Professor Elam

Monday November 12 2012

The Institute of Management Accountants held their national Student Leadership Conference in San Antonio this past month. 

Josefina Hernandez and Rick Sanchez from TAMUSA attended the conference. 

I posted Josefin'a comments November 7. 

 

 

The conference outoine is Download Conference at Glance

Chapter information is Download IMA San Antonio Chapter Contact Info

Rick's impressions and comments follow. Rick thanks for this fine job of summarizing the conference. We are planning more information on the CMA designation.

I recently attended the IMA’s 13^th Annual Student Leadership Conference in San Antonio which is an annual event that takes place in different parts of the country each year. I certainly did not want to miss out on attending the IMA’s Student Leadership Conference this year especially as it was hosted in our beautiful city of San Antonio.  Although it was a little pricey to attend (for some students), it was well worth the money to be a part of this event. 

 

In attending my very first IMA conference, I wasn’t sure what to expect my first time around, but I did have some general idea of the layout.  I have been to many conferences before, especially during my professional days with GE and Siemens. For those who have never attended a major professional conference, I highly encourage you to join as it is a great way to be a part of a professional organization and obtain a greater understanding of all that is involved in your profession, and of course networking.  I have included a snapshot of the general agenda as provided by the IMA leadership which is titled “Conference at a Glance” as this will give you an idea of the general format.  To briefly note, it was a three day conference which included many activities to choose from, depending on what interested you the most.  It would have been great to sit in all of the sessions but I did get what I needed from the sessions I was able to attend. 

 

After the Ice breaker on the first day, the sessions I attended the following day were:

 

• “Being the Groundbreaker”, which was part of the welcome and announcements and consisted of high-level executives presenting their company speeches and the challenges they face and how they meet/overcome those challenges.       
• “Career Tracks: Converging on Management Accounting”; Volunteer, Intern to figure out what you want and don’t want to do, Have passion, Achieve a professional license – is a must, Private or Public sector, Profit or Non-profit, Build your brand, Large or small companies, Get professional experience and licensed before going to grad school, Be an effective communicator, Be flexible, Expand your network, Focus on your current role and deliver, Be a leader not just an accountant, Always keep an open mind, IT training programs, Learn to Navigate.   
• “Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting: A Primer”; What are your financial plans and goals, How many people does it take to build a budget – All management (not just accountants) provide budgets, Update where you think you will end up – guides mid-year adjustments, How often do you recast the budget as a forecast – every quarter (typically) but also depends on the company industry, What prompts a new forecast – competitor actions/new markets/new products/economic variance and variability, Biggest problem in budgeting and forecasting data – reliability/timely/comprehensive, Accountants should reduce collecting and validating and increase administrative process and value added activities, Collaboration is key to forecast accuracy – must be an organization wide effort, Understand the           big picture, Understand your market and build into your budget – there will be negotiations involved, Understand seasonality of the business, Budget must reflect operational reality, Maintain a rolling forecast, Keep reading and learning!!!     
• “Become a Game Changer”; Be positive/productive/independent/contribute/sense of accomplishment, Must have risk to be a game changer, Learn to take risks in life – Gap theory is where you learn and grow, Always put forth your best effort, Understand and keep up with technology, Learn how to manager your time, Can you navigate – managers look for people who can navigate and handle diversity, Look for influencers, What is acceptable vs. excellence, Accounting is a customer service function not just bookkeeping, Always make the time to connect and interact face to face, Fear blurs vision and slows us down. 

 

Although a majority of the above key points faced by a professional may not be new to some, it is definitely a great primer for other new students who have not been introduced to these concepts before. It is also a great reinforcement for those who have already come across these key points before as it is easy to forget them when under pressures of your daily grinds.  I hope this summary provides students well as they progress as students and as professionals in their future endeavors.  Also, for those students who wish to join the IMA San Antonio Chapter I have included a flier with contact information.         

 

 

 

Rick posts his comments today. Above IMA recruited

Johnson and Johnson as well as Cummins to be major sponsors of the event. What does this tell you?  It tells you that those companies value this designation and encourage their employees to obtain such a certification.