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Welcome
and background to the case
In these days
of accelerating change, the organisations that survive are those
who are able to create a culture of continual challenge to all their
business processes. To say that a function is merely necessary,
perhaps as a result of statutory obligation, is no longer adequate.
the process necessary to ensure compliance with statutory obligations,
for example financial accounting, can largely be outsourced nowadays.
Every function, department, and activity must also be able to demonstrate
that their work: supports the overall organisation; is in line with
the corporate mission and, wherever possible, adds measurable economic
value to business processes (economy, efficiency and effectiveness).
In the past
20 years or so, accountancy has been in the ascendancy. Against
a backdrop of increasing market and operating complexity, managers
have demanded ever more information for planning, control and decision
making. Now though times are changing. Much of the mechanical routines
of accounting are being automated through the application of more
robust, company-wide management information systems. Made possible
by advancements in computer technology and software packages such
as Enterprise Planning Systems.
The question
of whether the inherent techniques of accounting actually contribute
to the overall purpose of the company, or else are simply an unnecessary
burden, is now creeping onto the corporate agenda. Increasingly
finance directors must be prepared not only to justify their department's
present existence, but should also be able to persuade their management
colleagues that accountants can go further and be effective team
players. Thus contributing to the creation of economic value added.
This meeting
is a novel attempt to air the arguments for and against the role
of the modern accountant. We hope that you will enjoy the debate
and find its contents entertaining and thought provoking.
The 'bundle'
of papers outline of proceedings has been compiled to provide guidance
to the jury on technical matters during the course of the trial
and also for the benefit of students who may wish to pursue some
of the references to the academic research that will be cited. Also
included, is an outline of the people involved in the court process
tonight and some background of the University of Derby.
Participants
Taking part
in the proceedings tonight are:
Judge: - Kevin
Bampton
Clerk to the court: - Fiona Church
Representing the prosecution:
Professor Richard
Wilson - Loughborough University Business School
Steven Boxall
- Boxall, Jones and Company
Andrew Hopkin
- Assistant Director of Environmental Services,
Derby City Council
Bill Murphy - The Derbyshire Business School
Representing the defence:
Ian Herbert
- The Derbyshire Business School
Neil Gray - Managing Partner, Pannell Kerr Forster (Nott'm)
George Tansely - Acting Chief Executive of Business Link
Southern Derbyshire
Neil Wilson - Interfleet Technology Ltd.
Andy Bell -
Corporate Business Manager - National
Westminster Bank plc
Members
of the Jury:
Phillip Attenborough
- Garrendale Systems Ltd
Vic Brookes - SDC Training
Zoe Cunningham - Business Link
Susan Daldorth - Pendragon.
Roger Finney - Fernly Business Services
Fred Forshaw - James Forshaw & Son
Peter Galloway - Garrendale Ltd
John Glanfield - Rolls Royce
Chris Madge - In Business Reservations ltd
Simon Walkden - First Procurement Ltd
Personal
profile of participants
Kevin Bampton LLB (Hons) - School of Humanities, Languages and
Law
Formerly a
legal advisor for the UN Political Affairs Department, British Council
and Overseas Development Agency, Kevin has published articles on
subjects including 'Constitution and the Entrenchment of Human rights:
No quick fixes'; 'The Democratic Transition in Malawi'; 'The Commonwealth
Judge and the international Bill of Rights' and 'Peacemaking: How
do they do that?'. Kevin is a Senior Lecturer and presently teaches
public law and conflicts of law.
Fiona Church
BA Law (Hons), MA, Cert Ed., MIM. - School of Humanities, Languages
and Law
Fiona has been
at the University of Derby since 1992 and worked in the Derbyshire
Business School before moving to the law division of her present
School where she is now Head of Division. Fiona current research
interest is Employment Law in Europe and she has published a number
of articles on this theme. She combines practical and academic experience
of both law and management in her consultancy work.
Professor
Richard Wilson FCMA FCCA FCIM- Loughborough University Business
School
We are privileged
to have the involvement of Professor Richard Wilson in the proceedings.
He enjoys an enviable record for academic achievement that was founded
upon a very practical and successful career in industry; including
time spent with two US-based multi-national enterprises.
He is Professor of Business Administration and Financial Management
in the Business School, Loughborough University. In addition, he
is a Visiting Professor in both the Business School and the School
of Financial Studies & Law at Sheffield Hallam University, as
well as having held Chairs at various other institutions. He has
been active as a consultant both in the UK and abroad, and has held
a number of non-executive directorships.
Professor Wilson
has written/edited some 38 books and contributed chapters to a further
26 books, as well as having written a wide range of papers, articles
and monographs on managerial topics. He has acted as a consulting
editor and series editor for two major publishers.
He has served
on standing committees and working groups of such bodies as CIMA,
ACCA, CIM and the Board of Accreditation of Accountancy Educational
Courses. He was the founding convenor of the British Accounting
Association's Special Interest Group on Accounting Education and
of the Management Accounting Practices Research Group.
His principal fields of enquiry are the occupational psychology
of financial careers; accounting education; and accounting for strategic,
marketing and organisational control.
Steven Boxall
Bsc. FNAEA - Boxall, Jones and Company
Steve says
that he's a Derby man born and bred! He worked for an estate agency
that was taken over by the Halifax in 1986. He was appointed a Director
of Halifax Property Services but preferring the challenge of independence
he left in 1989 and set up his own agency.
Andrew Hopkin
- Assistant Director of Environmental Services, Derby City Council
Andrew has
worked in local government for over 20 years. He is presently the
Chief Environmental Health Officer for the whole of the Derby City
area. And for the statisticians that includes protecting 230,000
people! He is presently awaiting the results of an MBA which he
has been studying at the Derbyshire Business School.
William
Murphy - The Derbyshire Business School
Born in South Yorkshire, Bill studied Geography as a first degree,
before changing tack and going on to a Masters at Bradford, in which
he specialised in corporate management. He then joined Doncaster
Metropolitan Borough Council where he completed the examinations
of the Charter Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. He joined
Nottingham Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University) in 1984,
moving to the University of Derby in 1990. At Derby he led the Division
of Accounting for seven years, before taking the opportunity to
concentrate on furthering his interests in business research as
School Research Co-ordinator.
Bill's publications
include: game theory and investment appraisal; high technolgy issues
in small firms; production planning and control in small firms,
and social construction in the National Health Service. Bill is
presently working on the "Best Value Initiative" - a collaborative
qualitative study with Amber Valley Borough Council. And "Financial
Literacy", an Accounting Education Research Centre project
with staff from Loughborough University Business School. And did
he also mention he used to play football with a young man called
Kevin Keegan!
Ian Herbert MBA ACMA DipM - The Derbyshire Business School
A past President
of the CIMA Nottingham, Derby and District Branch, Ian is a Senior
Lecturer with The Derbyshire Business School. He entered higher
education in 1990 after a varied career in accountancy, marketing
and finally general management spanning 17 years. He specialises
in teaching strategic management accountancy and organisational
development. His current research interests concern the role of
management accountants in empowerment processes and the links between
knowledge management and the learning organisation. He is a CIMA
Quality Through Partnership Assessor and an Examiner for the Chartered
Institute of Certified Accountants.
Neil Gray
BA FCA - Managing Partner, Pannell Kerr Forster (Nott'm)
Originally
from Nottingham, Neil qualified with Spicer and Peglar in 1983,
becoming a partner in 1988 at the age of 33. He became a fellow
of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in
1993.
He was appointed as the Managing Partner of the Liverpool office
of Pannell Kerr Forster in 1990 and moved to head up their Nottingham
in 1995. With 11 partners, 110 staff and a turnover of £80m,
Nottingham is the largest office of PKF outside London. As well
as managing the overall development of the office, Neil works for
a range of owner managed businesses and small plcs, specialising
in corporate finance, acquisitions and mergers.
Pannell Kerr Forster is the 8th largest firm of accountants with
a world-wide fee income of $1.2bn.
George Tansely
FCMA - acting Chief Executive of Business Link - Southern Derbyshire
George has
had a long and varied career in business, including being the Managing
Director of a company in the East Midlands. With his colleagues
at Business Link he now enjoys passing on his experience to growing
business in southern Derbyshire.
Neil Wilson
BSc (Hons) CEng FIMechE AMIEE - Operations Director, Interfleet
Technology Ltd
Neil is a qualified
Mechanical Engineer with 25 years' experience in the railway industry,
with particular knowledge of the design, development, manufacture
and maintenance of railway vehicles and on-track plant and machinery.
A graduate
of North Staffordshire Polytechnic he completed an engineering apprenticeship
with English Electric at Stafford.
He has undertook
research and development for the Advanced Passenger Train, led research
and development of the crash performance of railway vehicles. As
a manager he has led the British Railways Board's Bogie & Suspension
section and the InterCity Mechanical Systems team, with responsibility
for bogies, suspensions, wheelsets, vehicle dynamics, braking, vehicle
structures and mechanical transmissions.
Neil is a Co-Founder
Director of Interfleet Technology Ltd which was formed in a Management
Buyout (MBO) from the British Railways Board in March 1996.
In his present
role he is responsible for the operating performance of Interfleet
Technology Ltd, a consultancy company providing engineering services
to the railway industry.
Responsible
for the recruitment and retention of the resources to deliver the
engineering services (currently 110 permanent engineers, 40 associate
engineers and 30 other staff), the quality of the services delivered,
the health and safety of staff and the training and development
of staff. An analysis of Neil's time in a typical week is as follows:
30% of time spent on engineering.
30% of time spent on recruitment and staff matters.
30% of time spent on meeting clients and business development.
10% of time spent on day to day administration.
But as he says
"no week is ever typical in this job!".
Andrew Bell
- Corporate Business Manager - National Westminster Bank plc
Andy joined
NatWest Bank from school in his home town of Grimsby and has stayed
with the company for the past 26 years. During this time he has
experienced many different positions and roles throughout the UK.
In addition to positions in mainstream banking, Andy was appointed
Regional Manpower Planning Manager - East Region, from 1992 to 1994,
being responsible for control of staffing levels across the Bank's
eastern region, covering a total of 4500 employees. He also spent
a year on secondment with the Boston Consultancy Group in London,
working on projects covering service and delivery issues within
Nat West.
In 1996, his
rising career brought him to Derby, as Manager of the Business Centre.
Here he is responsible for the delivery of financial services to
small businesses between £100,000 and £1m turnover.
This role includes the provision of lending facilities, business
guidance and counselling on wide range of issues affecting small
businesses.
He is thus
well qualified to act as an expert witness for the defence tonight
on the expectations of financial markets.
Supporting
tonight's events:
The Chartered
Institute of Management Accountants is holding this event in
conjunction with The Derbyshire Business School, and the Institute
of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
The Derbyshire Business School 
The Derbyshire
Business School is the largest school in the University of Derby
with approximately 4,000 students on postgraduate, undergraduate
and professional programmes. It employs over 90 full and part time
lecturers and support staff. More recently, the School has developed
a growing research base and a widening presence in overseas markets.
The Division of Accountancy, is one the largest subject divisions
in the School with 17 qualified accountants, plus a number of part
time staff and research students.
In common with
the rest of the Business School, the majority of staff members in
the Accountancy Division have a variety of both industrial and educational
work experiences. This combination of practical and academic training
is reflected in our emphasis on applied research activities. The
Division has recently been awarded two CIMA research grants, plus
a number of other grants from commercial organisations. The key
themes of our present research focus is the role of management accountants
in organisations, and specifically the way in which the finance
function can add value to business operations.
Although it
is one of the youngest universities in the UK, since its creation
in 1993, The University of Derby has been growing rapidly and with
over 25,000 students. It is now one of the largest institutions
of higher education in the UK following its merger with High Peak
College and the expansion of its extension in Israel.
The School
of Humanities, Languages and Law
We are grateful
to the Law Division for its help in staging tonight's event. The
Division offers a full range of high quality programmes at undergraduate
and post-graduate levels on a full or part time basis including;
LLB
LLB with European Studies
LLB with modern languages
B.A. Combined Studies (Law)
LLM/MA in Conflict Studies and Dispute Resolution
The Division
is also involves in in-company/consultation on legal issues such
as employment law up-dating, property law, Human Rights Act, medical
negligence, etc.. Short courses on these subjects are also offered,
together with scenario based simulations, such as we shall see tonight,
to assist in testing key issues or preparing individuals to give
evidence in real-life court proceedings.
Return to trial
summary
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