed to identify a changing world order. Diplomatic moves that may have led to peaceful dispositions in a previous era resulted instead in the certainty of armed conflict. To oversimplify, the roles and abilities of the ultimate combatants had changed, but the stratagems of their diplomats did not and terrible consequences resulted.

It is perhaps extreme to compare a consideration of the future of accounting education to the coming of World War I. Hopefully, our future battlefields will be only of the esoteric variety. However, to continue with this perspective, let me add one further ingredient to the mix. Let us imagine our involvement with a major corporate power at the turn of the 20th century, Universal Buggy Whip (UBW). Imagine this company as the leading producer of buggy whips, one whose plant and equipment are state of the art and whose financials are universally applauded. Company strategists have succeeded in placing UBW in an unassailable position of dominance in the buggy whip business.

As we fastforward to the present, our 20-20 hindsight enables us to see clearly the impending drop in demand for buggy whips. An entity whose leaders are unable to monitor and address market changes will clearly be doomed to failure.

Is it possible today that some accounting programs are the academic equivalent of Universal Buggy Whip as we enter the 21st century? Conversely, are there lesser-known programs today that will be able to redefine their mission and delivery to meet changing expectations, enabling them to gain shares of emerging markets? The answer could be "yes" to both questions.

Some programs or institutions today may be living off their reputations. However, it is not a certainty that this "brand" identification will remain viable without some creative planning for the future. To continue the analogy to UBW, the buggy whip may have been to transportation at the turn of the 20th century as "accountant" is to "information management professional" today. There may or may not be a perilous future ahead for either well-established or upstart programs, depending upon the quality of the strategies employed.

History has shown that "strategic thinking" alone will not lead to desired outcomes if the strategists fail to monitor and plan for the evolving relationships and strengths among the players. Presently, a situation audit for each of our programs would reasonably consider how evolving marketplace changes affect mission delivery. For example, while viable careers continue to be available for graduates of four year programs in industry, government, financial institutions and a host of other areas, much of the public (parent/potential student) attention is focused on the "need" for students to pursue 150 hours of education to become an accountant.

Regardless of the benefits of 150 hours of education for students in the longer term, the point is that many programs have been underserved by a failure to promote the viability of a four-year degree. If this leads to a drop in the number of accounting majors who might otherwise pursue viable careers, then employers of such graduates will also have been underserved. While this reflects a threat to the operating environment, it seems to be clear also that opportunities will exist for programs whose leaders can read these signals. Perhaps constituent employers who historically have felt compelled to take a backseat to public accounting will develop creative ways to attract graduates to their workplace. Educators and administrators can be equally creative in working with employers to promote these career options to parents and prospective students.

The same threat/opportunity perspective can be applied to public accounting and 150 hour considerations. There is an unfortunate perception that 150 hour rules were much easier to promote and support when their implementation was still over a decade away. This is about the same amount of time that it took at the beginning of the past century to go from great optimism to a world at war.

To my knowledge, no actual fighting has been documented over 150 hour legislation. However, now that such requirements are widely in place, it is not clear that public accounting firms or academic programs have developed effective strategies to attract students to this career path. It is possible to argue that a well-designed 150 hour program will provide long term career benefits to its graduates. However, all things being equal, added costs without corresponding added pay will probably force a customer focus on short term costs/benefits rather than on return on investment over the long term. Again, however, all things need not be equal and strategists for programs and constituent groups could work together to plan for more desirable outcomes.

Little will be gained (unless by sheer luck) without effective communication among educators and constituents of their programs. This means that academics must become very much tuned in to practitioner needs, and vice versa. This may require that faculty and administrators become more proactive in reaching out to the professional community. It is shocking to me how few practitioners are members of the American Accounting Association. The T&C is pursuing ways to partner with the AICPA, IMA and other groups to create a dialogue. At the accounting program level, such dialogue can be crucial to monitoring the match among mission, delivery and stakeholder needs. More on the benefits of partnering is included elsewhere in this newsletter.

If you have gotten this far, then you are to be commended for reading the longest "message from the chair" ever written in The New Millennium! The hope here is that this will lead you to expand the dialogue on strategic thinking, both in your own schools and with other T&C members. The T&C Executive Committee is planning to provide a forum on Best Curriculum Practices in Atlanta in August, prior to the start of the Annual Meeting. In the meantime, we would like to get your thoughts on what you have done, or what we should do together, to work to avoid the perils of the future.

As you will read in more detail elsewhere in this issue, the new, improved T&C Website becomes "live" as of March 1, 2001. If you visit the site, click on "What's New" to let us know your thoughts. You will find a form that will permit you to convey your successes in dealing with strategic issues. You will also be able to provide your own take on planning needs. Feel free to amplify or refute points made here. Our plans for the "Best Curriculum Practices" forum will incorporate feedback that you provide us. We will use the next issue of The Accounting Educator, and the T&C Website, to provide you with additional details on the forum and other activities sponsored by the section.

Website Update

Elsewhere in this issue you will find more information about our section website. We look forward to using this site as a means of keeping our members informed in an ongoing basis and of providing you with a direct means to become involved in our committees.

We are grateful to D.V. Rama at Texas A&M-International for her ongoing efforts as our Webmaster. As you will note in her update, she has been helped a great deal by a number of bright, energetic students. I hope that you will remember their names well when they are looking for positions.

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