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...