Digital Disruption and Cost Accountants Role Series One

Today’s article is more of question and less of new insight.  A question on which thought needs to be provoked and not to be answered to anyone, prior to that I will begin the introduction of this new series of my 2017 on cost accounting profession. I will start my article today with a question- Historically did we ever focus on corporate level or we kept focusing at govt level which has limited scope of employment and audit. If the answer is limited employment opportunity and audit compared to the number of students pass out then judge yourself where you need to focus.

 Digital disruption is happening at lightning speed and the whole trade and investments climate is changing dramatically. Cost is no longer a reason to worry since marginal cost of production is zero. We need to get into the depth of amplifying the returns of capital employed and hence we need to get into strategic management areas where revenues are capitalized not only for yourself but for the ones connected with you. Well traditional cost accounting practices are dead since cost measurement is mostly now automated and beyond excel the limitation of excel calculations.  Cost audit in the private sector is now not so highly required since cost negotiations have eliminated wastage and post 2008 the global climate and repeated aftershocks of 2010, 2011, 2013 have created enough cost consciousness. Employing cost accountants would turn out to be herculean task and also upgrading the pay scale is another mile stone. We need to get into those areas where other professionals are grappling up fats.

Well we achieved our target of building cost awareness and making every shareholder aware of the cost factors.  Hence we don’t need to hammer on cost measurement area we need to work on the new era of strategic growth areas where the private sector fights and we are employed after passing out. Digital disruption is eliminating cost and improving margins but we need to support them to build and amplify the ROE so that from Micro to Midcap space they can be grown.  We need cost accountants to come up.

The path of an entrepreneur is difficult and becoming a midcap is too challenging. This is the area where cost accountants need to get into the picture. But before that we need to understand the areas of digital disruptions and how client collaborative ROCE is being amplified. We need to understand big data analysis and their application where revenue for the organization and new strategic steps can be formulated to bring growth. Merchant banking is an area which has been dominated by Chartered Accountants and MBA. I find Cost accountants to get into that area since they can be a game changer in this strategic management segment. Merchant bankers enable a small company to become a giant in the long term. They take key decisions regarding financial management and strategic growth opportunities. They formulate exit strategies for the Private Equity Investors and get the SME listed.

 Enough and huge hard work have been done towards govt based areas but we are missing the mass of private sector since our self promotion towards closeness towards govt is not enough to employ us. All of the student who passes out will not get jobs in govt driven projects. Now the challenge and the thing which remain ignored that how much value the profession at corporate level is providing since that creates the demand for employment. 

I have few questions and I want my readers not to anwere me but Answere your mind.

Historically the profession has been doing MOU with govt and at various levels of govt, but the question is we are lacking highly in other areas particular the private sector. How many audits and how many cost accountants will be recruited in govt level projects? Did Our extensive thrust on govt level has moves us away from corporate level and that’s why a salaried person is ignored.