How women can harness the drivers of innovation in finance
March 28, 2022
Often, we think of innovation as developing a new widget, but there are actually 10 types of innovation, for example, process improvements + services, and client engagement.
The gist:
Hybrid work? Labor shortages? They’re driving innovation—as companies look to find more efficient and novel ways to manage productivity + growth.
While the Reuters article is written specifically for the accounting and tax industry, one of the traits of female leadership is to increase innovation, and so these frameworks can be more universal.
The Stats:
Previous research revealed that women leaders are more prone to “challenge the status quo”, and more specifically will champion change, drive results, solve problems, and innovate.
Harvard Business Review shared the results of a study that looked into the impact on organizations that promoted women into leadership roles showed such organizations “increasingly embraced transformation while seeking to reduce the risks associated with it.”
The study also found these organizations increased the frequency of terms conveying “openness to change” by 10%.
This could explain why a number of innovation teams across the industry are being led by women or strategically incorporating the female perspective in their drive to innovate.
Here are a few of those women + their areas of innovation:
Inga Arendt, CPA, partner in innovation and transformation at Wipfli, points out, “given the current industry talent shortage, the need for greater efficiency is key.”
Gabrielle Luoma, CPA, CGMA, co-founder and CEO of MOD Ventures, explains how she puts the focus on processes, by asking, “How can I do this one thing better?” Firms, and almost all organizations, are trying to figure out how to effectively work with team members in a hybrid environment while keeping productivity high, maintaining quality work, and staying connected with their teams.
Jagruti Solanki, CPA, CFO at BitPay, notes that “Innovation is happening inside the practitioner’s world, not just outside it,” for example “automation and process improvements are ‘moving up the level of review and financial reporting.’” In general, “technology is advancing faster than ever before, and for leaders to keep their organizations strong they have to be anticipating how this changes the expectations of both their own talent and clients.”
Indeed, “consider how mainstream companies like PayPal, Venmo, and others are now dealing in cryptocurrency. In this and many other ways, the questions and needs clients have will be changing. Evolution such as this is why ‘[innovation] is not a luxury… the pace of innovation has to pick up,’ says Arendt.”
Clearly, as all these women point out, it’s time to break the status quo of the traditional work environment, and women have a distinct perspective to voice in this transformation.
Connect with the Thomas Reuters article here.