octobernovember2022 - 9

FEATURE
Now's the Time to Engage in
Thought Leadership as a CPA
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP IS often thought of as being
the business of universities and academics.
Indeed,
academic research plays a significant and integral role
in the advancement and attainment of new knowledge.
What is not as widely recognized, however, is that CPAs
and professional accounting firms can play an important
role in the business of thought leadership as well.
Companies in today's accounting and reporting environment face an
unprecedented number of new accounting and reporting challenges related
to environmental, social, and governance issues, cryptocurrencies and
digital assets, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), the Covid
pandemic, inflation...to name only a few. In addressing these challenges,
company managers, audit committees and stakeholders alike are increasingly
turning to the professional accounting community for publications
that disseminate timely information, perspective, and guidance helpful in
understanding and dealing with today's issues.
If done with diligence, these thought leadership pieces can provide
expert, quality data-rich content that is both informative and practical and,
most importantly, quickly and easily accessible by interested users. They
can also serve as vehicles for CPAs and accounting firms to showcase their
strengths in expertise and professional capital to target audiences, providing
additional support resources to existing clients and potential new ones.
By Patricia Wellmeyer,
Ph.D, CPA, CGMA
SO, IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN MAKING THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
PART OF YOUR ACCOUNTING PRACTICE, WHAT SHOULD YOUR
IMMEDIATE NEXT STEP BE?
Consider whether you have the time and resources to dedicate to this
initiative- at its core, thought leadership in accounting is about producing
and disseminating timely information that will be valuable to financial
statement users and stakeholders in understanding and navigating through
current reporting issues...and those to come. And providing value-added
quality publishable content necessitates that you have both the time and
expertise to add value on a particular topic. So, ask the hard question
of yourself and those in firm leadership- is your firm willing and able to
support and allocate resources to making thought leadership an important
part of the firm's mission?
IF THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION POSED ABOVE IS YES (CONGRATULATIONS!),
HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT INCORPORATING
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP INTO YOUR ACCOUNTING PRACTICE?
* Build thought leadership into firm strategy as its own KPI- identify how
thought leadership activities may help support/achieve the core elements of
the firm's strategic mission and positioning. In doing so, be sure to consider
how thought leadership activities can help your firm achieve both tangible (e.g.
additional client revenue) and intangible (e.g. enhanced reputation) outcomes.
* Make thought leadership part of firm culture- create and foster an environment
that gives value to and supports thought leadership. It is important to build a
culture where professional staff view engagement in professional development
and knowledge sharing activities not just as a CPE check the box exercise, but
as its own source of competitive advantage.
* Identify areas of expertise within firm and associated leading experts- build
on the firm's current expertise/areas of strength and use planning for thought
leadership activities as a means for identifying areas where expertise can/
should be further developed.
* Allocate time to and reward experts for thought leadership activities- a successful
thought leadership initiative takes commitment and a firm's reward system
for professional staff should align with and incentivize that commitment.
* Identify platforms best suited for distributing your brand of thought leadership-
give thought to which medium would be most impactful as a means of
sharing your expertise and reaching your target audience. Podcast productions
and panel participations work well if your brand of thought leadership is
more conversational and/or opinion based. Practice articles and executive
summaries tend to work well for data and fact rich thought leadership content.
Like a fine wine, a successful thought leadership initiative takes time to
cultivate, but stay committed to the process and you will see how effectively
you become known as a go-to expert! ■
Patricia Wellmeyer, PhD, CPA, CGMA, is an assistant professor at the Paul Merage
School of Business, University of California, Irvine.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
9
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octobernovember2022

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