Waypoints: Ideas and Insights to Navigate Enterprise Complexity

If you’ve never shopped at Ikea yourself, chances are that you know someone who has. And you’ve likely heard a horror story about attempting to assemble one of the furniture giant’s shipped-flat products. (If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, search the Internet for “Ikea assembly horror stories” and you’ll quickly get up to speed on the tragi-comic experiences that so many customers have shared.) Ikea has heard plenty of these stories, too, and a recent strategic move by the company shows that they have listened and adapted.

(Spoiler alert: Your favorite accounting and advisory firm is not about to write a blog post to announce that we’ll be replaced by technology.)

As a baby boomer, my accounting career has coincided with an exponential growth in the application of technology to the work that CPAs do. As a young staff auditor in the early 1980s, I recall lugging around “portable” computers that looked more like sewing machines than today’s ultralight laptops and tablets.

I can safely say that, so far, 2017 has been anything but dull. With a new administration in place, our clients and you as well, are likely watching the political and business drama unfold and wondering what effect it will have on your business and how to plan for growth in the future. 

Here are two important facts:

1. This year, Millennials, adults between the ages of 18 and 34, became the largest cohort in the U.S. workforce, according to Pew Research Center reports.
2. The Census Bureau predicts that Millennials will become the largest group in the U.S. population, not just the workforce, later this year.

I spent three fascinating days last month with some of the best and brightest from the corporate compliance world at the Compliance Week 2015 Conference in Washington, D.C.