Business Disruption
Having just read the cover story in this months My Business magazine which is focused on disruption, it seems to me that disruption can be one of two extremes either a massive challenge - see video store or bookkeeping or a massive opportunity.
The challenge comes from complacency and not spending enough time working on the business, not seeing the new trend coming and not being aware of new technology. I have just finished a national roadshow - 6 conferences in 10 days on Self Managed Super Fund Strategies with Grant Abbott - most of the audience were accountants or financial advisers and we spent some time looking at disruptive business models.
Accounting services have been severely disrupted over the last 20 years - first with the introduction of the GST which saw the old fashioned cashbook dead and buried and the introduction of bookkeeping software - MYOB, Reckon etc - but all were local programs running on our PC and you couldn't access remotely and they generally didn't speak to anything else or share data.
More recently outsourcing - sending the basic compliance work offshore - my accounts have been largely completed in Vietnam for the last 3 years - fast ( I have already the queries for 2014FY and my SMSF accounts are already finalised ) , high quality - the work papers far exceed anything I saw in public practice and of course cheap.
The along comes Xero - the cloud based alternative - fast, cheap, very easy to use with a massive number of add ons that all talk to each other and share data - a real disrupter!
The opportunity though is to use this technology and / or outsourcing to save time and free up resources to provide value added services that you client will be happy to pay for - Strategic advisory to turn the business into an efficiently managed machine, Self Managed Super Fund strategy to protect assets and reduce taxation, Business Succession and Exit Planning to maximise the value of the business etc.
So if you are a compliance focused accountant or bookkeeper - it might be a good idea t open a video store in your foyer as well!
The challenge comes from complacency and not spending enough time working on the business, not seeing the new trend coming and not being aware of new technology. I have just finished a national roadshow - 6 conferences in 10 days on Self Managed Super Fund Strategies with Grant Abbott - most of the audience were accountants or financial advisers and we spent some time looking at disruptive business models.
Accounting services have been severely disrupted over the last 20 years - first with the introduction of the GST which saw the old fashioned cashbook dead and buried and the introduction of bookkeeping software - MYOB, Reckon etc - but all were local programs running on our PC and you couldn't access remotely and they generally didn't speak to anything else or share data.
More recently outsourcing - sending the basic compliance work offshore - my accounts have been largely completed in Vietnam for the last 3 years - fast ( I have already the queries for 2014FY and my SMSF accounts are already finalised ) , high quality - the work papers far exceed anything I saw in public practice and of course cheap.
The along comes Xero - the cloud based alternative - fast, cheap, very easy to use with a massive number of add ons that all talk to each other and share data - a real disrupter!
The opportunity though is to use this technology and / or outsourcing to save time and free up resources to provide value added services that you client will be happy to pay for - Strategic advisory to turn the business into an efficiently managed machine, Self Managed Super Fund strategy to protect assets and reduce taxation, Business Succession and Exit Planning to maximise the value of the business etc.
So if you are a compliance focused accountant or bookkeeper - it might be a good idea t open a video store in your foyer as well!
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