New Frontier of financial executives;

              Robert M. Trueblood, partner in our Chicago office, is noted as
an author, as a speaker, and for his activities in professional affairs.
He is currently a Vice-President of the American Institute of CPAs,
where he is a Member of Council, and Chairman of the Long-Range
Objectives Committee.
He is Past President of the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs, where
he served as Chairman of Past Presidents, Chairman of the Com­mittee
on Education, Budget and Finance, and Member at Large
of the Council. He is also Past President, Pittsburgh Chapter of
CPAs.
Mr. Trueblood came to our firm in 1946 after serving as Lieuten­ant
Commander in the U.S. Navy Cost Inspection Services. He
received his B.B.A. with distinction at the University of Minnesota
and did graduate work at Loyola and Northwestern Universities.
He and his wife, Florence, are the parents of two daughters.
The New Frontier
of Financial Executives
by Robert M» Trueblood
This article is adapted from a paper given by Robert M. True­blood
at a full-day seminar on The New Frontier of Financial
Executives at the Management Institute of the University of Wis­consin
on October 24, 1962. The entire seminar was organized,
developed, and written by H. Justin Davidson.
A s AMERICANS moved westward in the last century,
there were always new lands to map out. The people in
each tiny colonial outpost carried the cumulative knowl­edge
and certainty of man's experience with them. But,
beyond the certainty and knowledge within each out­post,
the frontier was all around the brave and forward-looking
settlers.
In the United States today, there is no longer a physi­cal
frontier. But still there are frontiers for men to ex­plore
and to conquer. In the world of ideas, there have
always been new frontiers. And in accounting today, as
in the great world if ideas, there are ever new frontiers
to be surveyed.
And each of us who is a practicing professional must
every day consider some of these new frontiers of ac­counting—
the very real challenges that we who are con­cerned
about the future can see looming on the horizon.
This is our responsibility, as well as our obligation.
Before we look at the "new frontiers," however, we
need to turn to history to help assess the reasons why
today, in 1963, we should be pausing to consider very
real and very new challenges to the financial function
in business. And in turning to the past in order to
understand the present, we should think not only of the
history of the accounting profession, but of the history
of the larger business community of which accounting
is a part.
The Past
Looking back over the history of the business com­munity
for the past fifty years, we can discern at least
two periods of major business change that have signifi­cantly
involved the accounting profession.
The first important period of innovation came during
the early 1900's. For it was in 1914 that Frederick W.
Taylor's book, The Principles of Scientific Manage­ment,
first appeared.1 Taylor, who is often called the
1 Taylor, Frederick W., The Principles of Scientific Management,
New York, Harper and Brothers, 1914.
2 THE QUARTERLY