Friday, December 17, 2004

Members Oppose Merger

Accountancy Age conducted survey, during the second half of 2004, in which it asked if people were in favour of the merger.

Over 70% of those ICAEW members who took part were against the merger.

Eric Anstee, ICAEW chief executive, rather bizarrely stated that the results were "encouraging".

I wonder what he would consider to be discouraging?

He noted that the question was not fair, as the there had been no strategic business case put forward at the time.

He reportedly told Accountancy Age:

"If and when we put a proposition to our members, we will only do so if we believe a compelling strategic and business case supports the rationale for consolidation."

4 comments:

  1. I was saddened to come across this website. You write as if your view is that of all members of the ICAEW - it's not. I attended one of the events organised by the Institute and the vast majority of those in attendance were very favourable to the Consolidation. In addition all of my colleagues - all qualified Chartered Accountants believe the Consolidation to be an extremely positive move for the Institute.

    This site is typical of the backward-thinking members of our Institute who fail to realise that times have changed. You say the membership will be diluted - a typically arrogant remark that shows a complete lack of understanding of how we can all benefit from the increased support and knowledge as a result of Consolidation.

    I think you would be better served by actually reading the proposals carefully before making any assumptions.

    Kind regards,
    Steve Walker

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve

    Thank you for your comments.

    Contrary to appearances, I am not so arrogant as to assume that I speak for all; and as such, welcome comments from anyone with an opinion (whatever that may be) on this site.

    Ken

    ReplyDelete
  3. Backward thinking members? Thats a label I will not take.
    Do you ever believe the route ICAEW is taking is forward thinking? If ICAEW is so forward thinking, why hasnt it offer two streams to getting a CA like the ICAI or the ICPAI? If you dont already know the streams, let me spell it out for you..the audit and assurance and the non audit and assurance stream!!!!!

    If ICAEW is so forward thinking, why hasnt it open up membership to the bodies they are courting..and those that they consider "substantially" equal to theirs?

    Personally, it does not matter how one gets their qualification.....it is the paper they hold or as my boss would say the merit of your qualification is what the membership paper says!!!!

    Yes, time has change..and ICAEW hasnt. Just drop by ACCA website and look at what they do. I am not saying ACCA is better, but they are doing many things right...including forming partnership and offering direct membership to "equals"

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with Steve Walker's statement of "... a typically arrogant remark that shows a complete lack of understanding of how we can all benefit from the increased support and knowledge..." True enough, today we are talking about knowledge enhancement through group effort/intelligence. In globalisation today, we are not talking about just prestigeous accountancy qualifications from the UK...most nations would regard their own national acountancy qualifications as equally prestigious, so where would ICAEW stand in the world?

    Looking beyond this backward-thingking frame is probably the way forward for any pregressive acountancy body. There are so many qualifications in the world that are regarded as prestigious, but then, at the end of the day the one that is trully recognised in the commercial world as competent depends very much on the individual's own attitude, experience and a mind for continuous profesional development and etc...what a chartered accountant learned as a trainee may be completely irrelevant in the real life busines world...so what's the big fuss about the brand of ICAEW if that ACA was only good at passing the reasonably tough exams but incompetent at work? Japanese acountants also manage international organisations very well! Are they not? Perhaps, only people who are inward-thinking, conservative, ignorant will need to rely on such so-called brand value so heavily. Well, I am not denying the fact that brand thus enhances one's chance of getting a better job if all other qualities compared with other candidates being equal, but this is not my point here!

    ReplyDelete