Global Forces

POLICTICAL FORCES include the spread and deepening of democracy that presents an ever greater spectrum of individual choice worldwide. Even organizational structures and management styles have become democratized. Also, the globalization of the planet leads to the spread of governance without government as public interest groups and professional organizations gain stature in the international arena. Governments are ineffective in responding to their constituencies. Multi-national organizations, public interest groups, and networked entities are becoming the gyroscope for the world's political, economic, social, and environmental well being.

ECONOMIC FORCES involve the globalization of capital markets. Trading in currencies out-paces the world trade of goods and services approximately 17 to 1 with instantaneous, electronic movement of capital. Formerly self-sufficient nation economies have converged into an integrated, interdependent system of worldwide production, trade, finance, and management.

SOCIAL FORCES encompass the emergence of new educational models, the global standards that affect how individuals transact business, and the dramatically different and changing demographics across the globe. Different cultures and ethnic groups collide and merge, creating new communities based upon common interest and beliefs.

TECHNOLOGICAL FORCES entail the implosion of time, effort, and cost in an era of digital convergence. Expert systems and automation have displaced human intervention. While interactive multi-media create nano-second attention spans and entertainment on demand, the convergence of technology creates new ways of working, different points of decision, and more complex decision-making tasks.

HUMAN RESOURCE FORCES comprise the fragmentation of traditional employer-employee relationships as new ways of contracting work such as outsourcing, permanent temporaries, and just-in-time employment become the norm. The up-and-coming workforce not only has multiple jobs, but multiple careers in a lifetime. As blue-collar jobs are replaced by technology, white-collar jobs are being reduced to operational roles, and gold-collar positions emerge with knowledge workers and techno-wizards demanding premium pay.

REGULATORY FORCES forces are being shaped by collaboration, migration, and reform as corporations, public interest groups, and professional organizations globalize, share information, and force their particular needs and viewpoints onto political agendas.

CPAs then looked at how the global forces and possible scenarios might affect the United States. Future Forum participants focused next on the CPA profession, identifying the significant issues that emerged as the forces and scenarios affect the profession, and then identifying the core values of the profession. This is a critical pairing because the values the profession chooses to maintain determine how the issues will be addressed. Future Forum participants next examined the marketplace environment and identified the core services and core competencies necessary for the profession to remain competitive and profitable well into the 21st century.

Contemplating all of the forces, scenarios, significant issues, core values, core services, and core competencies, participating CPAs worked to identify and understand critical elements of the Core Purpose and Vision Statement.