Last night CIMA student Howard Ebison became the latest of the remaining six candidates in the (UK) BBC TV series The Apprentice to be fired.

The 12-week competition sets the candidates through a gruelling series of tasks and the first prize is the job of Sir Alan Sugar's apprentice, with a six figure salary.

It’s been an exciting week here at CIMA, with the launch of the new CGMA (Chartered Global Management Accountant) designation. I was lucky enough to attend the launch event in London, which was linked via satellite to the New York event and transmitted to CIMA and AICPA offices around the world.

Just a reminder that if you haven't had a look yet, check out the new CGMA site at www.cgma.org as there is lots to discover.  My colleagues and I have been spending the last few months, beavering away to bring CGMAs some exciting new thought leadership reports and tools.

CIMA invites members and students to comment on IESBA’s proposed changes to the code of ethics for professional accountants to address conflicts of interest.

The final UN Global Compact meeting of the year focused upon Rio +20 UN conference on sustainable development, scheduled for June 2012.  The day the UK UNGC participants gathered in London, the announcement of the outcome of the Durban climate change meetings was still fresh.  After protracted negotiation a level of agreement was reached.  

Countdown has begun to the end of 2011 and it is not a cheery time. Although with developments in Europe the markets are steadying, Christine Lagarde’s dire warning of a lost decade looms large.

So, how is revision going for you? I am just about to finish my 2 week long revision course for strat. Most of it seems to make sense but we will see how long that lasts when the exam starts!

As usual I am most concerned about the enterprise strategy exam. This pillar has not been my favourite throughout my studies and I never really know whether I am answering the right question or not!

At the CIMA & Tomorrow’s company event last week the theme was Leading with Integrity: engaging hearts as well as minds.  As part of the Tomorrow’s Values series the session explored how employees align with a company’s values.   Values and trust are evidenced by people and their behaviours - not just by tickboxing around rules and policies – although such regulations are important in framing the environment and creating the push…..

Companies that have an integrated approach to sustainability take a holistic approach to the strategy and management of the organisation; one that not only considers financial performance, but also the risks and opportunities inherent in the impacts of the organisation on the environment and society in which it operates, as well as the impacts of environmental and societal trends on the organisation.

Still thinking about time – as you might remember I have been mulling over what the term ‘long-term’ actually means.  Pretty important for an organisation like CIMA which sets great store by the creation of long-term sustainable success  and also when you consider the core theme of the CIMA World Conference in South Africa towards the end of this month (Business in tomorrow

The 19th century philosopher Kierkergaard’s quote struck me as a challenge for finance  professionals -  linking existentialism and management accounting.   As our members and students are engaged in informing decision making based on the facts at hand, how best can they ensure that companies progress well, ensuring profitability and success whilst mitigating risk and damage in the longer term.  Not only in relation to the firm,  but to society at large, and to themselves personally.

In the current difficult economic conditions it's more important than ever to ensure that scarce resources are focussed on projects that will produce significant benefits.  Project portfolio management (PPM) is one way organisations can select projects and programmes that will deliver real value to the organisation.

‘Risk management and performance management need to work in synch’ is a statement with which very few would disagree, especially in the wake of recent corporate collapses. It is apparent that a number of organisations took disproportionate risk without considering reasonable, long-term performance expectations. But less clear is how this statement can be made to work in practice.

Water is more essential to business than oil. Like most natural resources, it is running dangerously low. As reduced access to water threatens successful business models, pioneering companies are taking action. In this new context, management accountants have the skills needed to help organisations create sustainable business models.

Efficiencies, risk management, analytics and forecasting are vital as companies review their environmental impact, and the business ramifications of diminishing resources.

This week saw the issues and opportunities raised by Enterprise 2.0 land squarely in the field of vision of management accountants as CIMA's Enterprise Web 2.0 event took place at the Microsoft London offices. Leading experts and practitioners in the enterprise 2.0 and cloud accounting space shared insights, and new research into the topic was unveiled.

Whichever team carries off the Jules Rimet trophy in Qatar 2022, the tournament will certainly be an unrivalled global opportunity for the Islamic world to showcase the blossoming of Islamic finance and Shari'ah compliant commerce.

Underpinned by a multi-disciplinary infrastructure of Islamic products and professionals, ranging from Islamic scholars, through catering to the media, the event is set to provide the most high profile focus yet on Islamic business achievement.

Over a rainy London weekend I caught up on some reading, including dipping in and out of Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book What the Dog Saw, a collection of his New Yorker essays from the last several years.  It seems even relaxing at home I am never far from business ethics, as one of the pieces, The Formula from 2007, focuses on the Enron collapse in a section looking at “flawed ways of thinking”. It may be old news, but the story remains instructive.

Social media is a rapidly-expanding technology which is generating a radically different way of doing business.

However, as we have read via Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock”, our inability to keep up with and adapt to rapid changes in technology can leave us all left behind and unable to benefit from it.

•    Is social media a Marmite product which we either love or loathe ?
•    Is this technology only for young people to benefit from?