Finance Redefined Track (as part of ENGAGE 2020)

While disruption fuels innovation, it also creates great uncertainty. This session explores what it takes to be an adaptive leader, inspire and invest in people, and drives short-term and long-term results while navigating uncertainty.

Learning Objectives:
· Identify the top 5 attributes of adaptive leaders and how to apply them in your own business
· Recognize 4 ways to inspire and invest in your team to drive results
· Determine 3 strategies for harnessing disruption to deliver results

Join this exciting special Town Hall with AICPA Leadership to hear about the latest issues affecting the profession and how we're working to help guide the way forward. We'll cover things like:

- the Firms role in business relief and restarting of the economy 

- How firms are operating in new normal environment, and;

- Online platforms and new firm strategies to drive success.

Learning Objectives:
· Identify your role in business relief and restarting of the economy
· Identify how to operate in the new normal
· Recognize the AICPA resources and tools

Join this session sponsored by the AICPA’s Women Initiatives Executive Committee and National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, to hear panelists not only present the challenges that women face, but also expand upon how those challenges present for women of color, and how allyship and sponsorship are critical to advancement.

Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion Vice-Chair and Past AICPA Chairman, will walk participants through the components of her June 9th Journal of Accountancy article entitled, “Together, we can make a difference: A 12-step plan to address racism and unconscious bias,” and provide additional context around how best to incorporate the steps.

As a part 2 to Kimberly Ellison-Taylor’s Inclusion is Good for Business-A 12-Step plan session, members of the AICPA’s National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion will share their successes and lessons learned around their implementation of Kimberly Ellison-Taylor’s suggested 12-step plan to address racism and unconscious bias in their respective workplaces.

In this session, the AICPA member-facing Diversity & Inclusion Team will highlight some of their activities and resources to support firms, professionals, students and educators.

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating change in the profession. Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, and other AICPA senior leaders will discuss how the profession is addressing disruption and reimagining its services to remain trusted advisers in a complex, rapidly changing world. Topics will include the innovation of core services, new and emerging technologies and the evolution of CPA licensure.

Today's CFO is a business advisor, change agent, business value architect and more. Evolving to a visionary role, the modern CFO must transform themselves, their teams and the perception of finance across the entire enterprise to that of strategic advisor and partner. Easily said. Harder to do! Eileen Kamerick is a National Association of Corporate Directors Board Leadership Fellow and SEC Financial Expert who is currently serving as a Board of Directors Member for three NYSE corporations and one LSE corporation. No speaker is better placed to guide us through the maze of being a “strategic and collaborative executive who drives profitable growth while significantly enhancing stakeholder value !

We are now in the much touted 2020 workplace. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, robotics and other technological advancements are permeating organizations at all levels, from transactional activities to financial RPA to fully automated manufacturing facilities. Even the board room is evolving. Underlying it all are significant changes needed for our workforce including:

• Empathy is the untapped key to customer engagement
• Human Augmentation is the key to the human-machine revolution
• Innovation and scalability requires human catalyst
• Pre-hire to Retire is not a straight line; it is an infinite loop
• Transhumans now impact the talent pipeline
• Diversity and inclusion is integral to the Human Factor

As the finance function has emerged over decades, our measure for success has been timeliness and accuracy, and more recently, the notion of ‘value’ and ‘insight’ is becoming more widely used. In 2020, finance teams are playing in both ‘sandpits’; looking for ways to remove lag and automate tasks to complete them more quickly & consistently, whilst also seeking to be increasingly proactive around proving more valued insights and counselling decision makers with trusted advice to help them drive towards achieving their business objectives.

This transition to the ‘sandpit’ of value creation is not always easy to achieve, leaving many finance professionals focused on being the ‘mechanic’ for a more ‘robust’ finance operations. And there is nothing wrong with this if that is a deliberate choice. However there are fantastic opportunities for the finance function to become more enabling in our organisations with 99% of firms are saying that they want to become insights-driven, but only one-third report back that they’re succeeding*.

So if you want to move into business value creation & capture, this webinar is for you.

Author of “The Audacious Business Partner” and Founder of the Strength in the Numbers” Podcast, Andrew Codd, brings insights from finance leaders around the world and his own practical experience to explore:

• The importance of finance leaders defining and demystifying value creation for their teams.
• Cases to explore the difference in value between ‘transactional efficiency’ and ‘value creation’.
• Easy steps you can take to help your team lift up in ‘value creation’.

In a disrupted world, how do you build a culture and practices where extraordinary innovation becomes ordinary? An agile organization that consistently delivers exponential leaders, growth and value creation.

The key ingredients to innovation acceleration are not what you see portrayed most often in the media. Great, enduring organizations know what it really takes to create and, most importantly, scale innovation during and after significant market disruptions.

We’ll explore lessons from more than 100 leading organizations and 30,000 Excellence & Innovation leaders on how to blend disciplined innovation methods with elements of venture capitalism, crowdsourcing and collaborative leadership to deliver rapid business improvements and innovations at scale in our industry.

Accelerate Performance with AI, Machine Learning and Business Intelligence (BI)

Everyone has something to gain from AI, ML and BI. But what exactly does it mean for you? Understanding the value and opportunity these tools enable for your specific business is essential to making the right investment and application to ensure a successful outcome. Chris Ortega will demystify the hype from the reality and help steer you on a path that is right for your organization when it comes to piloting and implementing these tools.

Digital transformation is happening and will disrupt most aspects of the traditional finance function & organization. In the new role of strategist and captain, CFO's and Finance have a greater opportunity than ever before to embrace technology and serve as change agent across the entire enterprise. Understanding the capabilities and opportunities of digital intelligence is paramount to taking a leading role in this change. Anjan is leading the transformation of finance across GE and will be sharing insights on the successes and failures of his ongoing journey

Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted as saying 'nothing is certain except for death and taxes', but in today's world, he might have also included 'change'. Leaders are constantly challenged with accelerating change and growing interdependence across the organisation. But how can leaders create an environment that encourages teams to speak up without fear and embrace agile ways of working? Pardeep (aka Paddy) Dhanda will introduce 6 leadership plays from David Marquet's new book, Leadership is Language, that provide a practical approach to embedding a culture of psychological safety within teams.