Partner Article

Manchester’s Management Accountants Celebrate New Status

Over 100 of Manchester’s Chartered Management Accountants are celebrating their new global status as Global Chartered Management Accountants (CGMAs) at an event being run by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) celebrating the joint venture CIMA has formed with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) at The Kellogg Building, Manchester on 29th March 2012. This event is run as the joint venture releases its first global economic forecast showing that over half of the UK’s Chartered Management Accountants are confident about their own firms but have low confidence for the UK domestic economy as a whole.

The AICPA and CIMA recently launched the new Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation, a single global quality standard, which means CGMAs have greater mobility – they can move with confidence around the organisation - and around the world. 75% of the CEOs in a recent survey said that they would want their existing finance employees to obtain the CGMA designation which highlights training and leadership skills so they can help their colleagues understand income and costs, and risks and opportunities of all kinds – not just financial. Over 100 of Manchester’s Chartered Management Accountants are celebrating this new global status at this regional launch event.

According to the CGMA Global Economic Forecast, a quarterly survey of more than 600 senior management accountants from around the world, published today (29 March), Chartered Management Accountants in the UK are confident and optimistic about their own organisations and shows glimmers of hope for the jobs market.

• Organisational optimism: more than half (54%) of respondents based in the UK are now optimistic about prospects for their organisation, up from 38% last quarter (globally 56% were optimistic, up from 46% last quarter) • Expansion: over two thirds (67%) of the UK based respondents expect their business to expand over the next year; (global picture with 66% thinking their business will expand) • Hiring: 40% of respondents from the UK said their organisation plans to increase their number of employees, a rise from 33% last quarter (globally, 42% said their organisation plans to increase their number of employees, a rise from 38% last quarter)

However, confidence levels were low when considering the plight of the global economy alone, while in the UK, confidence levels for the domestic economy were lower still.

• Global economy: Only 18% of respondents expressed optimism (ranging from a high of 22% of US respondents to a low of 10% respondents from ‘Rest of the World Developed’; UK respondents 20% and Europe 21%) • Domestic economy: UK respondents 17% optimistic and Europe 23%, compared with their US counterparts at 44% and 46% in Asia

Speaker for the CIMA event Harold Baird, FMCA, CGMA President of CIMA, said:

“Management accountants work where finance and business strategy meet and so are perfectly placed to assess the future from both a micro and macro level. Whilst it’s great to see that overall, confidence is up on the last quarter, when you look at the underlying factors there is a marked difference between how they feel about their own organisation’s ability to succeed in continuing challenging times and their confidence in the domestic and global economy to emerge from the gloom. However, many are predicting some growth in revenue, profits and spending which is encouraging.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by CIMA UK Regional News .