The Changing Role Of The Management Accountant Commerce Essay

The Changing Role Of The Management Accountant Commerce Essay Charles Darwin the famous scientist who introduced the theory of natural selection said In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment. He used this theory to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs from the earth. I believe this theory in fact is not confined to species. It is a universal truth which is applicable to so many phenomena we see in our day to day lives. One such illustration is the transformation of finance function. The enormous change the corporate world underwent over the last few decades has inevitably pressurized the finance function to adapt to its operating environment. As a result, today the finance function is in the fore-front of decision making positioning itself as a business partner for the organization as opposed to a conventional support function. It is in this context that every organization today should embark on the journey of transforming its finance function to adapt to the challenges of the modern business environment. It is needless to exaggerate the changes this brings about in the role of the management accountant. However being humans it is natural for us to resist such change. What we should remember nevertheless is that if we fail to adapt to these changes, our destiny would not be different to that of dinosaurs. This reinforces the argument that tomorrows successful management accountants will be the ones who not only understand the need importance of finance transformation but also who take proactive measures to bring about effective change and eventually manage such change to ensure sustainability of the business. 2. Finance Transformation 2.1 How it has changed? Accounting Finance function over the centuries has evolved significantly from the basic double entry bookkeeping the revolutionary concept which started it all. Today we live in a world where global companies exist and the finance function like so many other things in human life has transformed itself to cater the ever increasing demands of modern day businesses. Let it be financial reporting, treasury management, budgeting or any other area in finance for that matter, there is visible transformation. For instance, bottom-line in financial jargon, only meant financial profitability until recently. But today organizations strive for a triple bottom-line which is way beyond the boundaries of financial profitability. A recent research conducted by CIMAs centre of excellence at the University of Bath concluded the following changes (see Figure 1) as the most frequent changes faced by businesses. Figure 1: Key changes faced by the Finance Function in the last decade Source: CIMA Centre for Excellence, Excellence in Leadership, December 2009, p.12 As per the above research data, an overwhelming majority of 96.4% has confirmed that there had been at least one change in their finance function for the period in concern. However the degree, to which these changes have been popular, may extremely vary with Cost reduction being the forerunner with a popularity of 59% while Outsourcing of non-routine tasks was confined to a mediocre 5.5%. The same study later classifies these changes to four broad types and also pinpoints two main motives behind these changes namely Cost efficiency and Value creation (See Table 2). Table 2: Classification of Changes Faced by the Finance Function Source: CIMA Centre for Excellence, Excellence in Leadership, December 2009, p.12 Cost Efficiency motive is where a business is keen to improve its output by using its resources more efficiently. On the other hand Value creation involves performing tasks in better ways whilst eliminating non-value adding activities such that the organization creates value in terms of profitability. It is clear from the data (See Figure 1) that it is the Cost Efficiency based changes which were more prominent in businesses during the last decade. As the research suggests, Cost Reduction and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) appear logical steps for organizations as they grow. The economies of scale, firms are expected to achieve with its size, rationalize such change. Further the world economic crisis stemmed in 2007 prolongs to date would also have significantly influenced finance managers to run their businesses on tighter budgets and thus focus on efficiency based transformation. Although cost efficiency measures, up to now, have had the upper hand in finance transformation, it is expected that the value based changes would take precedence in times to come, as finance functions embark on the journey to achieve the visionary value creator status. 2.2 Why has it changed? So far we discussed how the finance function has evolved over the years. Let us now examine the underlying drivers which caused this dramatic change. This inevitably leads us to look at the changes that occurred in the environment in which businesses operate. One thing that surely comes to my mind is globalization. I believe this concept single handedly revolutionized the way people engaged in business. For instance virtual organizations such as Dell and online market places such as e-bay have not only been highly successful, but also have challenged the future viability of traditional business models. However globalization is only one among many drivers of change as per CIMAs recent research findings on finance transformation. In fact it ranks well below the likes of increased competition technological advancement which grabbed the top two spots in terms of popularity (See Figure 3). Figure 3: Drivers of organizational change ranked in terms of popularity Source: CIMA Centre for Excellence, Excellence in Leadership, December 2009, p.15 Increased risk and uncertainty and External reporting requirements achieved 3rd and 4th places respectively with market development coming next. It is important to mention the part played by the collapses of big corporate giants such as Enron, Worldcom and subsequent changes it created in the finance function especially in terms of risk assessment models and stringent reporting guidelines. The report further highlights some of the differences that exist within different business sectors. For example, demographics are as twice as popular driver in public sector compared to the private sector in which competition market dynamics are more prevalent. In financial services industry risk uncertainty is hailed above all drivers of change. All these drivers subsequently created pressure on the tradition finance function and new finance control models evolved to suit the new playing field. 3. The changing role of the management accountant in todays environment 3.1 The way forward So far we analyzed the nature of finance transformation and its underlying causes. It is now high time to look at the evolving role of tomorrows management accountant. Having acted as a steward for decades, today the finance professionals are increasingly pressurized to be a navigator or a business partner in performing his/her duties. With reference to the previously mentioned study done by CIMA, it is evident that Business partnering is clearly emerging as a way forward for finance transformation. Table 4: Business Partnering in finance function Source: CIMA Centre for Excellence, Excellence in Leadership, December 2009, p.11. In its research report, Finance transformation business partnering, CIMA Centre for Excellence defines business partnering as a behavior which involves members of the finance function acting as close advisors or internal consultants in greater collaboration and cross-functional working with others in the organization, so they can understand the business better, and provide the advice and support that is needed.  [1]   The idea here is, for finance members to actively participate in the decision making process and take collective ownership of the decision as opposed to being passive advisors. However in order to do so, the finance professionals not only need to posses technical knowledge in finance IT, they should also be equipped with extensive industry knowledge business acumen. In addition to that, the need for enhanced interaction across all the levels in the organization would mean that the management accountants need to master necessary communication and interpersonal skills. Further the traditional barriers that exist between departments would also need to be relaxed so that effective inter-functional associations are enabled. Erik ter Horst, Vice President Finance, CFO EMEA and Latin America, BT, offering insights to CIMAs survey adds for me, finance can only be functional if the finance function is a part of the whole organization  [2]  . However one might also argue that this may compensate the level of independence exercised by finance and hence affect the objectivity of its decisions. While acknowledging the possibility, Morten Sorensen, Finance Director Central Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, SSP, believes that the potential risk to the objectivity of finance function will be outweighed by the additional value generated at the end of the day it comes down to the integrity and professionalism of the individual.  [3]   3.2 Finance transformation and the role of the Management Accountant at Bodyline 3.2.1 Background: Bodyline Private Limited, a joint venture between MAST Industries, Triumph International MAS Holdings, is one of the largest lingerie sportswear manufactures in Sri Lanka with a workforce of around 6000 employees and an annual capacity of around 15 million pieces of bras. The company caters to some of the worlds most glamorous brands including Victoria Secret, Nike, Marks Spencer and Lane Bryant. Over the last couple of years Bodyline has synergized its multi product customer portfolio to its competitive advantage whilst investing on technologies such as bonding, 3D hemming and ultrasonic welding. However the company is constantly facing stiff competition from low cost manufacturers in Asian countries such as Bangladsh Vietnam, and as a result recently underwent drastic changes in its business model which in turn caused the finance function to transform accordingly. 3.2.2 Finance Transformation at Bodyline Table 5: Changes faced by the finance function at Bodyline Finance Function Change Example Type of Change Motive for Change 1 Greater emphasis on cost reduction Projects to curb major cost overrun areas. E.g. Overtime Tracking Mechanism Cost Reduction Cost Efficiency 2 Increased outsourcing of routine tasks Outsourcing of VAT Returns Process to a 3rd party BPR 3 Increased Use of Shared Service Centers for routine tasks Setting up a common commercial department in collaboration with MAS Intimates group 4 Increased work on product pricing Developments of Pre Post Order Profitability functions on SAP Product Focus Value Creation 5 Cross functional teams Formation of customer teams comprising of representatives of different departments including finance Focus on internal processes 6 Greater emphasis on poor performance within the organization Facilitating greater depth in Performance Management. (Catering to Business, Departmental Individual levels) 7 Increased external benchmarking of the whole organization Risk assessments and external benchmarking activities leading to sound business decisions being taken Source: Primary data collected from Bodyline The above diagram depicts functional changes experienced by Bodyline Finance and it could be directly compared with Table 2 in page 3. (CIMAs original model) 3.2.2.1 Cross Functional Teams:  A drastic structural change was introduced few months back where cross functional teams (representing virtually all the departments) were formulated to uniquely cater each customer. A business analyst was appointed to each team to represent finance and he/she adheres to a dual reporting structure where the individual reports to the Head of Finance as well as to the Head of the respective customer account. Each customer team sits together in a separate area within the factory so that interaction between the members is enhanced. However the transformation involved significant cultural change. People had to be convinced that the previous structure that had been adopted for the past 15 years was not the right way forward.   Members of finance worked very closely with the new leadership to change the internal structures reporting lines to logical cross functional business teams to support customer expectations. The management accountants involved in articulating the methodology of performance management systems including Key Performance Indicators as well as devising segmental reporting of customer bottom lines coupled with policy control deployment. This helped the people to understand the big picture and most importantly, where do they fit in to the new structure. The increased level of transparency helped us create a healthy competition among customer teams which in turn contributed to break the resistance to change whilst aggressively driving towards the achievement of business objectives. 3.2.2.2 Greater emphasis on poor performance: Performance management initiatives across many departments layers are being introduced with the direct involvement of finance which provides design to delivery solutions. For instance, the incentive scheme for sewing operators was changed to an efficiency based group incentive mechanism from an individual performance based incentive system, with finance department functioning as the project champion. This is one fine example where Bodylines finance function operated as a true business partner coming out of its comfort zones, co-operating with the other relevant departments and executing the project to perfection. It is noteworthy to mention that whilst executing this project, complex human dynamics of 6,500 people and the cost implications of providing incentives to all of them were considered. A series of information sessions had to be conducted to manage the knowledge transfer requirement in terms of the new system. Nevertheless a sign ificant increment in factory efficiency was noticed within the first month of project implementation. In order to facilitate such advance business requirements, the finance function was strengthened with people having dual backgrounds. In other words, apart from hardcore finance graduates, Bodylines finance team comprises of several apparel engineering graduates from the University of Moratuwa who are also qualified in CIMA. It is this unique resource combination that has enabled Bodylines finance team to successfully strive for excellence amidst numerous challenges. 3.2.2.3 Risk Analysis: The members of the finance department are also engaged in analysis assessment of risks facing the company, developing projections based on such risks to draw the attention of the management on high risk areas. For example early identification of the risks of Western economic recession, paved the way for the company to take immediate actions and thereby mitigate the impact of these adverse events at least to a certain extent. 3.2.2.4 Cost Reduction: As a follow up action plan to Budget Monitoring, the finance team in collaboration with other departments initiated 4 major projects to cut down companys overhead cost. These are namely Implementation of overtime cost tracking controlling mechanism A project to control transport expenditure A project to control courier charges A project to control stationary cost A project leader is appointed from Finance for each project and this individual is solely responsible for delivering the objectives of the project. The leader is expected to collaborate with relevant departments, device an action plan, follow up action points and present the progress at the next months budget monitoring session. Significant cost reductions were observed in each area with the inception of these projects. On the other hand, these projects offer a great opportunity for the budding management accountants to move out their comfort zones, actively involve in cross cultural teams, learn and become business partners who actively participate in achieving the companys strategic objectives.  Ã‚   3.2.2.5 Increased work on product pricing: To enhance the visibility of financial information at the Sales Order level, a project was initiated by finance with the collaboration of IT to develop SAP (the companys ERP system) based modules which calculates the expected profitability of a Sales order in the system itself. This process currently happens on spread sheets off the ERP system and as a result lot of information is duplicated and resources are wasted. The second phase of this project involves linking purchase order authorization procedure to sales order profitability so that an effective control on at the point of material purchases can be exercised. Yet again this is a challenging project which requires the individual to move out of the comfort zones of an accountant and work with System users/IT specialists and to gather system requirements and thereby ensure effective system development is achieved later. 4. Conclusion Modern day businesses experience change at a dramatic rate and whichever the ones that do not adapt quickly, would be gone before long. Being part of that business, the finance function can never isolate itself so should get accustomed to change. If the finance function has to change, that indirectly means the management accountants should expect their roles to frequently change in future. In fact it is the management accountants who are expected to manage the process of finance transformation. As their roles evolve, tomorrows management accountants will be expected to learn new skills (more often out of their comfort zones) work with cross functional teams and ultimately act as business partners who take responsibility for the collective decisions. Although we all tend to resist change initially, we also might feel it is after all not so bad. It certainly brings opportunities provided we take it in the right spirit we may end up being better off. The story of finance transformation at Bodyline is certainly of that type. Transforming was never an easy journey and it still is not. However as a team the finance function moved forward with positive attitude and as a result in the process has achieved so many milestones. As I conclude, the fundamental point I wish to bring up is that the finance transformation is inevitable. Irrespective of whether we like it or not its here to stay. However it is our decision either to embrace the change like a lizard which quickly changes its color to suit the environment and thereby survive through successful camouflaging or else ignore the change just like the dinosaur and simply extinct.

Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room Essay

Enron was involved in American’s largest corporate bankruptcy. It is a story about people, and in reality it is a tragedy. Enron made their stock sky rocket through unethical means, and in reality this company kept losing money. The primary value operating among the traders was greed, money, and how to make profits under any circumstance. The traders thought that a good trader is a creative trader and the creative trader can find any arbitrage opportunity. Arbitrage opportunity was defined for the trades as the opportunity to make abnormal profits. The traders rocked the prices of electricity over the roof on the consumers’ accounts. Traders discovered that they could create artificial shortages of electrical power so they could push the price of energy higher. With this strategy the west coast traders were able to make almost 2 billion dollars for Enron. The traders never stepped back and asked themselves if what they were doing was ethical; it is in their long term interest; does it help them if they totally defrauded California; does it advanced their goal in nationwide deregulation? Instead, they have pulled from every loop they could have to get the profit from California’s misery. It was released in the court that traders knew they are doing something wrong. The traders that were not comfortable with Enron’s style had only two options. They could have protected themselves from the guild by leaving the company or stay in the game, and blindly follow the orders from the authorities. Those traders would not ask any questions because they were afraid that they would only confirm what they suspected would be true. Therefore, they tried to protect themselves from remorse. We need to ask what the motivation of traders to behave this way was. It was the vision of fat bonuses and Enron’s ability to exploit the darker side of the traders. The traders lost their sense of morality. Once the traders accepted the idea of inhumanity it was acceptable for them to continue with their unethical behavior. The moral compass is our natural feeling that makes people know what is right and wrong and how they should behave. If the working environment does not have moral standards and the individual is not strong enough to step aside, he/she will be drag down and lose their moral compasses. Some people lose their moral compasses and might not feel any responsibility for their actions, because a higher authority approved their action. The traders felt no responsibility on their accounts and accepted their unethical behavior because they had an approval from their CEO Jeffrey Skilling. When I used to work for the banking industry I had an opportunity to see how people can change. The bonus and profit involvement was not at all similar to the ones of the traders from Enron, but the principle was same. Once there was involvement of power from high level management, threat, or reward, people were able to change drastically their behavior. They did not care about clients’ money, property, and well-being because they were threatened of losing their job or blind by the bonuses and career growth visions. I was always curious if they would do the same thing to their family members. How would they behave if there was no client sitting in front of them but their mom or dad? Would they still try to convince them to close some dirty deals by using those lying phrases that they were taught by their supervisors? I could have never understood how it is possible that some people are able to change their face so rapidly without any shame or guilt. I think everybody should treat people the same way how they want to be treaded. I did not care about the pay cut I had to take in my new job as long as I did not need to be involved in such unethical working environment like banking industry. It was my worst working experience ever and in the future I will do everything that I can to avoid working for an industry without moral standards. There is only one circumstance that might cause me to lose my moral compass, and that would be only if somebody would hurt a loved one. John Locke based his theory on moral rights. The people are free and equal and everybody owns their body and labor. The people own anything that was labored by them. However, people agree to form the government to protect their rights, liberty and property that would be otherwise be insecure and unsafe. In Locke’s theory Enron should have not been allowed to be involved in deregulation, because government should be there to protect people’s property and rights. If the government stayed involved in electricity power regulation in California, Enron would not have so easily ripped California of $30 billion dollars. The government should also protect people that invested in Enron, especially employees’ 401k plans. Locke’s natural rights are negative right and for Locke the negative rights do not conflict with positive rights. Those rights imply that the market should be free, which can cause inequality between people. For example large groups of society will stay poor compared to other groups that would grow even richer. Adam Smith’s view of free market derives from utilitarian agreement. The greatest benefits would be produced by free market and private property. The buyers will look for lowest price possible and producers will sell to the buyers anything they want to for the lowest possible price. The market competition would drive the self-interested individuals which would serve society. Enron created fake shortages of the electrical power and since there was not too many suppliers to create market competition that allowed Enron to boost the price of their stock and manipulate the stock market. The criticism of Smith’s argument is the fact that his vision is not accounting for the monopoly companies. Economist Keynes argued Smith’s invisible hand theory. He claimed that without government involvement the demand might not be high enough to absorb the supply. This approach would avoid unemployment and depression. We should not forget that government spending might not cure high unemployment but create inflation. Marx argued that capitalism is concentrating industrial power to the few individuals who organize workers for mass production. This can cause production surplus and economic depression, and replacement of workers by machines can create unemployment. The property should have served for the needs of all society. The social classes were determined by the way how society organized their workers. Enron would never be able to operate under capitalism. The company would be owned by the government and if there would be any discrepancy done it would never come up to the public. State should create mixed economy that would retain private property and market system. The government policies should remedy any deficiencies. The intellectual property system should tend towards Locke’s utilitarian system than Marx’s socialist system. There should be a healthy mix of Locke’s, Marx’s, Smith’s, and Keynes’ philosophy and political views. We should follow Smith and Locke in their low level of government interaction, which would keep strong competition between businesses and benefits for society. Keynes idea would balance the supply-demand equilibrium, unemployment and inflation. And Marx vision would equalize and decrease the gap between social classes and provide support for retirees and disabled society.

Case Presentation An Otherwise Healthy 9 Month Old Boy

Case Presentation: An otherwise healthy 9-month-old boy was brought to the Emergency Department by respite foster parents with a chief complaint of unusual bruises and marks on his skin. Two days prior to the ER visit, the respite foster parents had noticed some left eye redness and swelling, which by day of presentation had progressed to a large swollen blue-black lesion on his left cheek and new scattered bluish lesions on his thighs. The child had been diagnosed with a viral upper respiratory illness three weeks prior and had some lingering nasal congestion with tactile temperatures for the past week, but was otherwise acting very well, eating normally, and was not fussy. His past medical history is remarkable for a pre-term birth at 31 and 5/7 weeks gestation via vaginal delivery. The biological mother’s pregnancy was complicated by premature prolonged rupture of membranes and polysubstance abuse. He was not on any medications and has no known allergies. On physical exami nation in the ED, his vital signs are within normal limits for age. He is well-appearing and in no acute distress. Head and neck examinations are within normal limits with a soft and open anterior fontanelle. Cardiovascular, pulmonary and abdominal examinations also yield no abnormalities. Skin findings include an obvious large targetoid ecchymosis with underlying edema on the left cheek, a right posterior auricular ecchymosis, as well as several scattered annular blue-black ecchymoses on the bilateralShow MoreRelatedSexual Education Should Be Taught At All And Out Of The Home2589 Words   |  11 PagesProviding Healthy Sexual Education between Doctors, Parents, Schools, and Children The debate over whether comprehensive sexual education should be taught in schools is no less heated than it was when it first became a contemporary controversy in the 1960’s. Some argue that it should not be taught at all, in or out of the home. 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Overview of Medieval Life - 1506 Words

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