I’m a Chartered Accountant (SA) and I’ve run a few businesses, so hear me out.

When your profession, ie: accounting, has consumed you to the point where you have no identity other than “I am an accountant”, then you are unqualified to run an organization.

If you act as an accountant you abdicate responsibility for non-accounting matters, and running a company is mostly about non-accounting matters, because it’s mostly about the staff.

You must be able to take off your accounting lenses and you put yourself into the shoes of your employees, all day, every day.

That is why the CFO should never be put in charge of a business. Neither should IT directors or HR managers.

Having an accounting degree does not make you an accountant.

The only person who can run an organization is a human being.