Finance managers are human

CFO.com has brought to my attention a survey conducted by the CEB of finance managers. They asked finance managers whether they believe their direct reports are “effective in the behaviors and skills that drive excellent performance by the finance function.” The title of CFO.com’s article gave away the answer: Finance Leaders Bemoan Talent Shortage. NotContinue reading “Finance managers are human”

Survey says: ERM implementations maturing

A survey conducted in July and August of 2009 by Aon has revealed that companies are moving beyond “basic” ERM implementations: 62% of the survey respondents in the Global Enterprise Risk Management Survey 2010 reported going beyond basic ERM, compared with only 38% in Aon’s inaugural ERM survey in 2007. I wonder what happened betweenContinue reading “Survey says: ERM implementations maturing”

Taking the wraps off materiality

Materiality is an important concept in auditing. The point of an audit is to certify the financial statements as being free of material misstatement. A material misstatement is one which would affect the decisions of a user of those statements. This recent blog post at the VeraSage Institute, more known for their pioneering work inContinue reading “Taking the wraps off materiality”

Using wikis or blogs to manage knowledge in firms

A recent article on WebCPA confused and inspired me: Accounting firms need to become more intelligent businesses by better leveraging the time and knowledge of their professional staff, according to a survey… […] Firms with a formal knowledge management program benefited from its implementation. Hmm… Intelligence, good. Leveraging knowledge, check. Formal knowledge management program, bingo!Continue reading “Using wikis or blogs to manage knowledge in firms”

Big Four dominate professional services globally

The Managing Partners’ Forum was established in 1995 and is “dedicated to enhancing leadership and the status of the management team in professional firms worldwide.” They recently released the inaugural Global 500, a ranking of the top 500 professional services firms in the world by fee volume. The Big Four are at the top ofContinue reading “Big Four dominate professional services globally”