CA Yogesh Birla, with corporate experience of more than 27 years is Director, Birla WP
Management Co. He is Advisor on business growth advisory strategies, with innovative
business practices and process controls. He is a renowned speaker on innovation and
strategies on various platforms pan-India and his articles regularly published by print and digital
media. Fortunately ejoboceans got Yogesh Birla’s views on avenues available for Chartered
Accountants in India.
We are talking in a difficult era of economy, amidst adverse geopolitical, forex imbalance, AI
opportunities & threats; wherein complaining will get us nowhere with negative thoughts; so we
shall remain positive to design our career with new avenues.
This is the time, we shall reinvent ourselves, and shall focus to design our intellectuals to new
dynamic world post war effects, rather than shielding our current job portfolio. The human brain
is inbuilt with specific talent, expertise, likes, abilities etc; only thing is timely redesigning /
repolishing of career matrix makes us fit to the working world. Change is painful and not getting
changed is more painful, when your existence is ignored due to obsolesce; so be adaptive to
change.
Along with aspirant employees, employers are also searching for result oriented CAs for
innovative productivity on lower cost in the era of AI. People may feel this restricted zone, but
we feel its emerging India’s filtration zone for deserving CAs. AI is predicted as the greatest ever
disaster for manual jobs and its spreading abilities turning the world upside down for a longer
period, but lesser the people really assessing hidden potential in AI and specially for Chartered
Accountants.
A large number of industries from capex to opex, are likely to generate more checkpoint
validation jobs for financial professionals, since AI can get data & details, but CAs need to make
decisions. CAs will be high in demand for efficient cash flows management of increasing scope
in businesses eg. Infrastructure, hospitality, banking, tourism, airlines, manufacturing, support
services, healthcare, online education, cloud working industries etc. Recent media and
newspaper articles proving this short supply of deserving CAs in India.
The prefix CA, to your name is authenticity of a talented and better guided person. Talent is to
be proven in bad times and challenging times and this is the best opportunity door in India right
now, so it’s a wakeup call for all potential talented CAs and finance management professionals,
lets prepare your own decision matrix and think of available opportunities.
Generally, CAs are geared up to assume career in following portfolios:
- Budgeting and Financial management
- Equity & Debt management services
- Wealth Management Services
- Management Consultancy Services
- Taxation – Domestic and International
- Business management strategies
- Investment Banking
- Auditing and Statutory practice
- CA to CEO career path
- Entrepreneurship, Business models
- Political campaign management services
- Project Consultancy
Considering worldwide scenarios; India is an emerging economy with outperforming growth
prospects, comparing to the economy of developing nations. Enriched with abundant natural
resources, largest number of working manpower and biggest consumer base; India will be
considered as a preferred investment destination in manufacturing setup by developed nations
across the world and especially migrant industries from China. This will bring bigger
opportunities for Chartered Accountants in all verticals of trade and industry. Now India has
initiated new working practices from home, working smartly with remote servers, working with
cloud environments, working with informal staffing, working without visiting clients and
customers, working with social meeting apps, and working in a more dynamic environment.
Negative people consider war effects and AI as a hit to the economy, but we professionals shall
identify how smartly we have learned so many working strategies sitting at home. Now new
business practices will be designed as a work from home concept, with reduced manpower
infrastructure cost, with lesser travel cost, enhancing working time etc. So be prepared for the
same and be flexible enough to adapt all these changes for better productivity within your own
periphery.
Out of approx. 11 options above, I feel entrepreneurship shall be preferred by CAs in India’s
growing economy; wherein automation of processes will be a must and will have a larger
brainstorming field, which can be catered only by CAs. Increasing compliances in Income Tax,
GST, MCA, ROC, Banking, SEBI, NBFC, FDI, Renewable Energy, AI etc. are bringing
opportunities in developing new Information Technology tools, AI, cloud compounding tools to
cater employers / clients at very low cost.
Businesses are taking new shape and following new strategies with automated process tools,
CAs shall enhance their skills to audit InfoTech processes (with AI tools knowledge) of these
large business groups and MNCs. Startup business needs mentoring from accounting,
compliance filings, budgeting, angel funding, PE series A funding etc.; a large number of CAs
shall target these areas for their job / entrepreneurship.
War is hitting hard in Europe and USA; bringing more cloud-based working to be outsourced
from India; CAs must take advantage of this opportunity by learning new skills online and adopt
new working avenues, with high margin and bigger volume professional deliveries. Wealth
management and Equity markets will be another big demand for job areas for CAs, with their
enhanced analytical skills, as more domestic savings are regulated and invested within India.
Before concluding this article, I will draw your attention; why CA’s can’t become CEO (and only
target to become CFO). In my management speeches at various professional / social platforms;
I take up this subject of CA education syllabus. The ICAI syllabus is superb and teaches all of
us with all integral aspects of business management, then why CAs develop themselves only in
finance and accounting functions; why not develop themselves with extended business
management functions.
There is no such thing that only management graduates can be CEO, CAs are more qualified
and fit for the position of CEO. Most important thing is the managerial skills, as the CEO has to
manage the whole organization, now to attain those managerial skills, keep learning from the
surrounding business environment and gain expertise.
Difficult times bring more opportunities for smart working Chartered Accountants, so let’s gear
up to turn new milestones.
It’s my hobby to mentor and handhold aspirants professional colleagues with my expertise
knowledge, so we can be contacted at:BirlaSolar@gmail.com