Miscellany

Miscellany — interesting items that caught my eye during the week.

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Little girl (age 9) from Scotland starts blog, NeverSeconds. It goes viral!

Gotta read, “Little Girl’s Lunch Review Blog Persuades Her School to Serve Healthier Meals.”

If blogs can be written by a 9-years-old girl and can evoke change, then why is it difficult for so many professors and accountants to get started?

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Wow!  I picked a winner.  From BusinessInsider, “Google Chrome Just Passed Internet Explorer To Become The World’s Most Popular Web Browser.”

Google Chrome has been my browser of choice for the past 12-18 months.  Prior to that it was Firefox.  Prior to that, I don’t remember.  Oh, I sometimes use Opera.

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No surprise here.  From Forbes, “IBM Study: If You Don’t Have a Social CEO, You’re Going to be Less Competitive.”

I’m sure the same characteristic applies both to CPA firms and individually to accounting and finance professionals.  Hint:  a firm hiring an outsider to do all social media activity is not the same as having a social CEO.

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Unbelievable!  So says Francine McKenna.  So say I. From Bloomberg, “SEC Staff Ends Probe of Lehman Without Finding Fraud.”

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The final item in this week’s list comes from Caleb Newquist of Going Concern. Caleb’s blog is so well done, he was named to Accounting Today‘s list of most influential people in accounting.  In his story, “The Dixon, Illinois Fraud Is the Latest Example of Why Reasonable Assurance Is Bullshit,” Newquist is highly critical of today’s audit:

See? Audits can be great and fraud can still happen! And we wouldn’t be shocked! OR audits can suck and fraud can still happen! And we wouldn’t be shocked! There’s really nothing you can do. The good professor knows, as all auditors, that most people out there don’t have any idea of what an audit really is. Fine, an expectations gap. It’s a crock, but again, there’s really not much you can do about it. You an try to explain to your cousin in Dixon why it’s not the auditor’s job to detect frauds like this and (s)he would look at you, confused, and say, “Then what good is it?” AHA!

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Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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Tom Selling on Blogging

Tom Selling, author of The Accounting Onion

Tom Selling, author of the The Accounting Onion, has just published a new post, “Why Do Accounting Academics Blog Less Than Other Academics?” [October 12, 2011]

There is a very select list of bloggers who I view as must reads.  Tom is on that list.  He is both an excellent writer and an insightful commentator.  He also is a retired professor.

The organizational structure of his post is very interesting.  I can’t ever recall Tom sharing details of his speaking engagements, but he does today.  He starts his post by disclosing that he will be the keynote speaker to an accounting academic conference (Northeast Section, American Accounting Association) on Friday, October 28, 2011.  He has been asked to speak on IFRS issues, a subject he has blogged on dozens of times in recent years.  He’s the only blogger who has written more frequently on the subject than I.

In other words, the organizers of an accounting academic conference have decided to give top billing to a blogger.  Yet, accounting academics shun the act of blogging for themselves?  Why is that?

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Bloggers, Profs Make Accounting Today Top 100

Yesterday, the Accounting Today released its 2011 list of “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting.”  Thanks, AT, for publishing this list.

What does influential mean?  A year ago, I wrote about it in “To Ripple or Not to Ripple.” Influence is in some ways like starting a ripple.

People won’t remember you if your make your own life better.  People will remember you if you help make their lives better.  The first is valueless to anyone else but you.  The second is of great value to the universe.

You will be fortunate indeed if the recipients of your good life in turn make life better for those with whom they come in contact.  If so, you will have started a ripple effect.

In past years, the list has been comprised of four types of professionals.  First are executives of the largest CPA firms.  Second are government officials and regulators.  Third are AICPA executives and key staffers, as well as top officials at the largest state CPA societies.  Fourth are CEOs of large companies that provide software or key services to CPA firms.

Bloggers and commentators to the accounting and auditing industries have not made the list, until last year.  Professors have rarely, if ever, made the list.

Last year, though, one blogger and two blogger combos (influence rooted in traditional sectors, but also a well known blogger) made the list.  This year, there are more.  There are also three accounting professors on this year’s list.

First, I recognize and congratulate the bloggers.

Paul Caron is on both the 2011 and 2010 lists.  He makes the list because of his TaxProf Blog.  AT says, “In seven years, Caron has gone from an upstart exploring social media to one of the most important sources of tax news in any format, with close to three million visitors in 2010.”  Look for Caron to be a permanent fixture of the list.

Caleb Newquist is on the 2011 list.  He makes the list because of his Going Concern blog.  AT says, “You might suspect that we put accounting news blogger Newquist in the T100 list so he’ll stop saying the list is boring–and you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong.  But he’s also here because his Going Concern site has become a major source of news, analysis and inside dirt on the world of public accounting, building a strong community from the trenches of the large audit firms.”  Look for Newquist to be a regular on the list.

Michelle Golden is on the 2011 and 2010 lists because she is an accounting marketing guru, but she is also a popular blogger (Golden Practices).  AT says, “Well regarded for her social media savvy and practice management counsel, Golden’s conference sessions on everything from sales proposals to practice management pack rooms and spark discussions.  She continues the discussion on the blog she established in 2005, now supplemented with insightful tweets to her thousands of followers and a published book on social media strategy.”  She will remain on the list permanently.

Tom Hood has been on the 2011 and 2010 lists (he might have been on in previous years) because he is CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs.  However, his blogging (CPASuccess) is important.  AT says, “Hood harnesses his vast social media reach to promote new programs, like like the strategic thinking program he co-developed that is now used by the AICPA Leadership Academy, state based CPA leadership programs in Utah and Maryland, and the 16 workships he ran in eight cities to crowd-source ideas about the profession’s future for the AICPA’s forward thinking Horizons 2025 initiative.”  He will be a fixture on the list.

I made the list mostly for blogging on The Summa, and partly for innovative teaching.  Accounting Today, thank you very much.

Professors Paul Miller (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) and Paul Bahnson (Boise State) made the list for their column in the Accounting Today magazine.  They have written numerous essays against the adoption of IFRS in the United States.

Congratulations to all 100, and especially to the bloggers and professors mentioned here.

Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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ProfAlbrecht’s Most Influential

Last year, the Accounting Today published its list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in [American] Accounting on September 9, 2010.  I don’t know that it ever causes a stir, but we talked about it on AECM.  AECM is the e-mail listserv for accounting professors (with a membership of 750).  We wondered why no one from the academic side of accounting made the list (or ever makes the list, for that matter).  Upon closer examination, it turned out that Frank Ross (Howard U) made the list.  Bob Jensen contacted the editor and suggested the names of 20 academics for the 2011 list.

It’s an interesting question, I think, as to who should qualify to be on the list.  The accounting industry in the U.S. is so large, certainly over 1,000,000.  There are auditors, accountants, thought leaders, professors and students who are all directly part of it.  Then there are those who are indirectly related, such as companies/investors that benefit from using accounting information, businesses that serve the accounting industry, journalists, bloggers, government regulators and even tax collectors.  And what about those Europeans who have their IFRS, FRC and the EC?  And should the person’s contribution be for only the most recent 12 months, recent years, or a lifetime of activity?  And what about fraudsters who influence the accounting industry?

For that matter, what does it mean to be to have been influenced?  I look at the list and I wonder how the honorees influenced me?  I have heard of almost none of them.  Does being influential mean having had an impact?

I’m sure the editorial staff at Accounting Today has grappled with these questions over the years, time and time again.

A short while ago, I was asked who I would say are the most influential.  Here are the people in the accounting world who have influenced me the most in the past year.

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To Plank or Not to Plank

Planking between two camels

Plank (verb) – to lay face down, appearing stiff as a board, on floor or suspended between two objects (such as camels).  Conjugation:  I plank, I planked, I am planking.  You plank.  You ‘da plank!

Writing a post about planking is nearly as ridiculous as getting caught in the act.

Two of my favorite writers, Caleb Newquist and Adrienne Gonzalez, have created the must read Going Concern.  I love them because they have it:  impeccable taste in silliness, although sometimes they are serious.  Last year Caleb was serious enough to be identified as on the wrong side of the bubble for Accounting Today’s list of Top 100 professionals in the American world of accounting.

Yesterday, Caleb posed the silly question, “Are Accountants Planking at Work?”  Apparently not, as no one has sent in a photo of any such planking.  In hopes that someone might, Caleb proposed the following point scale:

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Accountant’s Gig on American Idol

Steve Beguhn, a Senior Associate in the Milwaukee office of PwC, had a successful audition and has earned a gig on American Idol.

No, it isn’t to count and certify the votes.

 

Steve Beguhn, PwC Auditor out of Milwaukee office

Beguhn does not sing professionally.  Nor does he perform as an amateur for small audiences.  When asked why he doesn’t perform, he says, “”I’m an auditor — so I really don’t have all that many friends.”  He does now.  Steve, you’re now the singing hope of the accounting world.

Click on the following link for the video story.

Good luck.

Thanks to Caleb Newquist at Going Concern for initially posting this story.

Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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ProfAlbrecht Interviewed at Going Concern

Influential accounting news and commentary blog, Going Concern, is airing a series of interviews with key figures in the IFRS debate.  The second installment of the series, published April 1, 2010, features me.  Click on, “Professor David Albrecht: IFRS Will Make Financial Statement Comparison an Impossibility,” to read the interview.

Many thanks to the team at Going Concern (Caleb Newquist, managing editor) for thinking of me, and to ace reporter Adrienne Gonzalez (aka Junior Deputy Accountant) for the fine write-up.

Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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