The global competitiveness is a challenge for everyone. In globally connected world, organizations require professionals with specialised knowledge of business strategy and value creation. To achieve extra ordinary results in the focused sectors wherein the country has a competitive advantage, completely enhanced business practices driven by the leadership of the Indian Industry are required. The Indian business has to adopt best cost and management accounting practices and embed the same in business processes for extra ordinary results.

The business will have to make strategic choices on competing with other economies on products/services, offer cost effective value added services, embed sustainable business practices and manage processes efficiently. These outcomes can be powered only by a robust cost and management accounting framework. Cost and Management Accountants are experiencing revolutionary change in almost all dimensions of their professional work environment. Increasingly, they are being asked to become business partners and change agents. Innovative technology and intense business competition are propelling this change in role from transaction processor to business partner. The speedy development in Information Technology has enabled professional accountants to gather data, perform analysis, and report information in real time.

The present Government, in its determination to put the Country into a growth path, has been increasing stress on physical infrastructure such as Energy, Railways, Roads, Ports, Irrigation, Water supply and Urban trunk infrastructure. Major Engineering sectors like Electronics, Heavy Engineering, Telecommunication services, Electricity, Defence Machinery and mechanical appliances in atomic energy sectors, Arms and ammunitions, Aeronautical services, Railway and tramway locomotives etc. have been included for maintenance of cost records and their cost by the Government of India. This will help the industry to improve productivity of all the resources, including natural resources, which in turn leads to the optimum utilisation of resources.

In the changing economic and regulatory scenario, role of cost and management accountants is also changing. They are now supposed to be seen as business analyst, strategy formulator, internal consultant or advisor or business partner, change agent, information provider, leader of and/or participator in cross functional teams, designer and manager of information systems, designer and controller of performance measurement systems, teacher, guide or educator, and interpreter and manager of complexity.

Necessary skills for Cost and Management Accountants identified in the changing scenario include adapting cost and management accounting technologies to new forms of manufacturing process, exploring data analytics and artificial intelligence in managing organisational change propelled by the Industrial Revolution 4.0, using a deeper understanding of organisational structuring, functioning and processes, sponsoring and innovation, personal skills, interpersonal skills, analytic / constructive skills, change agent and strategy formulator roles, ability to be intuitive, synthetic and creative thinking and proactivity and innovativeness and organisational design skills.

All this constitutes the agenda of the forthcoming National Cost Convention (NCC-2019) on Cost and Management Accountants: Power of the Past – Force of the Future to be held in Pune during 20th and 21st January 2019. There will be Technical Sessions with focussed discussions on the role of CMAs in the prevailing and emerging economic and regulatory environment of the Country, to enrich the knowledge of the participants and enhance the skill set of the professionals.