A Way to Think About the Future: O-P-E-R-A
How do you think about the future?
And by that I don't necessarily mean what do you think the future holds, but rather in what manner do you think about the future? What's your approach?
After all, there are several different ways to consider the future. One way, of course, is not to think about the future at all. In 1930, Albert Einstein said that he never thought about the future. "It comes soon enough," he quipped.
As I suspect is true for most of you, Dr. Einstein's mindset (at least as it was in 1930) is not an option for me. One reason why is that in my role at the Center for Audit Quality, I work on behalf of a profession—public company auditing—that never stops thinking about the future. And, as I see it, there are several elements of the way auditors approach the future. I've grouped these elements into a nifty acronym—OPERA—that I think makes a good way of thinking, and not just for auditors.
Optimistic
Auditors are trained to be skeptical in what they do, but that doesn't mean they are pessimists necessarily. To the contrary, I believe the auditing profession is one marked by a fundamental optimism. In an effort to address dynamic business conditions, and as a part of its ongoing quest to enhance audit quality, the auditing profession is committed to a continuous cycle of improvement and development. This continuous cycle of improvement and development is at the core of the profession and impacts nearly every aspect of a given firm and its people.
Auditors, in other words, believe that tomorrow can be better than today.
Proactive
In my view, a necessary corollary to being an optimist is being proactive. It's not enough just to believe that tomorrow will be better—you've got to do something about it. And auditors are proactive. They are not dragged toward the future; they step up to meet it.
In my work, I see this proactive attitude in action every day. In recent years, for example, the U.S. public company auditing profession has been in the vanguard of efforts to develop audit quality indicators, with self-directed initiative that has been recognized by policymakers across the globe. This process has involved developing a set of indicators, gathering feedback on the indicators from stakeholders across the country and across the globe, and putting the indicators through pilot testing by auditing firms.
Engaged
Being proactive, however, doesn't mean always going it alone. In fact, auditors recognize that to confront issues effectively, and thus shape the future, the profession must engage in robust dialogue with a variety of stakeholder communities with an interest in financial reporting. This engagement plays out in the profession's engagement with academics, its extensive interaction with audit committees, and its work with others in the fight against financial reporting fraud, among many other contexts.
Responsive
Public company auditors, like just about everyone else in business, are faced with unrelenting change. Markets evolve, investor needs and desires evolve, technology evolves—these developments and others require auditors be responsive, monitoring changes taking place now and anticipating what the future might bring.
One development that the auditing profession is particularly responsive to now is the changing workforce. The profession strongly recognizes the need to make sure that young people—the auditors of tomorrow—understand that auditing is a place to have a dynamic, high-tech, and purpose-driven career. The profession is taking steps, such as through the recent #AuditorProud social media campaign, to ensure that message gets through.
Appreciative
The final letter in the acronym is "A," for "appreciative." While oriented toward the future, auditors appreciate their past. They never lose sight of the fundamentals that have made public company audits a core component of the U.S. financial system. These fundamentals are independence, objectivity, and skepticism—enduring values that will remain with the profession no matter what the future holds.
I’ll end where I started—with another quote. But this one, from jazz great Miles Davis, fits nicely with the OPERA approach. Davis said this: "My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life."
How do you think about the future? Do you share the OPERA elements or take another approach? I welcome your thoughts in the comments.
A securities lawyer, Cindy Fornelli has served as the Executive Director of the Center for Audit Quality since its establishment in 2007.
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9 年It never ceases to amaze, confuse, & disappoint me when I read articles about how advances in technology are going to do so much to better the future of the human race, and the authors of these articles virtually never even mention the one 'advancement' that unless it is successfully addressed in the very near future---and the intellect that was capable of coming up with the mind boggling 'advancements' that were responsible for creating both our present 'quality of life', as well as all of the other technological wonders that exist in the world today should have no trouble doing so---will virtually assure that these 'advancements' and any others that come after them, WILL NEVER come close to realizing their full potential/usefulness, if they are ever even used at all!!! . If our country/world is going to continue to flourish in a manner that is acceptable to all peoples of the world, it is absolutely imperative that all sectors of our society continue to advance/improve in a manner relative to any additions/advancements to our current storehouse of knowledge & technology which may be relevant to that progress---if we hadn't been 'derelict in our duty' for the last 200 or so years, and had been following this principle(and a few others that can be found at the 2 links below)we would now be living in a relatively 'utopian' society instead of a world in chaos & turmoil!!!! . I find it extremely hard to understand how the kind of intellect that is capable of coming up with the amazing technology alluded to above, can be so completely blind to this fact: "that the many different 'infrastructures' that comprise the makeup of certain key sectors of our society are mandatory to the continued existence of the kind of country that AMERICA has always been". They also seem to be blind to the fact that these sectors of society must continuously be advanced/improved & maintained in a manner that is easily accomplished as new knowledge & technology becomes available!!! . Adding to the above 'ignorance', is the fact that for some time now, there has been a race that is running rampant out there in society in the form of a frantic and madcap quest for UNNECESSARY 'social' and technological advancement in certain areas of both the public and private sectors of our society, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, OTHER, MUCH MORE IMPORTANT AREAS OF IT(many of which are imperative to the continued existence of any free society)ARE BEING COMPLETELY NEGLECTED OR IGNORED ALTOGETHER, even though they can be easily 'upgraded' to the max with just existing technology!!!! . In the private sector for instance, seemingly intelligent investors of every size & shape are trying to find & fund new 'start ups' that are based on creating & marketing BOTH more & more 'gadgets' and other 'creature comfort' type things, AS WELL AS trying to create various 'futuristic' type projects(drones to deliver consumer products to households, a nationwide compressed air tube to take people from coast to coast, consumer space flights, outposts on both the moon and mars, driverless cars, etc, etc.), all of whose success are dependent upon our country having/maintaining a strong & stable economic infrastructure, so that if any of these ventures eventually proved to be fiscally/technically feasible, there will still be ample people left in the country with enough money/resources to be able to use/purchase them. . Unfortunately too, as intelligent as 'the powers that be' in both the public & private sectors of our society think they are(they are after all, members of that same 'species' of life whose intellect was responsible for creating both our present 'quality of life', as well as all of the other technological wonders that exist in the world today), they seem to be blind to the fact that, among other things, our current economic policies have permanently weakened the very foundation upon which, not only the success of the above alluded to projects depends, but also that upon which our continued quality of life as well as the entire economic & political future of both our own country & the rest of the worlds depends on as well!!!! . We should therefore IMMEDIATELY put some of these more 'creature comfort' type advancements TEMPORARILY on hold, and allocate a big portion of our time, effort & money to doing whatever it takes in order to 'shore up' our nations rapidly deteriorating economic infrastructure(and those few other key sectors of society which upon which our country's continued survival is inexorably dependent on as well)before we have passed 'the point of no return', at which time even an instant return to sanity/common sense will be to late to save us. . P.S.: IF I MAY BE SO BOLD AS TO SUGGEST THE FOLLOWING: GIVE ME 300 million dollars, and in less than a decade, WE(THE AMERICAN PEOPLE & MYSELF)will do our part in 'changing the world' by transforming AMERICA into the kind of country that it would be now if THE TRUTH & THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE had been properly respected for the last 200 years or so!!!! Discount Convenience Stores(https://discounstores.weebly.com) cureforusa(https://cureforusa.weebly.com)
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