CFO Series: Do Creative Accountants Belong in Prison?

Overview

Creativity is one of the top ten most desirable traits, but should everyone, including accountants, be creative? Are there exceptions? What are the positives and the negatives of creativity? Creativity can be used for good, but creativity can also lead to seriously unethical behaviors. There is a strong relationship between creativity and dishonesty. We will review the negative consequences of creativity and discuss how to properly utilize resourcefulness and imagination. The title is not rhetorical - creativity can easily be great or disreputable. Learn how to make it work for you and be ethical.

Prerequisites

None, preferably at least six (6) months of professional financial statement analysis experience and/or at least six (6) months of professional experience in preparing or reviewing accounting processes and reports; experience working with internal clients or external clients and business leaders.

Objectives

After attending this presentation, you will be able to...

• Analyze the role of creativity in unethical behavior.
• Asses the causes of fraud.
• Utilize creativity in a beneficial manner.

Highlights

The major topics that will be covered in this course include:

• Should accountants be creative?
• The pros and cons of creativity
• The inherent problems of creativity; creativity is not an excuse!
• The tangled correlations between creativity, ethics and dishonesty
• The interrelationship between the Code of Professional Conduct and creativity
• Citations from the Code of Professional Conduct.
• What is the impact of creative accounting on our constituencies?
• How to effectively and ethically harness creativity