Becoming an adviser: Developing the competencies to go beyond

By Tiffany Crosby, CPA, CGMA, MBA, OSCPA chief learning officer

Economic pressures, business disruption, and rapid technological advances have transformed the business world and pushed once stable economies and stalwart companies to the brink of collapse.

To stay relevant, businesses must embrace bold innovations and often look to trusted advisers to help guide the way. However, developing the advisory skills necessary to deliver value to business partners does not happen by chance. Evolving talent development to include a broad range of skills and competencies requires leaders willing to intentionally invest in structured, continual learning. Strong business acumen, change management and project management skills, critical thinking and problem-solving competencies, and communication and relationship-building proficiency are just a subset of the development needs that must be addressed.

Understanding the need

Companies are more integrated, interdependent, and geographically dispersed than ever, while finance teams are tasked with doing more with less. These factors create significant challenges for traditional accounting and finance operating models and talent development routines. Meeting management expectations in a dynamic environment requires a new, more agile approach that permeates everything from planning to execution to reporting. Gone are the days when finance spends months evaluating a course of action before initiating change. Acquiring additional resources to address new issues that arise during the year is also unlikely in the current talent market. That begs the question: How do accounting and finance leaders maintain current staffing levels, execute existing responsibilities, oversee finance transformation, and aggregate and synthesize organizational knowledge in response to new reporting requirements or standards when that information resides within myriad people, systems, and resources? Therein lies the value of the trusted business adviser who understands the client environment and is skilled in innovative thinking, organizational systems, change management, and project management.

Developing innovative solutions

Formal standards for innovation do not exist. However, a common definition has emerged within the educational arena. Generally, innovation is considered to have occurred when people create value by implementing new ideas. This definition establishes a basic framework that recognizes that innovation is done only by people and, generally, only by groups working collaboratively. An innovation framework, therefore, looks at knowledge-sharing systems, collaborative learning, and project and change management. An example of this change spectrum is a three-level model: improve, evolve and transform.

In this three-level model, Level 1 innovation includes improvements that lead to cost reductions and process efficiencies. Internal or external auditors or accounting and finance teams may identify Level 1 innovation opportunities when executing work or completing operational reviews, project assessments, or special projects. Level 2 innovation evolves existing products, services, or processes and identifies new uses, markets, or customers. This level of innovation requires asking different questions that focus on the other needs that could be served with the existing assets, which typically occurs during strategic planning conversations.

When business advisers help clients get to Level 3 innovation,transformation occurs. New products and new businessmodels emerge. Industry game-changers arise. Level 1and Level 2 innovations are more insular; the competitiveimpact is more limited. Level 3 innovation is disruptive —the competitive landscape changes. Level 3 innovationsare higher risk and take longer to execute. Therefore,Level 3 innovation requires a different skill set capable of navigating the people, process, and technology challenges accompanying transformation. Before the pandemic, Level 3 innovation typically occurred within venture and startup companies. However, the pandemic altered the business environment so that business transformation and organizational sustainability have moved to the forefront.

Developing innovative talent

Developing innovative business advisers requires a clear talent development strategy. Business advisers must be able to think critically, solve problems and learn continually. Individuals should have a structured approach to studying their environment, observing what works well and what causes frustrations or problems, and using associative thinking to discover relationships among abstract or disconnected knowledge points. Advisers need to study a broad range of topics beyond their specialization to increase their general knowledge and identify methods used outside their industry sector that may be relevant to their client base. They also need to possess strong business acumen, communication skills, and an understanding of industry tools, methods, and practices. As if those demands were not enough, advisers must have the time, tools, and data and business process analysis skills to analyze client problems thoroughly and craft a feasible action plan responsive to any limitations. Finally, advisers need to be alert to hurdles to innovation such as cognitive biases and change resistance and have the relevant people skills to respond positively.

Developing the full suite of competencies needed by business advisers requires a structured learning program that includes formal, informal and social learning. The talent development process should use workshops, conferences, classroombased

and online training, personal reading, and networking. The expected learning time far exceeds the traditional 40 hours per year standard adopted in many organizations due to continuing professional education requirements. Truly becoming a trusted business adviser requires an organizational and personal investment of time, high energy and drive, and a long-term commitment. Business advisers are the best read, best connected, and best-informed group within the organization. To support business advisers in their learning journey, organizations can:

• Measure the learning impact using metrics that gauge client adoption of level 1, 2, and 3 innovation ideas.

• Include learning plans in balanced scorecards to recognize investments as critical to accomplishing business objectives.

• Recognize learning achievements through appropriately designed rewards. Used discriminately, symbolic rewards and nominal monetary incentives can spark learning engagement. In addition, business leader nominations and evaluations can serve as input into the awards.

• Consider learning, innovation, and client satisfaction levels when nominating individuals for participation in leadership development programs and internal initiatives.

Organizations unsure of whether the right elements are in place to support the development of trusted business advisers may want to conduct a quick assessment. Start by rating talent development processes on eight factors:

1. We know where business advisory fits in the valuechain.

2. We include creative thinking and innovation in ourtalent development processes.

3. We help our professionals develop effectiveprocesses for identifying and analyzing new trendsor technologies.

4. Our professionals are effective at capturing,acknowledging and synthesizing new ideas.

5. Our professionals openly share information withour clients to further the problem identification andproblem-solving processes.

6. Our teams have opportunities to work with andlearn from other groups.

7. Our professionals have opportunities to applyinnovative skills in low-risk environments.

8. Our professionals have time available to engage ininnovative problem-solving.

Organizations need the value that well-equipped, welltrained business advisers can deliver. However, positioning professionals to deliver that value requires investing time and resources using a structured learning approach to expand competencies, knowledge, and capabilities.

Tiffany Crosby, CPA, CGMA, MBA is theOSCPA chief learning officer.