07/15/2026
What do the most optimistic business leaders have in common?
They work at organizations that value management accounting competencies.
IMA just released the Management Accounting Competency Index (MACI), the first validated benchmark to measure how organizations across industries and functions value management accounting skills.
We surveyed senior executives across 6 regions, 8 industries, and 5 functional areas.
Here's what the data revealed:
📈 MACI scores predict optimism
Organizations with the highest scores were the most confident about their performance over the next 12 months. Size alone didn't drive that confidence. Organizations that specifically valued management accounting competencies were consistently optimistic.
🏢 Company size matters
The larger the organization, the higher the MACI score. Companies with 10,000+ employees averaged a score of 6.3. Those with fewer than 100 scored 0.8. Smaller organizers can't afford to treat financial competencies as someone else's problem.
🤝 This isn’t just a finance issue
Operations and IT leaders scored nearly as high as finance leaders. At the largest organizations, scores across finance, operations, and marketing were virtually identical. The silos are breaking down.
Valuing financial competencies correlates with confidence about the future. The next question is whether organizations are actually developing them.
These are just a few findings from the MACI report. Find out more by reading the full report here: https://hubs.la/Q04pvjL00
