An Accounting Overview

The accounting industry has much to offer in terms of opportunities, professional development, and exciting career paths. To be successful in an accounting position one must possess strong analytical abilities, be detailed-oriented, and have the ability to work very quickly and adeptly with numbers. Moreover, those who are the most successful possess not only strong analytical abilities, but also the
1 This handout is prepared with the direct assistance of “Vault Career Guide to Accounting,” and various other sources. For more information about a career in accounting, please refer to Kresge Database.
ability to synthesize, interpret and develop applicable business strategies utilizing financial data. Thus, a career in accounting offers its professionals the opportunity to challenge themselves, work closely analyzing financial data and provide significant value-add to corporations, governments and organizations around the world.
A career in accounting can entail many different specific job functions ranging from an audit or tax-consulting career with a public accounting firm, to an accounting position with an industrial company, to a position with the Government Accounting Office or a non-profit organization.
Types of Accounting:
As noted above, accounting organizations provide a range of services. Traditionally, the two primary services provided are audit and tax. However, many accounting firms have grown their advisor services to offer: corporate finance, risk management, transaction services, business process outsourcing, people and change consulting, IT advising, and personal financial planning.
- Audit: An auditor examines the financial statements of a company or organization and independently certifies the statements are valid, accurate, and relevant. Additionally, an auditor often also provides advisory services such as recommending ways to improve profitability, etc.
- Tax: Accountants who provide tax services primarily create strategies to minimize tax liabilities for their clients. Additionally, they prepare tax returns, advise on tax laws, assure clients tax law compliance, etc.
- Advisor: The advisor role within public accounting serves to analyze key data issues, patterns and trends to identify implications, and improve efficiency and effectiveness for clients. The division of specialty that fall within the advisor line of service differs among the firms.
Types of Accountants:
- Public Accountants: Public accountants generally work for a public accounting firm (for example: Ernst & Young) and provide accounting services to companies, governments, etc. Large public accounting firms provide the range of services discussed above in “Types of Accounting,” and because public companies are required to have yearly audits, a large part of public accounting firms’ business is providing auditing services to public companies.
- Private Accountants: Private accountants work directly for a company, government or non-profit organization. They receive their paycheck from the organization for which they are providing accounting services (for example: Internal Accountant at Kraft Foods). Generally, these accountants prepare the financial statements for the public accountants to audit and certify. Additionally, private accountants may also prepare their company’s tax statements, consult its management on changing accounting principles and ensure the financial integrity of the company’s business transactions.
Changes in the Field
While students’ interest in accounting related fields ebbs and flows depending on the economy, a career in accounting has long been considered “recession proof” and offers significant job security. In 2008, Forbes ranked Accounting Executive #4 and Accounting Staff #5 in its list of “10 Most Recession Proof Jobs.” Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked Accountants and Auditors in the Top 20 Occupations with the most demand for 2006-2016.
Accountants are especially in demand when the economy is in a downturn. This is because in times of economic uncertainty the public becomes distrustful of current accounting and reporting systems, leading to changes in regulation and accounting practices. The collapse of companies such as Enron and Worldcom led to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The SOX Act enhanced accounting standards for corporations and those auditing corporations and organizations—leading to increased demand for exceptional accountants. With the inception of SOX, public accounting firms began to divest their consulting services to more easily comply with the tighter regulatory scrutiny. However, firms have recently begun to rapidly rebuild their consulting arms and expand hiring to BBAs again. The recent financial crisis calls for even greater accounting scrutiny and stronger accounting standards and offers those entering the accounting field immense potential for an exciting, promising and challenging career.
The median base compensation for the Ross BBAs entering the accounting field in 2010 was $55, 000. At the Ross School of Business, the employers of the highest number of BBAs have consistently included the “Big 4” public accounting firms—Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as mid-tier firms such as BDO, The Rehman Group, and Plante & Moran. In addition to the audit and tax positions available at the public accounting firms, several students each year go to work for industrial employers as accountants and financial analysts.
Masters in Accounting
In most states, only licensed Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) may provide qualified public opinions and audits on financial statements. In order to qualify for a CPA license, one must fulfill the education and work experience requirements, and pass the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. Education requirements vary b state, but in most states, 150 credit hours are required to sit for the Certified Public Accounting Examination. Ross students most commonly meet this requirement through a fifth year of education, such as the Masters of Accounting program, at Ross or another institution.
For more information about University of Michigan’s MAcc program, please visit the website: http://www.bus.umich.edu/Academics/MAccProgram/

My opinion about this article :

            To be successful in an accounting position one must possess strong analytical abilities, be detailed-oriented, and have the ability to work very quickly and adeptly with numbers. Moreover, those who are the most successful possess not only strong analytical abilities. Fund Accounting tracks the receipt and use of resources by the source of the funds.  It is used by all Higher Education institutions.  The following are the fund groups used:

§ Current funds

§ Loans

§ Endowments

§ Annuity and Life income

§ Plant funds

§ Agency funds

This article was taken from :

http://www.bus.umich.edu/StudentCareerServices/resources/CPAccounting.pdf

Target Market

A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise towards. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy. The target market and the marketing mix variables of product, place(distribution), promotion and price are the four elements of a marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the marketplace.

Once these distinct customers have been defined, a marketing mix strategy of product, distribution, promotion and price can be built by the business to satisfy the target market.

Market segmentations

Target markets are groups of individuals separated by distinguishable and noticeable aspects. Target markets can be separated into:

• Geographic segmentations, addresses (their location)

• demographic/socio-economic segmentation (gender, age, income, occupation, education, household size, and stage in the family life cycle)

• psychographic segmentation (similar attitudes, values, and lifestyles)

• behavioral segmentation (occasions, degree of loyalty)

• product-related segmentation (relationship to a product)

Strategies for Reaching Target Markets

Marketers have outlined four basic strategies to satisfy target markets: undifferentiated marketing or mass marketing, differentiated marketing, concentrated marketing, and micromarketing/ nichemarketing.

Mass marketing is a market coverage strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and go after the whole market with one offer. It is the type of marketing (or attempting to sell through persuasion) of a product to a wide audience. The idea is to broadcast a message that will reach the largest number of people possible. Traditionally mass marketing has focused on radio, television and newspapers as the medium used to reach this broad audience.

For sales teams, one way to reach out to target markets is through direct marketing. This is done by buying consumer database based on the segmentation profiles you have defined. These database usually comes with consumer contacts (e.g. email, mobile no., home no., etc.). Caution is recommended when undertaking direct marketing efforts — check the targeted country's direct marketing laws.

Examples

CVS Caremark’s target market is women since they make up 80 percent of the pharmacy chain’s customers. CVS has marketed its stores to aid women who are constantly multitasking. They recently redesigned 1,200 of its 6,200 stores to women, including shorter wait times for prescriptions, wider and better-lit shopping aisles, and more beauty products.

The Oreo cookie is a popular cookie in the U.S., known for its two discs of chocolate with a white cream filling. The Double Stuf Oreo cookie is also marketed to U.S. consumers. However, Kraft has formulated a different version of the Oreo to target consumers in China. The Chinese version consists of four layers of long, thin biscuits coated in chocolate. Kraft CEO, Irene Rosenberg, trusts her executives who live and work in China to know what consumers would prefer in order to maximize their profits. In Germany, Kraft is appealing to the tastes and preferences of German consumers by creating dark chocolate products. It is also introducing premium instant coffee in Russia, which is a beverage that is popular to consumers.

World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) target market is young males. Monday Night RAW is the number one entertainment program on primetime cable among male viewers (2 million+) including the male demographics of 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54. It is shown at 9:00 PM ET to reach its target market.

Kohl’s department store has a target market consisting of consumers buying for themselves and their families.

The psychology of target marketing

A principal concept in target marketing is that those who are targeted show a strong affinity or brand loyalty to that particular brand. Target Marketing allows the marketer / sales team to customize their message to the targeted group of consumers in a more focused manner.

Research has shown that racial similarity, role congruence, labeling intensity of ethnic identification, shared knowledge and ethnic salience all promote positive effects on the target market. Research has generally shown that target marketing strategies are constructed from consumer inferences of similarities between some aspects of the advertisement (e.g., source pictured, language used, lifestyle represented) and characteristics of the consumer (e.g. reality or desire of having the represented style). Consumers are persuaded by the characteristics in the advertisement and those of the consumer.

My opinion about this article :

            A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise towards. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy.

This article was taken from :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_market

The four p’s

Most people have a tendency to lump "Sales and Marketing" together, thinking of them as synonymous. This is not the case, however. Marketing is a completely separate function that helps position products and services correctly so that Sales can be more effective. At the core of Marketing are the "four P's" - Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. Marketers adjust each of these components to arrive at a mix that the customer will prefer over competitors.

Product. The product is the full bundle of goods and services offered to the customer. This includes the appearance, functionality, and support or non-tangibles the customer will receive. The physical product itself is part of "product" as well as any packaging it arrives in.

Place. This is where and how your product is distributed and sold. Will you sell it yourself, through a broker, or a distributor? Will you run a retail store or sell only to retailers? If a service, do you deliver in person or through the internet or telephone? These questions all involve "place".

Promotion. This is the advertising and selling part of Marketing. Often, promotions are categorized into push versus pull. Advertising pulls by making the consumer aware of and ask for your product or service. Incentives, such as premiums or price reductions, push your product out the door by encouraging your customers to purchase in volume, more, or more often than he would otherwise purchase.

Price. This is how much you charge for your product or service. Considerations include whether you will charge the same amount all of the time or vary it in some way. Varied pricing could occur according to geography, time frame, or volume. Additionally, with a service, price can be varied according to level of service.

These are the bare bones basics - price, promotion, place, and product. Obviously volumes can be written on each. For a more in-depth look at Marketing in practice, have a look at the American Marketing Association website www.ama.org.

My opinion about this article :

            Marketing is a completely separate function that helps position products and services correctly so that Sales can be more effective. At the core of Marketing are the "four P's" - Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. Marketers adjust each of these components to arrive at a mix that the customer will prefer over competitors.

This article was taken from :

            http://www.essortment.com/marketings-four-ps-24135.html

MARKETING

Marketing is defined by the AMA as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

It can also be defined as "the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships, in order to capture value from customers in return".This replaces the previous definition, which still appears in the AMA's dictionary: "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders." It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.

Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer, and keep the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, marketing management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and overcapacities in the last 2-3 centuries. The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying profitable.The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions. It proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors.The term developed from an original meaning which referred literally to going to a market to buy or sell goods or services. Seen from a systems point of view, sales process engineering marketing is "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions,whose methods can be improved using a variety of relatively new approaches."

Marketing Objectives

You must develop clear objectives before proceeding with community outreach and marketing efforts. These objectives are as follows:

·         Obtain support for the mentoring concept;

·         Obtain funding for the mentoring program; and

·         Recruit volunteer mentors and program participants.

The next step is to develop an effective communications strategy, which includes choosing your most important audiences and deciding on the best ways to communicate with them. Marketing your mentoring program is an ongoing process that must be incorporated into the marketing plan for the entire organization.

Communications Strategy

Four basic components of the communications strategy should be included in all materials or presentations promoting your mentoring program:

1. Establish the need for mentoring to enhance support services available for at-risk populations.

·       Include statistics on the client populations. (These numbers are specific to your community.)

·       Tie your message into your organization’s mission and history.

2. Describe program components and activities.
3. List benefits of mentoring program for:

·       Program participants (clients);

·       Mentors; and

·       Community at large (emphasize those groups most important to you).

4. Include an example or case study of a mentoring success story (if possible).

The communications strategy should include different forms of promotion. It is important to choose a form of promotion that is practical and appropriate for each audience. By highlighting specific benefits to specific audiences, you can tailor your message.

Conclusion From This Article

You can greatly simplify recruitment and public relations tasks, as well as achieve better results, if you identify the benefits for your audience, earmark a budget and devise a month-by-month plan.A marketing strategy differs from a marketing tactic in that a strategy looks at the longer term view of the products, goods, or services being marketed. A tactic refers to a shorter term view. Therefore, the mailing of a postcard or sales letter would be a tactic, but a campaign of several postcards, sales letters, or telephone calls would be a strategy.The communications strategy should include different forms of promotion. It is important to choose a form of promotion that is practical and appropriate for each audience. By highlighting specific benefits to specific audiences, you can tailor your message.

Management and human resources development

Human Resources Development (HRD) as a theory is a framework for the expansion of human capital within an organization through the development of both the organization and the individual to achieve performance improvement. Adam Smith states, “The capacities of individuals depended on their access to education”. The same statement applies to organizations themselves, but it requires a much broader field to cover both areas.

Human Resource Development is the integrated use of training, organization, and career development efforts to improve individual, group and organizational effectiveness. HRD develops the key competencies that enable individuals in organizations to perform current and future jobs through planned learning activities. Groups within organizations use HRD to initiate and manage change. Also, HRD ensures a match between individual and organizational needs

Resources

Understanding the foundations of HRD can be found in "Brief Foundations of Human Resource Development" by Richard A. Swanson.

A detailed PowerPoint and HTML overview of Foundations of Human Resource Development,  a textbook used in graduate courses, may be found at http://textbookresources.net/.

Process, Practice and Relation to Other Fields

Notably, HRD is not only a field of study but also a profession. HRD practitioners and academia focus on HRD as a process. HRD as a process occurs within organizations and encapsulates: 1) Training and Development (TD), that is, the development of human expertise for the purpose of improving performance, and 2) Organization Development (OD), that is, empowering the organization to take advantage of its human resource capital. TD alone can leave an organization unable to tap into the increase in human, knowledge or talent capital. OD alone can result in an oppressed, under-realized workforce. HRD practicitioners find the interstices of win/win solutions that develop the employee and the organization in a mutually beneficial manner. HRD does not occur without the organization, so the practice of HRD within an organization is inhibited or promoted upon the platform of the organization's mission, vision and values.

Other typical HRD practices include: Executive and supervisory/management development, new employee orientation, professional skills training, technical/job training, customer service training, sales and marketing training, and health and safety training.

HRD positions in businesses, health care, non-profit, and other field include: HRD manager, vice president of organizational effectiveness, training manager or director, management development specialist, blended learning designer, training needs analyst, chief learning officer, and individual career development advisor.

My opinion about this article :

Human Resource Development is the integrated use of training, organization, and career development efforts to improve individual, group and organizational effectiveness. HRD develops the key competencies that enable individuals in organizations to perform current and future jobs through planned learning activities. Notably, HRD is not only a field of study but also a profession. HRD practitioners and academia focus on HRD as a process. HRD as a process occurs within organizations and encapsulates: 1) Training and Development (TD), that is, the development of human expertise for the purpose of improving performance, and 2) Organization Development (OD), that is, empowering the organization to take advantage of its human resource capital.

This article was taken from :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resource_development