This year the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) celebrates its 91st anniversary. Looking back at CIMA's history it is clear that what has driven the institute more than anything else has been its focus on innovation. The institute was formed in March 1919 by a group of professionals who wanted to create a new approach to accounting that would meet the demands of a rapidly changing business world.
CIMA was originally called the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants. Cost accounting was not a new concept in the early 20th century but it lacked refinement and relevance to the business challenges following the World War I. The institute set out to develop scientific costing and to produce a new breed of accountant which could analyze a business's cost base and streamline its activities more profitably.
Our first president was Lord Leverhulme, the founder of the consumer goods giant, Unilever and CIMA has had close links with Unilever ever since. Unilever's world-class training program for finance professionals incorporates the CIMA qualification and this alliance has produced many of today's finance stars. These include: Andrew Higginson, chief executive officer of Tesco Retailing Services; Elmo de Alwis, CEO of leading Australian drug company Sigma Pharmaceuticals; Ronnie Peiris, group FD of John Keells Holdings in Sri Lanka and our current global president, Aubrey Joachim.
From this foundation, the institute has continued to develop the role of the management accountant to this day. For more than half its existence, CIMA's work was almost entirely based in the industrial sector. However, as this base declined in the 1970s and 1980s and new business sectors emerged, the institute has continued to move with the times and meet the challenges that have emerged with each new decade.
One of the institute's most symbolic events came in 1972 when it changed its name from the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants to the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants. This formally confirmed the institute's development from accountants working on the factory floor to accountants working as business partners and playing an essential role in driving businesses toward greater success.
Another thread that has run through CIMA's development is a commitment to quality rather than quantity. From its inception, CIMA has built its membership on the foundation of attracting and developing the best accountancy talent in the world. For this reason, the institute's examination process has always been rigorous and only the most committed and the most talented survive the full journey to membership. For this reason, CIMA members are now known throughout the world for being in the top echelon of the accountancy profession.
In fact, the institute officially offers the best professional qualification for business. Independent research carried out by the Bath University School of Management in the UK contrasted the CIMA syllabus, exams and business focus with eight other professional bodies. The research found that CIMA's syllabus consistently provides more management accounting, more business strategy and more financial strategy than any of the other organizations. The institute qualification therefore provides an ideal springboard for those who aspire to be the business leaders of the future.
In addition to this, the institute is the only professional accountancy body to update its syllabus every four years. We work closely with leading business figures to ensure that the syllabus remains relevant to the business community and that it moves with the times - however challenging they become.
Professional integrity and business ethics have a central focus in the qualification. In the institute's view, poor ethical standards have been a key component in the recent financial crisis, a problem best exemplified by banks lending money to customers who were clearly not in a position to repay. A sustainable economic future requires business leadership that is both ethical and fixed on a long-term, sustainable strategy.
CIMA continues to focus on innovation and there have been a number of new developments in our anniversary year. Besides launching our new syllabus, we also introduced CIMAsphere, an online community which has been designed to enhance core skills and encourage the exchange of ideas and knowledge. This is already proving to be a popular platform for sharing knowledge and ideas among the global community of management accountants.
Last year, we launched our Global Business Challenge. This is a competition designed to bring out the potential business leadership skills of university undergraduates around the world. The Challenge attracted teams from China, Hong Kong, the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland, India and Sri Lanka and it is inspiring to see so much talent in the global business pipeline.
To nurture such talent, the institute has created a new CIMA Asia Pacific Regional Board. This board's remit is to support the development of high quality educational and professional qualifications in this region. Reinforcing this commitment, CIMA recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institut Akuntan Manajemen Indonesia. This agreement represents a significant collaboration at a time when there is an increasing need for international finance and management professionals in Indonesia and across the Asia-Pacific region.
Management accounting began in the UK to help British industrialists optimize the manufacturing process. But these skills are now being offered by CIMA members all over the world, in many different sectors. This provides a groundbreaking opportunity for East and West to share their expertise and develop businesses that are fit for the 21st century - in other words organizations that are successful, sustainable and ethical.
The writer is chief executive of CIMA. For more information, please visit www.cimaglobal.com.
