BONUS | Jeff Thomson - IMA and the Future of Management Accounting

CMA Commercial: You’ve got to earn it.
IMA Global Ad Campaign: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ima-launches-global-ad-campaign-to-highlight-importance-of-certification-in-todays-business-landscape-300918013.html
Jeff Thomson Bio: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/ima-leadership/jeffrey-c-thomson
IMA Website: https://www.imanet.org/
About IMA: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima
About CMA: https://www.imanet.org/cma-certification
IMA Education Center: https://www.imanet.org/education-center
Jeff Thomson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffthomsonima/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Music: (00:00)

Adam Larson: (00:04) Hello everyone. I'm Adam Larson.

Mitch Roshong: (00:06) I'm Mitch Roshong.

Adam Larson: (00:07) And we are excited to welcome you all to a special episode of "Count Me In". Starting today, we'll be releasing periodic episodes that highlight staff members and key stakeholders of the Institute of Management Accountants. This IMA mini-series within 'Count Me In" will help our listeners better understand who we are and what IMA's vision is, along with the value of the CMA credential. For today's conversation, to kick off our talks, Mitch and I sit down with IMA's president and CEO Jeff Thomson.

Mitch Roshong: (00:34) Jeff is considered an expert on risk management and internal controls and is a global thought leader in management accounting. He assumed the role of president and CEO of IMA in 2008 and has since led the execution of a strategy that has resulted in IMA becoming one of the fastest growing and most influential accounting associations in the world. Jeff works tirelessly to help advance the profession and his leadership is positively recognized across the organization.

Adam Larson: (01:00) In this conversation we asked Jeff various questions about IMA, the CMA, and the future of the profession. His passion and professionalism is evident in his responses and truly reveals the overall guidance and direction of the organization. Now let's hear from IMA, president and CEO, Jeff Thompson.

Music: (01:22)

Jeff Thomson: (01:25) Basically, IMA grew and we've been growing exponentially for 10 years. Primarily because we went from being inwardly focused to outwardly focused, meaning an intense, unwavering, relentless focus on member value on the CMA program, on volunteers as opposed to being inwardly focused on internal management in, in terms of you know, various issues. Of course we need to be focused internally and build a strong, solid inspired team. But, you know, the more you talk to yourselves, the less you're talking to the market and what are your needs and wants? How can I, how can I enrich organizations, how can I enrich your career? How can I enrich the public interest? So I would say more than anything else, it was that intense focus. And then I would say a a genuine sustained focus on core values and culture. I truly believe, although I don't have hard evidence that that helped lead not only to our growth but our strategic turnaround 10 or so years ago.

Mitch Roshong: (02:43) With that change in focus, how do you anticipate sustaining that growth and where do you envision IMA in the next three to five years?

Jeff Thomson: (02:50) So sustaining growth and managing the growth that you achieved is one of the hardest things in business. Sometimes it's even harder to manage and sustain your growth than it is to achieve the growth in the first place because sometimes you lose sight of what got you to your growth. The fact that you did it one member at a time, one partner at a time, one academic influencer at a time, one volunteer at a time. And as long as we take that approach to delivering value to staying current with technology and innovation having a solid strategy, fierce conversations embracing a culture of challenge and having a great team that first and foremost lives its core values and its culture. I believe will continue to do well. You know, the business environment, whether it's our members or IMA itself is very challenging. There is competitive risk. There's technology risk, as we've globalized, there's geopolitical risk. But I have a, a lot of confidence that if we continue to have an everyday sense of urgency that we'll continue to deliver for our members and even up our game because quite frankly, they should expect nothing less of us.

Mitch Roshong: (04:18) What are some of the key competencies that management accountants need in today's industry that you are making sure we here at IMA are focused on continuously supporting for our members?

Jeff Thomson: (04:27) Great question, Mitch. And although I'm very proud and honored to be CEO of this great, great organization my roots are in finance and accounting and I'm proud of that. You know, I was a SBU CFO at AT&T. I started out as a finance manager and analytics. And so I've seen how our jobs and our careers have evolved over time. Um you know, some of it is the CFO team is expected to do more with less meaning, more responsibility. In addition to closing the books and filing statutory reports, we now want you to get more involved in financing decisions and merger and acquisition activity. Funding, forecasting, strategy, technology, operations. Um you know, Doreen Remmen, our CFO is, as you well know handles all of those things as the chief financial officer. So on one hand, that's a great, great opportunity to be influential within your organization and outside your organization. But we have to be there to deliver the competencies to build that talent. And certainly the area of technology and analytics, more and more management accountants whether they're in financial planning and analysis or other sorts of decision support activities. You know, they're expected to offer insight and foresight beyond the numbers, but you need to be grounded in the fundamentals of data analytics, data visualization, storytelling, strategic management. And you know, IMA is up to the challenge and we're delivering some great products, but we have to deliver even more to build that competency, to meet that great challenge and that great opportunity.

Adam Larson: (06:23) In addition to the great opportunities created through continuing education, what other benefits design may offer its members?

Jeff Thomson: (06:30) Sure. Well, it starts with the CMA program. We're very, very proud of the CMA program. It's grown tremendously over the years outside and inside the U S because it resonates with CFOs and their teams who are aspiring to be stronger in the areas of insight and foresight to make sense of the numbers, to make sense of a complex competitive and market environment. So it starts with the CMA program. We're very, very proud of that. We've announced that for January, 2020 the exam will stay current with technology and analytics and reflect that in its revised exam in January. Um we're also very proud of our relatively new credential called C...