Globally, and increasingly locally, there is growing noise about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), which has led many technology futurists to predict a utopia for humankind while others predicted, paradoxically, that millions of jobs would soon be obsolete and taken over by robots, not to mention the coming apocalypse. However, I believe these views…
Millennials. They’ve come of age in a digital era. Exposed to the world’s woes − climate change, human rights abuses, recessions and more – their social and political consciousness says, ‘we expect more’. And, they’re pulling the rug from under us all. Millennials – people born in the 1980s or 1990s − have a whistle…
The robots are heading straight towards us and we are inviting them in to our homes, workplaces and vehicles. Not surprisingly, because they make our lives more convenient, our work more efficient, our buildings more sustainable and our roads safer. But at the same time we need to think about how we maximise the upside…
The retirement landscape in South Africa is characterised by two pension systems: an advanced formal pensions sector and a means-tested social security system. However, a concern raised by actuary Rob Rusconi is that of the large ‘uncovered gap’ between these two systems: those individuals who benefit from neither The biggest systemic issue, given South Africa’s…
5 Lessons from history on AI, automation and employment The urgency of shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution Cloud technology and SME success Operating your business in the cloud 5 Lessons from history on AI, automation and employment History tells us that in the long run, technology is a net creator of jobs. Is this time…
In this, the first of a series of two articles, we look at the pressures on an accounting firm’s profitability There was a time when accountancy business owners were seemingly guaranteed high profit emanating from a business model that was often characterised as the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 model. That model is also known as the…
Tax morality and the CA(SA) The IT14SD process can be a huge headache for the unsuspecting taxpayer Tackling the tax morality challenge Tax morality and the CA(SA) Everyone who has studied tax should be familiar with the famous ruling in the Duke of Westminster Case,1 which is often cited in defence of (usually) aggressive tax…
We are all on a journey of self-development. As a speaker, every time you get up onto a speaking platform, regardless if you are speaking to an audience of 5 or 5 000 people – your purpose is to improve your skills as a speaker. In this article, I share my personal insights on what…
Spatial technology allows CFOs and managers to drive massive improvements in financial management, reporting, and governance at local government level by analysing financial data within its real-world context, in other words on a map I have tremendous difficulty in explaining to my former audit colleagues exactly what our company does. The few CAs(SA) that have…
Research and Markets in their 2016 report Robo advice: revolution or evolution suggest that low-cost, automated investment advice is set to become the core of financial planning services, with a market potential of $19,5 trillion assets under management (AUM) What does this mean? The growth will no doubt be exponential. In a 2016 report Deloitte…
