To be a critical thinker and make key business decisions in stressful situations requires understanding the accounting and finance terrain. Accumulating knowledge from some of the world’s most influential thinkers in the field of financial nonfiction can help you navigate a fast-changing landscape.
As you start thinking about your Chartered Global Management Accountant® (CGMA®) designation journey, here are five books fundamental for would-be management accountants starting their AICPA® & CIMA® adventure.
1. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Tackling topics from sumo wrestling to illuminating studies around progressive governmental policies, Levitt and Dubner encourage readers to adopt economic thinking into their everyday decision-making.
With engaging studies supporting their narratives, this breakout debut remains a must-read for aspiring management accountants.
Expect to learn: critical thinking, causation versus correlation, risk management, data analysis, and ethical considerations.
2. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard H. Thaler
The use of data analytics is prevalent in nearly every strand of global commerce, and management accountants routinely analyse patterns and trends that have (or could) influence future commercial decision-making.
That's why Thaler's book is so important for management accountants and finance professionals. Behaviour biases, prospect theory, choice architecture, nudging theory, and other fascinating ideas are all expertly explored.
Thaler's outlook on the topic is mainly positive. He argues that humans are not individualists but simply irrational. With the correct application, specific human behaviours can result in better policies, business strategies, and, naturally, enhanced critical thinking.
3. Wikinomics by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams
Published in 2006, Wikinomics painted a prophetic outlook for the digital age. The authors argue that, as the internet expanded beyond a means of commercial exchange and communication, open-source principles propelled commercial opportunities around the world.
Beyond business model transformation theories and a general overview of digital expansion in the early 2000s, the book was notable for its insights into how businesses can confront the seemingly unstoppable machine that is the World Wide Web to thrive and innovate.
Given the recent emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), this book provides a pivotal consensus for accounting and finance professionals: adapt, adapt, and adapt.
Expect to learn: customer engagement, supply chain optimisation, open-source software, and crowdsourcing.
4. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
While Wikinomics chronicles the technological epoch of the internet, Harari's multimillion-copy best seller, published five years later, makes bold predictions about human evolution, commercial industry, and AI.
Harari uses fiction-like storytelling to create a page-turning journey concerning our humble beginnings as homo sapiens in East Africa and concluding with the emergence of biomechanics. This mind-bending account of human evolution will leave an indelible, almost uncomfortable impression days after turning the final page.
Expect to learn: ethical considerations, risk management, data and information, and AI.
5. Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World by Ha-Joon Chang
Chang presents a new way of thinking for accounting and finance professionals keen to enter a business world that values new ideas and progressive business strategy. Much like Thaler's work on behavioural economics, Chang challenges long-held Western ideals of free-market individualism, while presenting information in bite-size, easy-to-digest chunks.
Chang uses global cuisine as a segway to his economic theories. One example is chocolate and its relationship with post-industrial economies. Climate change, immigration, austerity, automation, and carrots also feature in Chang's forward-thinking menu.
Expect to learn: economic history, protectionism versus free trade, and ESG (environmental, social, and governance).
