Leaders and Managers - Learning their Way
Comments from ACCA
October 2003
ACCA welcomes the Centre for Enterprise Policy Paper No.2. We believe that it is a useful and timely contribution to the debate on leadership and management development in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
We welcome the recognition given in the paper to the importance of intermediaries, a category within which accountants are prominent. Independent research, in fact, demonstrates that accountants are the first-choice advisers of small business and are at the hub of local commercial networks.
Over half ACCA�s 98,000 members work in or service SMEs. Before they are licensed by ACCA to offer their services to the public, Chartered Certified Accountants have to complete rigorous examinations and to obtain a minimum of three years' practical experience. All practising Chartered Certified Accountants are regularly monitored by ACCA and are bound by ACCA's Rules of Professional Conduct, thus ensuring that they meet the highest standards of professional competence and ethical behaviour. As members of the ACCA, they are also required to undertake continuing professional development (CPD).
Chartered Certified Accountants often act as independent business advisers. They are in an excellent position to help growing businesses, and can offer an extensive range of services, including the introduction of proper accounting systems and sound financial management, help with the complexities surrounding the start-up of a business and with tax issues, grants and sources of finance for expansion and development. The old image of accountants only performing compliance services for their clients has long gone, with most accountants now providing additional �added value� services.
Accountants are often an essential source of advice in the management decisions taken by small business owner-managers. Many qualified accountants also act as Non-Executive Directors (NEDs). NEDs can play a crucial role in SMEs, providing an objective perspective, assistance with strategic planning and financial expertise.
ACCA recognises that Chartered Certified Accountants will not always have expertise in all areas of business advice. With this in mind, it has developed a number of resources to both improve its members� knowledge and provide details of where they can obtain further information. For example, members in practice are able to access an e-resource centre to facilitate their development into �one-stop� business advisers. The on-line centre acts as a useful bank of contacts, containing advice and links to professional bodies, specialists, briefings and publications in all major business areas. ACCA believes that the suggested �open source� intelligence service on leadership and management provision would be useful. It is important that intermediaries be involved, that they know where to find certain information and can be assured that it will be of a recognised standard.
We agree that one aim should be to ensure that government business support services recognise the importance of intermediaries. They are in a strong position to assist government initiatives, including management and leadership development.
The lack of portability between professional standards is a problem which has been recognised by ACCA. One of the reasons for the lack of recognition given to qualified accountants in the sphere of government small business support is that some individuals do not fully understand the range of services that accountants can offer and the extent of the regulatory procedures in place in professional bodies.
For a number of years, through its membership of the Business Link and Accountancy Profession Working Group (BLAP), ACCA has been involved in on-going discussions over the accreditation of accountants with SBS and Business Links. Ever since BLAP was established, ACCA has been arguing the case that the external accreditation procedures required by many Business Links have been of questionable validity and duplicate many aspects of our own regulatory procedures. In our view, the accreditation process has created a significant barrier to improved co-operation between the accountancy profession and many Business Links.
ACCA recognises the value that a joint working relationship would bring to small businesses and has taken a number of positive steps in an attempt to move this forward. We have been in correspondence with David Irwin, former SBS Chief Executive and Nigel Griffiths, Small Firms Minister, and have met with SBS representatives to resolve this issue. Progress, however, has been and continues to be slow.