I have done a couple of events with PQ Magazine of late. This magazine is aimed at accounting trainees (PQ stands for ‘part qualified'). There are a lot of trainee accountants in the UK, and a whole industry (including a big bit of the university sector) that is aimed at helping them develop their careers.
I have never regretted being a chartered accountant, despite all the criticisms of the profession that I have made over the years. I have embraced other disciplines, and much enjoy working in a multi-disciplinary has on, but often make the joke that if I was cut open you would find the words ‘chartered accountant' running through me, as ‘Blackpool' does through all the best sticks of rock. Encouraging young people to join the profession is, then, something I am happy to do.
So I when Graham Hambly of PQ Magazine invited me to their annual awards bash I thought it was a note of thanks. I was, then, slightly surprised to find when I arrived that I was listed as one of three nominees in the ‘Accountancy Personality of the Year' category. I was even more surprised to find myself heading out of Kings Cross for home last night with the award in my bag, even if the oxymoronic nature of the award was noted whilst it was being presented!
Graham had kind words to say about me last night, and I am grateful. Accountancy has, for me, always provided a powerful framework for not just viewing what has happened, but also for appraising what should happen, for which purpose I think it even more useful. I prepared my first set of very simple accounts during a summer holiday job in 1975, at the age of 17. I have no idea how many have followed since then. But my enthusiasm for finding appropriate and meaningful interpretations of accounting data remains undiminished - hence my current enthusiasm for sustainable cost accounting and all the effort I have put into country-by-country reporting.
Now, enough of that and let's get back to the day job....
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Congratulations Richard! That is great news.
Thanks Howard
Well done Richard – good to see some deserved recognition from the profession
Though I’d admit that the oxymoronic nature of the phrase ‘accountancy personality’ was the first thing that sprang to mind!
Mine too…
🙂
Oh come on, Robin, we’re talking about accountants here not actuaries! Cue ancient definition of an actuary being someone who tried accounting but found it too exciting!
Then there’s the difference between extrovert and introvert accountants.
Introvert ones look at their shoes when taking to you
Extrovert ones look at your shoes….
Congratulations! Was there a long list as well as a short list, I wonder?
You often give the impression that the accountancy profession view you as something of a maverick, if not a traitor! Did you have a sense of whether your work resonated with the younger people there and any hint of winds of change?
There was a shortlist
I have no idea what the judges’ criteria were
Congratulations, Richard.
Even if you are not right in everything you say, (and what do I know) you are clearly encouraging people to challenge complacent orthodoxy and think about what they are doing and how they go about it.
Education is not dead yet.
I am not right in everything I say!
But I promote the idea that it should be challenged with counter argument, not ad hominems
And thanks
Congratulations 😀 !
Thanks
Congratulations, Richard and it’s refreshing to see an organisation within the wider accountancy community recognising and rewarding someone who thinks outside the box and challenges perceptions and orthodoxy.
Congratualations. Should get one for this blog.
Thanks
Am just catching up, so belated congrats, Richard. Well deserved indeed.
Why do some accountants decide to become actuaries? They find bookkeeping too exciting 🙂
🙂
Congratulations Richard. Recognition where it’s deserved these days is rare and your work and faithfulness to it are worthy. I’m not an accountant or in finances. I follow your blog because your rootedness in the authority of your own values is much needed in all fields. And with that comes the confidence to change your mind about things, if needed. Humility. Also rare.
Many thanks
Appreciated
Well deserved! Accountancy Personality is well justified. As an amateur pensions geek, I sometimes wonder if Actuaries are the ones without enough imagination to become Accountants.
🙂
Oh wow. Very pleased to hear this. Well-deserved. Congratulations!
You’ve done a great job making progressive ideas available and understandable to the folks like me, who have never paid much attention to the principles behind accounting …other than just balancing books.
Thanks Jan
Well done. I have visions of you communicating through rapping next – “Professor Tax” 🙂
My students’ rapping name for me was Tax Daddy
Well Richard and richly deserved.
There are three people you need in life: an accountant, a fishmonger, and a bail bondsman.
Your profession comes first Richard … Congratulations – as life is like accounting Everything needs to be balanced … And milestones and achievements need to be celebrated … 😉
Best Wishes from Down Under