When Barry Gisser graduated college 20 years ago, he left with an impressive pedigree: election to Phi Beta Kappa and a B.A., magna cum laude, in economics and political science. What he didn't come away with, though, was a single course in accounting, which is pretty unusual, given the course of his career. Currently, Mr. Gisser serves as senior vice president, enterprise strategy, at ConAgra Foods, Inc., one of the largest packaged food companies in North America. It's a position that requires strong accounting and finance skills – and that's why Mr. Gisser is glad that in addition to his liberal arts background, he's also a Certified Management Accountant (CMA^®).

Mr. Gisser took the CMA exam after having already earned an MBA and while at The Procter & Gamble Company. “At the time, which was 1996, P&G was offering incentives to anyone who passed the CPA, CIA, or CMA exam,” he said. “I didn't know much about the CMA at first, but after doing research, I found that of the three certifications, the CMA seemed to be the most consistent with where my career was headed, which was as a finance professional in industry. I was definitely focused on applying broad-based finance and accounting skills in helping to build brands and being a business team partner.”

Serving in the role of business partner is a thread that runs through Mr. Gisser's career. He eventually joined ConAgra Foods in April 2006 as senior vice president, financial planning and reporting, and was recently promoted to his current position, where he also leads the internal strategy team, with responsibilities for market assessment, M&A targeting, competitive analysis, and capital market impact.

At ConAgra Foods, Mr. Gisser has been involved in a number of critical strategic projects, including a recent initiative featured in the December 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review. That initiative, which originated with the company's CEO, Gary Rodkin, seeks to achieve huge cultural change by setting three new operating principles for the entire organization: simplicity, accountability, and collaboration.

“It's about bringing a little bit of process discipline to areas outside the scope of traditional finance. We're bringing to life key output metrics to change the culture while also lowering costs, improving profit margins, and increasing our ability to invest in growth opportunities,” said Mr. Gisser.

Such a large-scale initiative requires clear commitment – some would even say “passion” – particularly from the finance organization. Mr. Gisser says being a CMA certainly helps him in this area, too: “I think the CMA helps a finance professional build a strong technical accounting and finance foundation and enables an individual to step into the role of being a passionate partner in the business.”

He seeks out the same kind of business passion in others: “I look for the CMA when I hire people, because to me, it shows that someone is serious about their career development.” Mr. Gisser believes in the CMA so much, in fact, that he now serves on the ICMA^® Board of Regents.

Mr. Gisser clearly doesn't regret the undergrad accounting courses he missed. “If you're not an accounting graduate, the CMA is perfect,” he said. “It's hard to teach decision making and critical thinking skills, which were the focus of my liberal arts education. With business school and the CMA, I was able to pick up the technical accounting skills later on in my career.”