Can Accountants and Finance Specialists Be Entrepreneurs?

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To summaries, in order to have a high chance of success, an entrepreneur must have the alertness trait, be a qualified manager, and be an effective leader.

Traits and Skills of Accountants and Finance Specialists

Useful references:

http://acuitycfo.com/three-reasons-entrepreneurs-need-accounting-and-finance/

Recommendations

Although based on the comparison of traits and skills of entrepreneurs with that of accountants and finance specialists, the report has demonstrated that accountants and finance specialists could be well qualified entrepreneurs by closing the the identified gaps in the skills set, this does not indicate that they are suitable to develop opportunities in all fields. It is important the one needs to examine if the opportunity match the founder’s background, as a reasonable match would greatly enhance the success rate of an entrepreneurship. From a psychological viewpoint, studies (Hisrich, 1990; Turker and Selcuk, 2008) have illustrated that personal background also play a deterministic role in how one select opportunity.

According to the unique skill sets and background of accountants and finance specialists that have been discussed in previous section, for the purpose of recommendation, this section will evaluate on fields that match with this particular background.

The recommended field for an entrepreneurship would be one that directly utilizes the skill set and background knowledge. In the case of accountants and finance specialist, potential opportunities could be consultancy on finance and accounting in region where are lack of specialists yet with attractive demand on these services. These opportunities also comply with the demand-supply theory incorporated in the Alfred Marshall’s theory of entrepreneurship (Kondon, 1993). Similar fields that would substantially require accounting and financial knowledge would give accountants and finance specialists a significant advantage in competitiveness.

The next level of recommendation is on fields that would be centric on management and heavily rely on the daily operation of the firm rather than innovation. The strategy for profit generation in these fields adopts theories and practices of entrepreneurial management in which the entrepreneurial behaviors happens at the management level of the firm (Bhargava, 2008; Stevenson and Jarillo, 1990).

The least recommended field are those considerably rely on innovations. Example fields would include engineering and science. Opportunities identified in these fields usually require continuous research and development. Background knowledge are essential during this phase. This is one of the primary reason for why many of the technology based firms are founded by field specialist with expertise in the filed. For instance, the founder of Renishaw Plc., an international metrology company, Sir David McMurtry, is a knowledgeable engineer with many years of experiences in metrology and engineering.

In the least recommended fields, however, it is worth to notice that as the business develops, the weight of management and entrepreneurial management gradually increases in the firm. This means that accountants and finance specialists could form an an entrepreneurial team jointly with domain experts to found a business. In this situation, the accountant or finance specialist can take the responsibility of leading the employees and managing the company resources in fulfilling company goals. Cooperation would most likely to enhance the success rate of an entrepreneurship.

Conclusions

It is the misinterpretation of entrepreneurship as leadership has led to the incorrect stereotype in which accountants and finance specialists are not suitable to start an entrepreneurship. In fact, entrepreneurship is consisting of not only leadership, but also alertness and management skills. Despite the alertness being a personal trait not strongly dependent on personal background, accountants and finance specialist possess excellent numerical skills that allowed them to accurately manage the resources of the firm and make decisions through developing quantified strategies. It is believed that with proper training on effective leadership styles and behaviors, and with sufficient management and company-leading experiences, accountants and finance specialists are well suited to be entrepreneurs that will likely to perform better than average.

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