Category: Education
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Concerned about the direction of professional services
We’ve decided to dumb down* the CPA exam format and simultaneously reduce formal educational requirements. I’m called stodgy for saying that the amount of new information and professional knowledge requirements for a competent CPA indicates that we should be moving in the other direction. Oregon is eliminating the requirement for new lawyers to take the…
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Business Leadership Forecast for 2023
These eight macroeconomic trends will influence businesses leaders in 2023.
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My blessed and winding career in 7 tweets
My blessed, winding and interesting career in 7 tweets: 1- On 2/1/1997, the investment banking firm Drexel Burnham Lambert took out a two page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal listing the names of every one of its thousands of employees. My name was included. I enjoyed life flying from home Ocean City to NYC…
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Thoughts about ongoing education
There are more than 700,000 postsecondary degrees, certifications and other credentials available to students in the U.S. who may be seeking to gain more valuable training (Your Money Briefing, October 15, 2021). I’ve lost track of how many of these I’ve taken, but ”dozens” is the most accurate description that I can come up with…
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Is dumbing down curriculum our only hope?
The field of accounting is losing CPAs at an alarming pace. The statistics are disturbing. Older practitioners are still working well beyond their planned retirement age and younger candidates are choosing to bypass the rigorous professional training. I’ve been involved with NJCPA’s student outreach efforts and I can confirm that in my experience, students are…
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A reminder of ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”
Sometime before 2011 I recognized Stephen Covey’s work as one of the books that most influenced my life in this earlier blog post. There are probably millions of my generation who would say the same. The book came out some years after I finished business school and right around the time when I suffered a…
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The risks of being a data-driven decision maker
Lately I notice that my ability to piss people off is on the rise. This well-honed irritating behavior targets all groups: Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, environmentalists, capitalists, politicians, community groups, Christians, Jews and atheists have all been offended by my work. Yet, on closer look, I see that it is the collective social response that…
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The best advice
The best advice I can offer locally to help improve our world: 1. Get a local library card. 2. Get the Libby app for your smartphone or other device. 3. Get on the waiting list to borrow popular titles. 4. Take advantage of audiobooks; most of us have more listening time available than reading time.…