by Bruce W. Marcus
We live in a dynamic world, in which constant motion of events and social and economic structures continually alter the state of many activities and circumstances. For example, the advent of the personal computer in 1981 changed the way trade and commerce were done.
This altered the nature of financial structures, industrial practices and communications. But it also gave rise to new laws and new needs in accounting and finance. It created a new business environment that affected all participants in the cycles.
It’s an ongoing cycle that generates new problems and needs in many disciplines, including law and accounting. New financial instruments, new laws and regulations, new technology that accelerates the pace of doing business, growing internationalism, the expanding body of knowledge in so many areas and the rapidity with which it can be organized and retrieved, new demands from client – all substantially change the demands upon lawyers and accountants, and therefore, the structures and practices that professionals must adapt to stay abreast of their own clients.
I think that in order to understand change, you have to start by recognizing that change is an evolutionary process, the result of which is that some thing or things are different than they had hitherto been.
It’s important to recognize as well the dynamic of today’s society, in which events are impacted – sometimes randomly – by other events that are themselves impacted by unforeseeable events, and so on – all of which makes it impossible to accurately and consistently forecast.