The Third Wave Breaks on the Shores of Accounting

Information technology is creating a wave of change that is altering the way business is done and the problems faced by managers. Third-wave accounting systems will focus on changes in resources and processes. Because the 3rd-wave manager must transform the organization - both its resources and processes - accounting should provide measures of transformation, including rates of change in resources and processes. The 3rd-wave organization is focused outward on customers, so its accounting system must be concerned with measuring the values created for customers. The system must provide real-time dials on the business rather than waiting for events to occur before recording them, thus providing only a retrospective look at the enterprise. The challenge to academic accountants is to invent the 3rd-wave accounting paradigm and produce the graduates who can function effectively in the 3rd-wave organizations they will be joining.