BarrieBramley - See you on the flip side

“The prevailing wisdom during tough economic times is to cut-back and freeze expenses wherever possible. This shouldn’t be at the expense of allowing our focus on people to drop down the business agenda. It’s a true-ism for all of us, in any context, that when things are good we need little from those around us. It’s when things get tough that we need all the support, energy, connection, etc that we can find.”

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KeithCoats - the Essential Smoke and Mirror of Leadership.

My youngest son Sipho arrived home from school the other day having just negotiated a history exam. “Well, how did it go?” I asked. Without so much as breaking his stride, he replied, “Well Dad, I either got 92% or 60%” and with that disappeared into his room leaving an empty and somewhat stunned silence in his wake. With this story Keith Coats, TomorrowToday’s Director of Storytelling explores an aspect of leadership which is seldom on any formal leadership curriculum: that of expectations and perceptions.

Keith also offers some practical tips to assist leaders’ better get to grips with dealing with expectations and perceptions. Keith writes that, “As a Leader, clarifying expectations and understanding the perceptions of those you lead is vital if you are to be effective. It might be that before you can even begin with your task, work will need to be done in these two areas”.

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GraemeCodrington - Detailed Introduction to Generational Theory

The concept of different generations has been one of the key insights TomorrowToday has worked with over the past decade. In times of unprecedented change, such as we live in at the moment, it has never been more important to have a clear understanding of how and why people older and younger than yourself think and act the way they do.

Generational theory does not provide all the answers in this regard, but it is a critical and often overlooked factor in human interactions and relationships. Having literally written the book on the subject (the best-selling “Mind the Gap“), Dr Graeme Codrington is perfectly placed to write this excellent detailed introduction to the theory.

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JulieStrang - The Accounting Profession - Power, Pressure, Perfection and People.

Since 2002, the accounting profession has been rocked by sensational corporate scandals and subsequent strict regulations. The four largest global accounting firms (the ‘Big Four’;) still have more challenges on the horizon. All of them see their talented staff as the best tool to embrace these challenges and add the value demanded by clients. Each of the Big Four believes their people are the source of their future competitive advantage.

But, most graduates who are recruited by these firms write the same exams, are affiliated to the same professional bodies and are overseen by the same external regulators. The structure of an audit, the deadlines, the type of people who are recruited, the pressure and the opportunities are similar at each of the four accounting giants.

If talented people are the key to differentiation for each of the firms, why and how should they change and structure themselves in order to capitalize on this critical resource? How can they each use their people to differentiate from each other?

In spite of the new networked, knowledge economy, increased regulations and changes to the profession, the organisational design and way audits are staffed and performed has generally remained the same.

Is it time for the Big Four to change?

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