Paul Sharman, President & CEO of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), United States of America (USA) expressing his viewpoints as a guest speaker during the 18th Shoaib Memorial Lecture arranged by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) on the topic "The Accounting Profession and the Role of Management Accountants" said, 'The purpose of accountancy is to facilitate business and economic development.
He said external stakeholders were telling the management accounting community that there was a need to report reliably, influence business growth strategically, and help their organisations become socially responsible'. Sharman quoted the instances of Enron, WorldCom, failure in this regard. He was of the view that there is a need for proper education for management accounting and finance professionals and management accountants are to take the role of a Business Partner in the contemporary world.
Expressing his thoughts about Accounting Education, he said include Accountancy education in the US was messed up with its emphasis on "financial accounting, auditing and tax, there is unbalanced university education regarding management accounting.
Sharman was of the opinion that humanity's most valuable assets have been the non-conformists and the non-conformists bring about new ways of bettering things. He emphasised the Accountant's Roles in Decision Support, Planning etc and he also talked about the Evolution of Management Accountant's Work Activities.
In our country at this juncture, it is of core significance that cost accounting methodologies are applied particularly because of growing global competition. Incase we do not take immediate steps for giving a befitting reply to our competitors, we would be nowhere in the days to come because of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), Trade, Investment and Finance Agreements (TIFAs), Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and the WTO rules will make our survival impossible.