Big Data and accounting: Does it matter?
Listen to this podcast, where the authors of an ongoing ICAS research project discuss how Big Data can be utilised by finance and accounting professionals.
Darren Cruickshank is the CFO of Gridserve, a leading company in the field of sustainable energy production for electric vehicles. In this podcast, Darren explains how senior finance professionals can use ‘Big Data’ to make better financial, operational and strategic decisions.
He discusses why senior finance professionals must learn to make the most of Big Data, regardless of their industry context – and notes that the insights and the decisions we make based on data can be in conflict with personal experiences.
Darren gives his perspective on the role of Big Data in finance and accounting, noting that Big Data is not the sole responsibility of an organisation’s IT function. He offers advice for those senior finance professionals who have just started to look at Big Data, such as “be data curious”, “start small” and ensure that Big Data is “a cross-operational effort.”
Darren also explores the right mindset that senior finance professionals and directors can adopt in order to exploit Big Data in making more informed and effective decisions. He discusses the shortage of Big Data capabilities in the accounting profession, and how this might be addressed. This podcast is part of the project “Big Data, Big Capabilities: Developing the Senior Finance Professionals of the Future to Exploit the Benefits of Big Data” funded by ICAS. Listen to the previous podcast episode here.
The researchers are Professor Maureen Meadows (Maureen.meadows@coventry.ac.uk) and Dr Alessandro Merendino (alessandro.merendino@coventry.ac.uk) from the Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University (UK).