The Global Management Accounting Principles (GMAP) defines management accounting as ‘the sourcing, analysis, communication, and use of decision-relevant financial and nonfinancial information to generate and preserve value for organisations.’
A key aspect of preserving organisational value is ensuring the business, stakeholders and planet have a viable future.
By pursuing the CGMA designation, you embark on a journey to acquire technical, digital, business, people, and leadership competencies. These skills equip you to become a trusted finance business partner adept at navigating the challenges of sustainability in your management accounting career.
Develop technical skills to form an information-to-impact infinity loop
Today’s management accountants still need core technical skills to collect, store, process, and analyse information for external and internal reports in accordance with professional accounting standards. However, that information must now include both financial and nonfinancial data.
The Future of Finance 2.0: Redefining finance for a sustainable world report recommends finance functions follow an information-to-impact infinity loop — a nine-step, repeatable cycle encouraging a new way of storytelling that goes beyond financial terms.
Management accountants must use their technical skills to trigger this loop by assembling and analysing information, leading to valuable insights. If you pursue the CGMA designation, you will develop these skills as the foundation of your knowledge and expertise. This foundation will be essential for telling comprehensive sustainability narratives grounded in credible financial and nonfinancial data.
Learn digital skills to uncover valuable insights
Speaking of data, digital tools have become essential for analysing the massive amounts of information available today.
Management accountants must hone their digital skills to keep pace with technological advances, which is why “digital skills” was added as the fifth knowledge area of the CGMA Competency Framework in 2019.
As you pursue the CGMA designation, you will learn about various digital tools and how to use them for forecasting and predictive analytics. Detecting patterns to glean relevant insights is essential for charting a sustainable path forward.
Build business skills to integrate sustainability into operations
Management accountants must understand the basics of business if they want to effectively integrate sustainable practices into existing operations.
As a CGMA designation holder, you will use your business knowledge to determine whether an existing business model aligns with strategies for sustainable business operations. If you find it doesn’t align, your business acumen will serve you in making recommendations to executive leadership.
The shift toward sustainable business practices will require organisations to adjust: Finance functions must look beyond short-term profits and focus on long-term viability.
Improve your people skills to foster intentional partnerships
A key component of being a trusted finance business partner is effective communication. You could uncover brilliant, data-driven insights that highlight a need for a sustainable solution, but if you can’t communicate your findings to decision-makers, no action will be taken.
Earning the CGMA designation will help you improve your people skills so you can foster intentional partnerships within and outside your organisation. Developing sustainable solutions will require collaboration with a wide pool of stakeholders, including biodiversity and climatology experts and other business functions.
Finance business partners must translate financial information for all these different groups and explain why a sustainable solution makes sense for both the business and the planet.
Become a leader who guides organisations toward long-term value creation
Influencing business model changes requires effective leadership skills at the peer, functional and strategic levels.
You can lead even if you’re not in the C-suite by guiding peers within and outside the finance function understand the financial implications of a given event or issue. The skills you gain in the process of earning the CGMA designation will continue to serve you as you advise leaders in other functional areas to define, formulate, and oversee the implementation of sustainable business practices for long-term value creation.
Prepare for the future of finance in a sustainable world by taking the first step toward earning the CGMA designation.
