In its most recent Global Employers survey, CIMA sought to better understand the challenges faced by medium and large-scale companies all over the world. The independent survey, commissioned by CIMA in June 2010, focused on the skills desired by these employers in the short and medium-term.
Validating the Institute's rigorous future-ready curriculum and its emphasis on developing management accountants, the Global Employers survey revealed that the current economic climate and cost control were the key challenges faced by organisations around the world. As a result, the majority of these companies believed in the need for management accountants, rather than accountants of the sort produced by other professional institutes.
The current economic climate, cited by surveyed employers as the most critical challenge facing them in the next 18 months, has spurred an increase in their demand for a unique skill set, one best delivered by the CIMA. Believing that their employees need to possess leadership skills, as well as excellence in reporting and analysis, global employers have increasingly turned to the CIMA members, who have the business planning, implementation, forecasting, and verbal communication skills needed to drive revenue growth. Indeed, the newest CIMA syllabus, developed with the needs of global employers in mind, is more focused on the 'soft' skills of leadership, decision-making, and project management than other accounting qualifications.-PR