I recently was at an United Nations Global Compact meeting
with a focus on supply chain issues.   Reflecting the growing importance of supply chain gobally the event was standing room only.  One of the participants, involved in procurement for a high value global brand, sought to ascertain the credentials of the factories they were using in China   Each of the 20 factories had been fully audited.  The system showed that. 

Will you be able to evidence integrity in your exams?   Fact or Fiction is a new report compiling discussions from four markets in Europe, Asia and Africa outlining the skills needed to be a successful business partner.   As finance partners more frequently with different functional units it is important to re-affirm independence and objectivity. 

With P3 resit papers around the corner how comfortable are you with your ethical performance.  Are you going for gold or are you likely to be in the dark side of the grey zone, feeling shame alongside those from recent corporate scandals for not acting in the public interest.

There are lots of resources to help you do the right thing in your exams, and the right thing professionally.

This week’s news headlines are full of Olympics glory.  It is a relief to have front pages celebrating the achievements of the world’s finest athletes, instead of unpicking the latest scandal arising from corporate misdemeanours. 

As the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed, I’ve recently moved jobs (being a CIMA member really does open doors career-wise) so the focus of my blog will be less on exams and more on management accounting in practice, keeping you up to date with what’s going on.

When was the last time you faced an ethical dilemma at work? And what did you do about it? As a CIMA member or student you are obliged to take action. To do so you should ensure you are familiar with the Code of Ethics, which helps guides you to do the right thing.

In our upcoming CGMA report on ethics, our members  and students globally reported that human rights had risen in importance as an issue of priority for business.  Reflecting this, March saw the launch of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles. 

I’m a fan of Sheryl Sandberg – the COO of Facebook and much of the reason that, coming into its IPO, the company is valued at up to $100 billion.

Let’s face it, Mark Zuckerberg might have had a great idea – but he didn’t know how to turn it into a great company. Sandberg did and that’s exactly what she accomplished. She took the concept and turned it into a juggernaut.

A lot of how she did so was by looking for, at and to women – within the company and in its partnerships with advertisers and other revenue-generating relationships.

In Rebecca’s recent blog she highlighted how some candidates seem ethically challenged.

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.

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.

It is a big help if we have a choice of school, distance and home studying. Being able to attend to classes might be very beneficial for many of us. I have experience in both home and school studying and I would say that both are valuable.

By putting myself in different situations I learnt not only from my books but also about myself. I am able to identify my strengths and weaknesses and work with them. But what should I do when, after careful selection of school and considerable amount of private funds spent, I meet my disappointment in the figure of the teacher?

Johannesburg is hosting the 4^th SA Innovation Summit at the end of this month and it’s raising the question, will innovation creep, crawl or leap out of the cradle of mankind?

The combination of a bachelor’s or master’s degree and the professional CIMA qualification can give a powerful boost to your career. For this reason, we've been negotiating with a number of institutions to support and accredit the CIMA curriculum as part of a flexible and fit-for-purpose range of tailored degrees. I'm excited to be able to tell you that a number of new partnerships have now been confirmed.

As a software start-up building on the Azure cloud, we’re part of the Microsoft BizSpark community. At their last event, there was live video streaming and Twitter interaction throughout. You didn’t need to be in the room to be part of the event and its conversations.

Lagos, Nigeria, July 11, 2011. After circling the capital city for an hour waiting for the down to pour its last drop I finally arrived on Nigerian Soil. Fresh from my MBA class on Operations Management I now viewed the world in terms of process flows, bottle necks and cycle times, so you can imagine my glee at the opportunity to informally audit a process flow from hell, enter Lagos Terminal 1.

Those that know me know that I like to tread the boards with a local amateur dramatic society.  Nothing too serious - pantomimes, murder mysteries and farces are the order of the day - a far cry from the more serious stuff you see on some of the West End stages in London.  Nevertheless, we have quite a strong following and everyone seems to have a great time.  I have been persuaded to provide a link to Purley Players (check out my Lion in The Wizard of Oz) although I'm not expecting any phone calls!