Driving change: The IFA London Conference 2024

Nearly 200 IFA members and students escaped the heat of London’s streets to attend an informative and lively IFA London Conference 2024.

Held in the modernist backdrop of the Royal College of Physicians, the conference covered a wide range of topics, from digital branding and marketing through to mindset and AI.

However, IFA UK executive director Jonathan Barber pointed to a number of sessions that encapsulated “change”.

“How do you cope with change? AI and new technologies are making us think about change, and that requires us to have an open mindset,” said Barber.

Barber’s comments led to the keynote session of the morning: Mastering Change Management from AVN’s Shane Lukas.

Change aversion

In what was a highly engaging session, Lukas asked the audience to outline what they see as the key reasons why people avoid change. This part of the process was what Lukas described as “showing vulnerability”; being open to hear from those who could be affected to air their concerns. Responses were varied, including:

• The fear of the unknown (and job risk threat);
• Comfortable in their current routine;
• Disruption impacts workflow (and therefore efficiency); and
• Change can be financially costly.

Next, Lukas said that it’s vital to outline clearly why the change – whatever it is – is necessary and important for the accounting practice.

The third stage aligns closely with the second; this is where all the benefits of making change are then covered off. Again, Lukas asked the audience to provide broad benefits of making change in a practice. Responses included:

• Having better and more real-time access to clients’ information, which in turn leads to the provision of better, deeper, and more timely advice.
• Efficiencies in a practice can lead to reduced cost and better margins, or increases in productivity;
• Different working patterns can add variety to job roles; and
• All of the above could lead to an increase in the firm’s offerings, meaning better career options (and remuneration) for existing staff.

The next stage of Lukas’s presentation saw him ask the audience to ‘overcome’ the challenges that had been outlined. This often saw the benefits and challenges of change in a practice married against each other.

For example, where automation and AI is viewed as a job threat, the audience pointed to change offering their staff different, more varied and rewarding roles. It was noted, however, that firms in this set of circumstances would need to ‘grasp the nettle’ that is recruitment, retention, training and development.

Finally, once change has been agreed on, a plan needs to be put in place and actions to be delegated. Lukas called on practice leaders to make sure that these actions are spread out, so that the work is manageable, and that as leaders they should try to “support” the process as much as possible, rather than “do”.

Digital outreach

Mike Roberts of Making Digital Real ran through a number of apps, most of them with free versions, that could be utilised to improve an accounting practice’s online reach, helping to build up substantial and valuable marketing lists.

Roberts first detailed how to update your LinkedIn profile page in a way that is both engaging and drives potential clients to other pieces of content or information about your firm.

He then covered how LinkedIn’s algorithms ‘like’ newsletter content – these newsletters are easy to create and a great way to build subscribers to your profile or to that of your firm.

Roberts outlined a number of apps that can be used to easily create visual or audio content:

• Streamyard – create a library of recorded content, or livestream. The files can then be uploaded to LinkedIn.
• BombBomb – an ‘instant’ video recorder; the video can then be turned into a short, animated GIF that is a ‘link’ to the full video. This GIF link can be uploaded directly as a message to someone’s LinkedIn message box or even sent as an email.
• SpeakPipe – you can send a link to someone and it offers them a chance to record a short audio message; Roberts flagged that this could be used to collate audio reviews of your services from clients.

Stay tuned to next week’s newsletter for more exploration of the themes and insights covered at the conference.