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Conferences
& articles previously published by the researchers
This
section gives details of presentations made in the course of the
project together with some related publications by team members.
The
project originally started with a public event debating whether
accountants actually add value. The event was run as a mock trial
airing some of the challenges facing accountants. It tried to address
in a 'full and frank' debate some of the charges typically levied
at accounting by the people that use financial information.
The
'Court Case'
The
project started with a CIMA branch event, debating as a mock trial,
the charge 'Do accountants add value to British industry?' To read
some of the issues involved see thumbsketch below click the following
links.
Thumbsketch
Professor
Richard Wilson, for the prosecution, argued that accountants
have an introspective outlook and fail to make use of opportunities
to engage in wealth creation.
Ian
Herbert, defending, contended that whilst accounting
has much to offer, but the value of accounting information is
restricted by short-term corporate planning horizons. In mitigation,
expert witnesses from local businesses contended that there is
a case for improving financial literacy and understandingb amongst
management.
The
verdict was something of an 'honourable draw' or at
least that's how the protagagonists opted to remember it
- in a true gentlemanly fashion. However, the judge, a member
of The University of Derby's Division of Law summed up by
saying that 'the case had raised serious issues which
must be addressed if accounting was not to become terminally
moribund'. He suggested that both 'sides' of the issue
accountants and their 'customers' - the users of accounting
information must do more to find common ground and common
understand for the benefit of 'UK plc'
Post
evening note
What
wasn't so apparent in the evening's debate was that one
side (the defence) was talking about 'accounting' the process
of drawing up financial information and the prosecution
was talking about the problems of using 'accountants' the
people who draw up accounts. |
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Many
of the 150+ audience that took attended this event commented that
it was refreshing to have a forum where academics and practioners
could debate some of the fundamental issues of accounting and
finance in an open way and particularly in a way that enabled
students and non-specialists could be involved and learn. The
world wide web seemed ideally suited to this.
Hence,
the inception of this research project back
Conference
Presentations
After the 'court case' the next step was to test the idea at a conference
of accounting academics.
For
slides of the presentation at the Management Accounting Research
Group (MARG) Conference held at Aston University UK September 2000
click below.
Finally, our
findings were presented to ACCA Members - Harrow Branch 7.2.05
and then a discussion
on the evolving role of the financial function was led by the research
team at the ICAEW Financial Director's Conference 7.10.05 - click
here for slides
top
Related articles previously published by the research team
The researchers
have individually been involved in a number of aspects of the role
of finace over the years. A sample of articles appears below.
- IFAC
- Management Accounting in the year 2004 By Professor. R.M.S.
Wilson. Whilst, 2004 may not now be far away, this article written
in 1999 identifies and relects upon many of the issues that were
of concern then and to a large extent are still relevant.
- Derby
County Football Club Interview By Ian Herbert. The financial
affairs of football clubs is very much in the headlines these
days. This article published in CIMA's Management Accounting records
the candid views of A Financial Director with anything but run-of-the-mill
challenges.
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