The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has always considers Continuous Professional Development  (CPD )  a key factor that has contributed towards providing their students and members  with the knowledge and skills  they  need to excel in their careers and  advance the business skills required for their day-to-day jobs, as well as enhance their employability for the future.

ACCA’s approach to CPD is designed to help students and members maintain and develop the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in today’s dynamic and demanding business environment. 

This has resulted in ACCA conducting many valuable workshops and webinars, that provide the relevant insights and training to assist students and members keep their knowledge up-to-date and learn about the relevant trends in the current and future market place.

A recent workshop of this nature was held on the topic of ‘Blending Insights, Technology and Psychology for Smart Decision Making’.

With the role of the finance professional rapidly changing to that of  being a strategic decision maker in a business, this workshop  gave the participants  an insight into the process of  understanding the dynamics of decision-making, whilst dealing  with lots of different people throughout the organizational hierarchy. Drawing on insights from neurology, psychology, economics, and beyond, coupled with the added complexity of the digital disruption and the deluge of data enabled by social, mobile and cloud technologies happening at present, the workshop discussed on the aspect of whether having more information necessarily lead to better decision making.Areas perused included decision making vs. problem solving, which explored and discussed the difference between the two and how they are mostly used interchangeably in practice. The constraints, modifications and manipulations involved in these processes were also analyzed. Also touched upon, was aspects to consider in arriving at the right decision, as well as examining the different styles of leadership that would result in smart decision making.

The keynote speaker at the workshop was  Chaaminda Kumarasiri , Founder  /CEO  of  The Human Capital Partner and the Chairman of  H C P Consulting (Pvt) Ltd.  
Chaaminda , having fast tracked the career ladder to serve at senior leadership positions of world class multinational organizations as well as local blue chips, both in the state sector and private sector, at a relatively younger age, while gaining a vast amount of hands-on experience and exposure,  has founded the ‘Human Capital Partner’ to help the business entities in Sri Lanka to source high quality executives and to develop their human capital via a range of innovative Executive Development Programmes. 

He launched H C P Consulting; an end-to-end business consulting firm to provide high quality consulting and grooming services to the SME Sector including the Start-ups as a one-stop-shop in their growth strategy. Chaaminda is also a fellow member of ACCA with a range of other professional and academic qualifications.
Commenting on the workshop, the head of ACCA, Nilusha Ranasinghe  said, “The importance of continuing professional development cannot be underestimated .The ultimate outcome of a well planned CPD programme is that it gives sustainable value to both the employer and the professional and will have a positive effect on the professional’s career. We at ACCA strongly believe that CPD is a career-long obligation for practicing professionals and we hope to continue in having workshops of this nature for the benefit of both our members and our students.”