I'm an undergrad business student who needs to decide my major soon. I'm thinking of majoring in accounting but the purpose is purely to manage my whole family business' financial activities (e.g. like controller up to CFO) and manage my own small business' bookeeping i had planned in the future (not for public accounting job, MACC/MBA degree, or CPA certification). Parents said that marketing/entrepreneurship classes are interesting subjects since the classes won't be boring and emphasize creativity (moreover, there's a class call intro to fam. business too), but i think if i have an accounting degree w/ IT minor, it will help our family business more since they had mentioned to me at some point that it's hard to trust an "outsider" 100% (even accountants cannot be exposed to all of the financial information inside the companies; possible of accounting fraud/theft, companies are not in the U.S.; deal with IT system developers / analysts a lot too). If you are in my position right now, which major will you advice me to take? Will it make a huge difference if i'm taking marketing/entrepreneurship major rather than accounting major with MIS supporting area? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Replies to: BSBA in accounting v.s. hiring accountants to be family business' CFO?
As for MIS, it really depends on your processing needs. It depends on the types of applications that your family business needs.
As I was reading your post a couple thought came to mind. The first was who is taking care of the business finances now. What do your parents say about your plan. I assume the are managing while you are in school. What is the family plan for the future of the business. The next was the fact that they mentioned marketing and entrepreneurship. Are they trying to tell you that some knowledge of those area would be helpful to you if you are to be involved in the family business.
In general, I don;t think anyone can go wrong with a degree in accounting. However, if you are going into the family business, it seems to me a well-rounded education makes sense. For example, in many small businesses, a CFO might also be responsible for the HR function, so a class in human resource management might make sense.
And when you come right down to it, the best people to tell you how you would fit into the family business is your family.
Right now, in my mind, I am going through a numbers of scenarios and for every one of them, I can come up with a different idea for each.
As I said before and happy1 reiterated, your family can tell you best.