The new CGMA designation will enhance the job prospects of CIMA members worldwide. Business journalist Tim Cooper explains more.
Management accountants and recruiters have welcomed the launch of the chartered global management accountant (CGMA) designation, the result of a joint venture between CIMA and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). They anticipate it will further enhance career prospects and professional development for all eligible members of both organisations and underline the importance of management accountancy skills globally.
Launched on 31 January 2012, the CGMA designation draws on strong codes of professional conduct and ethics, with a rigorous pathway for entry. Globally, it will rely on a groundbreaking continuing professional development model requiring ongoing assessment of competencies and access to world-class leadership resources in management accounting.
The designation demonstrates members’ expertise in areas such as managing change, risk and uncertainty; promoting operational efficiency and effectiveness, and protecting corporate assets, helping organisations make better informed decisions.
George Glass FCMA, CGMA, immediate past president of CIMA, says: ‘CGMA defines a single standard for management accounting and makes it easier to explain. We have always sought to do this and anything that strengthens the message in the global community is important.’
CGMA will raise the profile of management accounting in the eyes of American business, according to Glass. ‘We have found places where CIMA isn’t realised by American based multinationals and the designation will make it easier for members to be recognised. This is not just in America: we found this in some of the business process outsourcing centres in India and Malaysia, for example, where the principal client was an American company.
‘It will give members a more uniform environment in different countries and across the supply chain.’
Glass adds that management accountancy requires a broad skill set which involves people ‘getting out of their silo’. ‘By spanning multiple disciplines, you are in a far better position to add value because you can understand the drivers of value. The CGMA will also reinforce this message across the globe and underline the global nature of management accounting as a qualification.’
Increased mobility
Recruitment firms say that CGMA is set to have an important impact on the mobility of members. James Brent, director, Hays Accountancy & Finance, says: ‘We are seeing more candidates looking to pursue an accountancy career globally and more movement of jobseekers.
‘CGMA will allow CIMA members to move and work in the US, and globally, more easily because members will be able to work [in places that tend to recruit CPAs] without seeking a further designation.
‘For employers, CGMA will make it easier to recognise the qualification of international applicants, without having to make comparisons between different designations.’
Brent adds that, as companies seek to expand internationally and the number of accountants rises, the ability to identify qualified individuals easily, regardless of their country of origin, will become more important.
‘The employers and professionals we speak to say that having qualifications recognised abroad can be a problem for accountancy professionals. They hope that this will help make global movement easier for the profession. It is particularly relevant for international employers, with employees applying for jobs abroad in different divisions.’
Timely launch
CGMAs have extensive education, equivalent to a master’s degree, have to pass high quality exams, demonstrate at least three years of hands on experience in business, and commit to an ongoing code of conduct and competency development.
Paul Strong, associate director at Robert Half International, based in the UK, says this will increase clarity for employers, adding that it will also increase mobility for CPAs. ‘When we get more candidates from different locations globally, it’s hard to get clients here engaged because they always ask for CIMA,’ he notes.
‘CIMA and AICPA are both well known and prestigious globally. But CGMA will take away any confusion about the different qualifications because they are combined. It’s going to be a lot easier to demonstrate to clients what the qualification is all about.’
Recruiters agree that the launch is particularly timely. Uncertain economic times threaten to stifle business and business leaders need people with new skills to bridge the gap between business, strategy and finance. CGMA demonstrates the skill set needed to meet these challenges.
Strong says: ‘We have been running roundtable discussions, asking CFOs what keeps them awake at night. Employers are looking to upskill finance, looking at more technically able, commercially savvy professionals with a consistent set of skills anywhere in the world. CGMA will enable members of the two bodies to have something uniform and recognised, and will give confidence to employers.’
Referring to the robust CPD and thought leadership elements of CGMA, Strong says there should be a good synergy between CIMA and AICPA: ‘CGMA members can take expertise from both bodies. It is going to enhance the [development opportunities] for this body of people.’
The designation should also bring some excellent chances to network. CIMA CEO Charles Tilley FCMA, CGMA says: ‘As a member of a professional body, a significant element of how you improve your skills is through your professional body and through your networking. Increasing the body of people you can work with, from a CIMA perspective, from just under 200,000 to over 500,000 is very powerful.’ (Learn more in a video on the CGMA website.)
Bridging the gap
Eamon Foley ACMA, CGMA, client specialist at Thomson Reuters, based in New York, says: ‘The potential is there to bridge the gap between CIMA and AICPA. From experience, in the past, they have been distinct and separate, but the joint qualification will help with credibility and transfer between the two.’
When Foley moved to New York from Ireland (via London, Zurich and Geneva), he was keen to network with other CIMA members but there were limited opportunities. He says: ‘Now it will be a much bigger community, not just a handful of ex pats here in New York – especially once the CGMA brand starts to build.
‘The CPAs here in America perceive value in CGMA and promoting it and getting us together as one shared qualification. There will be value for CPAs in the UK and CIMA members in the States and the increased networking opportunities will increase our effect in the community and broaden our qualification.’
Foley says he had considered studying for the CPA qualification in order to have a more recognised designation to boost his career prospects in the US. ‘At the moment, it is too easy to pass on a candidate without CPA. CGMA should be recognised as an equivalent and save me from having to do the CPA, in which case I will be delighted!’
Chris Trainor ACMA, CGMA, vice president and chief financial officer at funereal products provider, Batesville, based in Cincinnati, says: ‘I think the CGMA is a great step forward for both associations. For example, I have been a member of CIMA since the early 1990s and, although it is a globally recognised qualification, it is still relatively unknown in parts of the US.
‘I have been working in the US for nearly a decade and it will be great for US based CIMA associates to have that tie in with AICPA.’
Links
CIMA MY JOBS
Your additional designation: the CGMA explained
Rebooting business: valuing the human difference
CGMA launch: the human dimension is the future of the business world
Chris Hampden: Rolling around the world
Is overseas experience the key to success?