If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know I like to debunk the hype around many issues addressed by other commentators. Sometimes they are right on the money but often they are way off the mark – and this can be for any of a number of reasons.
Are you able to avoid getting sucked in when you see or hear biased views that may not be appropriate for you and your practice? It’s a trap I aim to avoid in my blog posts, articles and talks.
Do you recognise the 9 different types of commentator I reference below?
I won’t name names so will leave you to decide who you think fits into which category.
Here’s my suggestion as to the 9 different types of commentators you might encounter:
1 – Hype Machines
Attention-seekers selling the latest ‘must-do’ tactic or shiny new toy. They typically make outrageous or at least over-inflated assertions about what “all accountants must do to stay in business”. All change is ‘unprecedented’. Or else they are offering a ‘magic solution’ to all of your woes and challenges.
Rarely do their claims prove justifiable with the benefit of hindsight – and I’m generally pretty dismissive of their claims when they first surface.
Once it was an app. Then a blog. Now it’s a video. Maybe this time they’re right. Never have been before though….
2 – Perennial Prophets
These are the people who talk about how the coming year will be a ‘tipping point’. Often, just as they did last year. And the year before. The ‘tipping’ point for what exactly? They’re not always sure or are simply repeating predictions that have been going round for years. (The imminent death of compliance work, for example, has been predicted every year since at least 2009). There have also been many years projected as the tipping point for accountancy firms to niche their target audiences and/or to move into advisory services.
3 – New Kids on the (Wrong) Block
These people and their businesses are often new to the accountancy profession. They repeat and repackage what they have heard elsewhere. Inevitably most accountants are already bored of this ‘news’ so don’t take much notice even when the ‘new kids’ link their ‘new’ solution to this upcoming major ‘change’. Often their solution isn’t that attractive or relates to a ‘problem’ that is less of an issue than they imagined. And, of course, their not so subtle promotional message then don’t have the desired impact.
This also includes those salespeople who are new to the profession and think their product or service solves a problem like no other. Spoiler: Typically it’s not the problem you think it is.
4 – Stat spinners
They’ve commissioned or undertaken a survey and produced a summary of the results. Or maybe they’ve seen such a survey elsewhere and think it applies equally to accountants: Hint: It rarely does!
Often the survey results are all that gets reported (it happens in other professions and industries too of course). But unless you go back and check who was surveyed, what questions were asked and what options were given for replies you won’t know whether there is adequate justification for the headline results. Often there isn’t. Without that crucial information we ignore their survey results as being hype, unrepresentative or out of date
Wearing my ‘debunking’ hat I have seen this happen many times, for example in the context of accountants’ apparent take up of ‘social media’. It’s invariably overstated or fails to distinguish use of Linkedin from the less business focused social media platforms.
5 – Context-Free Commentators
The quality of their commentaries and generic views depends, inter alia, on their understanding of the different elements of the profession. It also depends on the way in which the academics reference the different elements of the profession when reporting their views as to the future of the profession. Any study of accountants that reaches conclusions that fail to distinguish the position of the tens of thousands of sole practitioners from a few hundred larger firms for example, must be suspect.
6 – Wide-eyed wordsmiths
Typically journalists who are relatively new to the accounting profession, enthusiastically reporting the news surrounding the profession. Some go further and collate data and news stories and offer their own independent commentaries. Often these are illuminating and makes the story easier to understand.
On other occasions these journalists end up reaching unwarranted conclusions because they have started with preconceptions (based on outdated stereotypes) or unreliable press releases quoiting ‘facts’ the newbies were ill-equipped to challenge but that experienced accountants can smell a mile-off.
7 – The “Do What I Did” Gurus
Practitioners who have achieved a degree of success and who seem genuinely keen to help others to replicate this. Sometimes altruistic, sometimes arrogant and often admirable. Some suggest that they are better placed than anyone else to help other accountants – although their experience is often limited to their own practice but they imply that everyone can replicate their success – despite key differences in background, style, preferences and experience.
8 – Bloggers – Some regular bloggers seem more interested in seeking attention by making unsubstantiated predictions. Some bloggers though have a real passion for the profession. I know I do and so I share my honest and, I hope, informed, views solely with the intention of informing and enlightening accountants in practice. Yes, it’s nice to get some kudos and to track my readership stats upwards. I have my share of detractors too of course. I deliberately avoid hype and hyperbole as I find it a turn-off and like to think my audiences feel the same way.
9 – Futurists – I’ve yet to find anyone else who describes themselves as an accountancy futurist in the UK, but other accountancy futurists exist around the world. Typically they reference changes and developments that are many years off having a real impact on accountants. My approach focuses more on the immediate-future and reflects my tendency to debunk the hype I see elsewhere.
So many predictions from others tend to either be outrageous (typically from ‘Hype machines’), headline grabbing (from ‘New Kids’) or unexciting as we anticipate continual but hardly revolutionary changes. In recent years we’ve had, on the one hand, the threatened decimation of smaller firms when KPMG and PWC launched their small business packages. Impact? Negligible. On the other hand, 2019 is the 8th year in succession that accountants have been told they must start producing videos if they don’t want to lose out. Yeh. Right.
It’s not about good vs bad – some are helpful, others are just misaligned.
The key is knowing which voices to trust and which to take with a pinch of salt
Do you recognise my list? By all means let me know if you can think of any more categories, and if you have better titles for any of the 9 I have identified above.
