Global Management Accounting Principles

Unlike many recent blog posts, which we hope have been of interest to both learning professionals and those who work in other business roles, this is likely to be of most interest to those working within the Finance function, a group for whom many of MTP’s courses are designed.

We read with interest the first set of Global Management Accounting Principles released by the UK Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) on 22 October 2014. The four principles can be summarised under the headings: Influence, Relevance, Value and Trust.

Philosopher Kings

Schumpeter has an interesting article in the Economist of October 4^th.

He challenges the, quite long standing, practice for senior managers to attend outward bound courses in order to develop their Leadership skills.  He suggests there is no discernible benefit. 

Tesco - what went wrong?

'Tesco's board is seriously lacking retail experience', by Luke Johnson, Financial Times, 24th September 2014

Tesco have been in the news a lot recently, the latest event being the announcement of a £250 million accounting misstatement.

Luke Johnson, the serial entrepreneur, has a very interesting piece in the Business Life section of the Financial Times of 24th September.

Disruptive Innovation

Pardon the Disruption, The Economist, 6^th September 2014

The Free Exchange column of The Economist of 6th September covers the subject of innovation, particularly disruptive innovation.  This topic has been the focus of many sessions for our clients over the past few years, as well as a popular module on our Learning Effectiveness Network, a series of complimentary virtual classroom sessions that we offer a couple of times a year. 

In Search of the Good Business

In Search of the Good Business, The Economist, August 9th

This article features our biggest and longest standing client Unilever and describes, in a generally complimentary way, their well-publicised initiative to make environmental sustainability the leading edge of their long term strategy.   The author makes the point that the man who has driven this approach – Paul Polman, their CEO since 2009 – is in some ways turning the clock back to the early days of the company when the founder William Lever had a similar goal, based on ‘responsible capitalism’.

The Power of the Written Word

‘The Power of the written word’ by Teresa Ewington, Training Journal, July 2014

This article interested me at a personal level because, these days, I spend most of my time writing - learning material, books and reviews like this one.  And it is unusual for anyone to write about the skill of writing because, in my biased view, it is a highly underrated talent, one that managers are often expected to develop as an extra attribute to complement the ‘more important’ elements of their role.

Donald Kirkpatrick (1924 – 2014)

'Donald Kirkpatrick (1924 – 2014)' by Richard Griffin, Training Journal, July 2014

It was through this article that I learnt that Donald Kirkpatrick died in May and I decided to review this summary of his life and work.  Unlike some other areas of management, there are not too many generally accepted frameworks that can be used to discuss learning issues and this made Kirkpatrick almost a ‘household name’ to Learning & Development professionals.

MOOCs: Business as Usual

MOOCs: Business as Usual, the Economist, June 4^th 2014

Usually Economist articles are short and to the point; this one is certainly short but it misses a number of points.

Big Data

Big Data’ by Jonathan Kettleborough, Training Journal, June 2014 

I recently reviewed the first two articles in this series and promised a further review when the third one was published.  I was looking for more convincing evidence that ‘Big Data’, one of the latest corporate buzzwords, is a major issue for Learning & Development professionals.  This third and final article failed to convince me.

The Trouble with Europe - book review

‘The Trouble with Europe’ by Roger Bootle, published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing

As I read through this book and considered the author’s increasingly convincing arguments against the European Union, I began asking myself if this could possibly be an unbiased opinion.  Surely Roger Bootle must have been commissioned by UKIP to justify their policy of withdrawal.  But then I looked again at the author’s credentials as one of the UK’s leading economic commentators. 

Ulrich's impact on HR

‘Ulrich comes of age’ in HR Director and ‘Critics of Ulrich Model ignore new progress’ in HR Magazine

I have chosen to review these two short articles because they follow on from a survey carried out by Orion Partners, a relatively small firm of consultants in the field of talent management.  This organisation has successfully raised its profile by carrying out a survey of the HR functions of 40 businesses, most of which are large and global operations.

Big Data

‘Big Data’ by Jonathan Kettleborough, Training Journal, April and May 2014

I am reviewing here the two articles that have appeared in the Training Journal these last two months and will follow up with a further review when the third one is published next month.  I chose the topic because, as the first article admits, ‘Big Data’ is one of the latest corporate buzzwords, usually linked to ‘analytics’, which seems to be a fancy word for analysis.  I was interested to see how the author would make a connection with Learning & Development.

The Future of Business Learning

Earlier this year we canvassed the opinions of our contacts and clients to gauge if there were any identifiable trends in The Future of Business Learning.

We received feedback from leading learning organisations from AstraZeneca and Barclays to Unilever and Xerox.  We believe this sample to be in the vanguard of best practice and likely to be well informed about the challenges and changes now facing learning professionals.  

Click here to download the report of our findings

The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time

The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time by Verne Harnish, published by Fortune

This is the sort of book that busy managers will appreciate; short, easy to read and providing the sort of knowledge that can impress others, both at the dinner table and the Board Meeting.  For the author/editor – well known as a management journalist and speaker – producing such a book must have been a relatively easy task; the hard part was persuading nine different writers to choose two examples of ‘great decisions’.

Half of Business Schools might be gone by 2020

‘Half of Business Schools might be gone by 2020’ by Patrick Clark, Business Week, March 14th 2014
There may be an element of overstatement in the headline but this article contains some valid reasoning and presents a powerful case.  It is meant to refer to US Business Schools but the arguments are equally relevant to the UK and the rest of Europe.  The smaller Business Schools, without the benefit of a strong brand, may fail and the reason is the growth of online learning.

‘Empowered’ - book review

‘Empowered’ by Anne Mulliner, published by Panoma Press

I should first of all declare an interest; the author is one of MTP’s associates involved in behavioural skills training.  In the past however our staff and associates have found out that such a status does not persuade me to be kind in my reviews; on the contrary it makes me expect more.  There is also the point that, of all the types of books that I am likely to be hard on, those of the ‘touchy feely’ variety are at the front.  And there is no doubt that there is a lot of touch and feel about Anne’s approach in this book.

Corporate Training is broken

‘Corporate Training is broken, so why are you still doing it?’ by Libby Drake, Training Journal, March 2014

This article asks a lot of questions but only provides a few of the answers.  It is however worth reading for anyone involved in designing learning solutions because it reminds us of what we should be striving for; that perfect blended learning programme where all attendees have been fully briefed by their line manager, have agreed their personal objectives and have completed their pre-course work. And afterwards they all go back to their jobs and transfer their learning, with the eager support of an engaged senior management.  Most learning professionals work towards this goal but also know how difficult it is to achieve.

Eight key trends for learning and development

Learning Technologies 2014: Eight key trends for learning and development

Personnel Today – February 2014

This article gives a brief summary of what was trending at the recent Learning Technologies Exhibition held at London Olympia on 29^th and 30^th January 2014. MTP also visited the event so we were interested to read an alternative view.

Those who can’t, teach

Those who can't, teach - Schumpeter, The Economist, 8th February 2014

Following the article ‘Build it and they may come’ in The Economist of 18th January, this week’s issue has another interesting piece by Schumpeter. It is a hard hitting article titled ‘Those who can’t, teach’ which suggests that business schools are poorly managed. Two reasons for this are identified.

HBR’s 10 Must Reads - book review

‘HBR’s 10 Must Reads’ published by the Harvard Business Review

This is the latest of twelve books in this series, which started over three years ago.  It is yet another example of Harvard Business Reviews’s well-known tendency to recycle its best articles, though this is no reason to reject such a potentially useful idea.  For anyone involved in business discussions, it is impressive to show a good overall understanding of what has been written on key management topics.  Therefore this review is not just about this particular book but also about the usefulness of the series as a whole.

Why Leadership Development Programs Fail

by Pierre Gurdjian, Thomas Halbeisen, and Kevin Lane from McKinsey Quarterly - Jan 2014

This article puts forward a straightforward - and to some extent simplistic - approach to the challenges of designing and delivering leadership training.  It does however cite interesting real-life examples of what went well and where mistakes were made.

Build it and they may come

An interesting article from The Economist this week titled ‘Build it and they may come’.  

Several prestigious business schools are investing vast sums building new facilities. These include The Kellogg School of Management in Illinois $200m, Stanford Business School $345 million, Columbia Business School (in New York) $600m, Judge Business School in Cambridge $85m. Several prestigious business schools are investing vast sums building new facilities.

Downsides identified in the article: the demand for MBAs is ‘soft’ and distance learning technology may reduce the need/desire for participants to meet as often in one physical location.  

To MOOC or not to MOOC

‘To MOOC or not to MOOC’ by Bert De Coutere, Training Journal, January 2014

I have chosen this article to review because, as the author states early on, MOOC is the ‘new big thing’ in learning, even though its impact has so far been felt mainly in academic circles.  As I mentioned in a previous review, MOOC is an acronym that, on the face of it, seems to be the antithesis of everything that MTP stands for.  ‘Massive Open Online Courses’ does not bring to mind the essential elements of learning that our clients are looking for – targeted, tailored, carefully designed solutions.  Only the reference to ‘online’ seems to fit with modern trends.

What makes strategic decisions different?

‘What makes strategic decisions different’ by Phil Rosenweig, Harvard Business Review, November 2013

There are the second of two interesting articles on strategic decision making in this edition of Harvard Business Review.  The author of this article is a professor of strategy at the Swiss Business School IMD and he starts the article by making two complaints.  First that advances in understanding of business decisions have not resulted in improvements in practice (or, knowing the way business school professors think, that no-one has been listening to what he says!).  Second he argues that most research goes into simple quantifiable decisions without sufficient emphasis on the more challenging long term strategic judgments.

Deciding how to decide

‘Deciding how to decide’ by Hugh Courtney, Dan Lovallo and Carmina Clarke, Harvard Business Review, November 2013

This is the first of two interesting articles on strategic decision making in this edition of Harvard Business Review.  This first article has strong connections with McKinsey; Courtney worked for them before becoming a US business school professor and Lovallo advises McKinsey while also working as a professor of strategy at Sydney University.