I have carried many good impressions from the September conference. In
subsequent reflections, it became more and more clear to me that we would
all be missing a great opportunity if we did not explore further the
potential offered by the presentation from Prof. H.Thomas Johnson and
Anders Broms.
Here comes my interpretation - with appologies to the authors/presenters.
While companies are striving to define ever better sets of measures and
clear results-oriented targets, we were presented with the two totally
different examples from the most successful car and truck manufacturing
companies. They have been consistently profitabile over the period of
twenty years. They are both highest quality and lowest cost producers in
their industry. Yet, neither manages their business on the cost basis.
All of this would not be nearly as important as I think it is, where it
not for the fact that these assessments come from the acknowledged
authorities in the management accounting field - that is the sorts of
people senior managers, particularly financially driven ones, listen to.
So, we now have a chance to look wider a field.
My objective is to try and explore this possibility in UK and would be
grateful to this list for information how to get in touch with Prof.
Johnson. He is based at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. In
my desire to do this, I have already mailed wrong Tom Johnson from this
list - appologies.
At the time when publications like Financial Times and executives like
Deimler Benz CEO talk about the need to understand organisational cultures
and work with them, understanding what financial systems do for the
business and how can they be enablers for the fundamental long term change
is paramount. Personally, I am neither an accountant nor do I like it.
However, I realise that we have to be aligned with the strongest forces in
the organisations. One way or another, this comes to money.
Thanks for your help in advance
Lilly
-- lilly evans 100451.3477@compuserve.com"Most advances in sciences have been the result of intermediaries venturing beyond the boundaries or the paradigms of their disciplines, uniting insights which come from different kingdoms of knowledge." THEODORE ZELDIN "An Intimate History of Humanity"