Discipline plus imagination
CPA Australia's new president Alex Malley has an ambitious agenda.
In the next 18 months, he is determined to transform public perceptions of the accounting profession and to broaden our own horizons about public relevance.
He argues that the key to tackling the global skills shortage in accounting is to connect with the community in a much more human way. A passionate ambassador for the profession, he enthuses about its personal career benefits and public contributions, laughs off the 'boring' tag, and throws down the gauntlet to sceptics.
'I defy anyone to nominate a professional discipline that equips people for such a range of opportunity as accounting does,' he says. 'Accounting and finance gives individuals the best chance for the most choice. And, in the public arena, it's almost impossible to keep us out of any issue. Take emission trading, for example. Our training is all about managing resources strategically, so as the world experiences increasing pressure on resources, we can and should play a central role in addressing sustainability issues.'
Alex Malley's own career is a striking example of leveraging the opportunities that an accounting education provides. He has worked as a consultant, academic, CEO and board director. He has also been a life coach for high-profile identities, and a fund-raising champion for medical research.
Currently, Malley is CEO of professional medical association USANZ. He serves on a number of boards and government sector committees, including as the independent chairman of the respective audit and risk committees of the Audit Office of New South Wales and the Office of Police Integrity in Victoria. He is also chairman of the Australasian Reporting Awards, and a board member of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.
The headline on an article profiling him in the Careers section of The Sydney Morning Herald some years back summed up his style: 'Indiana Jones with a calculator'.
The phrase fits well, not only because it highlights a certain adventurism in his career progression, but also because it provides a good insight into his personality. Alex Malley is a natural teacher, story-teller and agitator for change who values imagination as highly as discipline.
Known for developing and delivering a lecture about 'The Romance of Accounting', he is looking forward to the communication opportunities that his role as CPA Australia president offers.
'As well as encouraging young people to think accounting, we need to reach people who are looking to make mid-career changes,' he says. 'And that depends on getting the message across that it's OK in this field to have an imagination. In fact, discipline plus imagination is a very potent combination for any professional.'
A first-generation Australian of Maltese-Greek background (his family's original name is Mallia-Testaferrata), Malley was raised in a family environment that placed high priority on education and cultivated a strong sense of the international perspective.
He chose accounting for his own career base because his sister told him that everyone who studied it did well in life, although she readily admitted knowing nothing about what the profession actually entailed.
With wife Rachel, Malley now has a blended family of seven children ranging in age from seven to 28. His eldest daughter has ultimately heeded her father's counsel and taken the accounting career path.
His family experience has also shaped his conviction about the value of taking a world view (see President's Desk) and contributing to the not-for-profit sector.
Asked to choose three words to describe himself, Alex Malley opts for two. 'Emotionally connected,' he replies. 'No one who's dealt with me has not felt engaged. I can see that there is method in detachment, but it's not for me. People become too functional. I say, be your full self and feel good about it.'
Rell Hannah is a senior communication adviser with CPA Australia.
Money is everything, says skills survey
In an ever-shrinking labour market, Australian employers are risking potential future growth if they dont become smarter in how they spend their reward dollars, according to consulting firm Mercers 2007 Market Issues survey.
The survey of over 300 organisations revealed that attraction and retention of key talent remains the top priority for Australian employers. But simply throwing money at the problem is not necessarily the best, or most sustainable, solution. Only 52 per cent of survey respondents believe they gain value for money on their rewards spend.
The survey traditionally records the average salary movements for the overall market and for same incumbents, who are those people in the same role year on year. This years result saw an average of 4.2 per cent salary increase for both. The movement for same incumbents was a decrease from 4.5 per cent in March 2007 and an increase in overall salary movement from 4.1 per cent 12 months ago.
Businesses are waking up to the necessity to focus reward increases into the roles that will have the greatest impact not simply across the board.
Mercers business leader of human capital, Ken Gilbert says: 'Historically, organisations have been simply spending reward dollars where they had the biggest problems in attracting and retaining talent. But the results of our latest survey show a growing shift in businesses choosing to build talent internally rather than buy it.
'The results of our survey indicate that in the future we can expect at least a 20 per cent drop in the number of businesses that will opt to simply buy talent as their main solution to attracting and retaining key people. More than 25 per cent will opt to build it internally, and 64 per cent will implement a balance, up from only 59 per cent that currently prefer a balance of buying and building,' he says.
Not surprisingly, Mercers Market Issues survey found the attraction and retention of key talent remains a top priority for 99 per cent of the employers surveyed, irrespective of their size, industry or performance.
Yet a sharp increase in staff turnover figures over the past year suggests employers could be doing more to engage their top talent, with 39 per cent of respondents reporting an increase in voluntary staff turnover, jumping up from 28 per cent of respondents in 2006.
Regional movements echo the trend in rewarding critical roles. Western Australia, which holds the greatest share of roles in demand, for example in engineering and mining, remains ahead of all other states, and experienced a 5.6 per cent increase in salaries. But this has dropped back since the last Market Issues survey in March 2007, when salaries in WA powered ahead by 6.4 per cent.
South Australia, which continues to compete with other resource rich states for talent, also fared well, with salaries increasing by 5 per cent, moving up slightly from the 4.6 per cent increase seen six months ago. Similarly, salaries in Queensland rose by 4.4 per cent, up from a 4 per cent increase in March.
Movements in New South Wales and Victoria were below the national average, with salaries increasing by 4 per cent, dipping slightly compared with the 4.2 per cent increase experienced earlier this year.
Develop your graduates
Does your organisation recruit graduates? Do you require a framework for training, developing and providing your graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to become work ready?
The CPA Graduate Development Program (CPA GDP) will enable your organisation to give your graduates a head start in their career while also skilling them to add real value to your organisation. Organisations that already have a graduate program in place, as well as those who do not, can benefit from using the CPA GDP.
The CPA GDP provides organisations with a core program of activities, templates and frameworks that equip them to give their graduates an array of learning experiences that are spread throughout the year. The learning experiences have been put together to ensure that on-the-job learning opportunities are maximised and that the time graduates are away from work is minimised.
The learning experiences include:
Programs run by CPA Australia CPA Australia facilitates and delivers the following learning experiences for your graduates:
- one-day Next Generation Leadership conference
- networking events
- additional technical training
Graduate learning opportunities CPA Australia provides the following learning experiences for your graduates to undertake in their own time:
- podcasts 10 stand-alone 10-minute video training sessions
- reporting and Professional Practice self-study unit and ethics workshop
Activities your organisation facilitates the CPA GDP manual provides information and templates that can be used as a guide for setting up the following graduate learning experiences in your organisation:
- CFO brown bag series
- induction Program
- mentoring Program
Further information
Reporting awards recognise electronic reporting
A Special award for electronic (online) reporting has been introduced in 2008 by the Australasian Reporting Awards (ARA).
This award will recognise the effectiveness of online reporting by publicly listed companies, government and not-for-profit organisations. Recent Australian federal government legislation will now allow organisations to report online, and only provide hard copies of their report on request.
The ARA expects the change to have a major impact on annual reporting. Chairman of the ARA Awards Committee Arthur Delbridge says: 'For some years the ARA has been acutely aware of the rapidly growing trend towards electronic versions of annual reports. There is a clear need for leadership in establishing benchmark standards for this exciting form of stakeholder communication'.
Entries are now open for the 2008 Awards categories. Organisations can enter in the general awards category, which has 10 divisions, and in the special awards categories of sustainability; governance; occupational health and safety, communication; knowledge capital reporting and electronic (online).
The criteria and entry information are available at www.arawards.com.au.
CPA Australia is principal sponsor of the ARA.
Reference: November 2007, volume 77:10, p. 13-15
