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Graduates of an accounting program in the past had a primary focus on the bottom line. Keeping score of a successful business meant that profitability was the key measurement for that achievement. Today’s economy may be sending another message that will need to filter its way into accounting classrooms everywhere.

If there are fewer people gainfully employed domestically, that can be interpreted as there are fewer people with the funds to buy a company’s product offering. The result is lower demand and, ultimately, lower sales and lower profits. Ask any business in Detroit, MI if their approach to bottom line management is working. Many will respond with a resounding no while others will blame it on something else.

Topics like retaining domestic content and local jobs will be part of the curriculum in the accounting school of tomorrow. Detroit’s accounting program of today has become more of the MBA international focus and stresses that one must look for short term results and increased bottom line. This may not be a prudent path for the developed countries of the world.

Retaining the ability to manufacture domestically and develop those domestic markets while not ignoring the larger international marketplace will be the challenge. How do businesses keep people gainfully employed domestically so that they will be able to purchase the products that those companies sell? How does a company fund research and development and change its focus to the longer term when market conditions show declining sales and profit?

This will mean that accounting schools will need to expand their teachings beyond the primary role of managing money and that is what the MBA international program will need to address. The new direction may have a title like Business Development Accounting or Accounting for Domestic Business Retention. It is clear that a change of thinking is required in the field of accounting. The American business world can meet this challenge and restore the economy to its former brilliance. It is what the American public wants and needs.