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.

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.

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…..

The CIMA World Conference is now about to start and I am pleased to say that it will see the official launch of a report that I have blogged about a few times already this year.  It's on the theme of long-term business sustainability.

The United National Global Compact (UNGC) meeting in London recently focused on anti-corruption initiatives globally.  In recognition of the overall cost to business, and wider economy and society of corrupt practices, principle ten of the UNGC is: "Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery."  

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.

In the past decade, there’s been a strategic shift in business management to embrace sustainability. The need for reporting and communicating the efforts being made has come alongside this trend.

Sustainability is no longer a voluntary part of business operations; a nice-to-have and “let’s do a bit of good on the side”. It’s become a business imperative with a focus on strategic implementation and sustainability becoming a way to create competitive advantage within the corporate workforce.

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.

Earlier this week  I corresponded with a veteran of the City (i.e. someone who has survived the downturn) who described himself and his colleagues as gladiators - entering battle every day, enduring existence in a high risk environment – and feeling more bloodied than pre-2008. 

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.

When Nick Leeson, the Singapore based trader who brought down Barings Bank in 1995, realised the losses he was hiding were hours away from being discovered, he left a simple note on his desk.  And fled.  "I'm sorry" read the note and in a radio show last week, the Reunion, the BBC brought together Nick with his ex-boss for the first time when he apologised face to face.  In the show a former colleague, decribed Nick as "struck by a mixture of greed and fear for a number of yea

If a “wrong doing” in your organisation came to light, would it be a road-bump, in which management would quickly figure where things had gone wrong and put corrective action into place straight away, drawing lessons for the better running of the organisation in the future? 

Now it’s normally my esteemed colleague, Nick Topazio who talks about company reporting, but I’ve managed to stick my oar in of late on account of getting involved in governance reporting.

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.

The irony is not lost on many that the current ethical scandal that is fuelling global media, the story making front pages around the world and clogging all that is cyber, is indeed about the media itself.  The story is the story. And the story is of ethics.

The News of the World (NoW) the most profitable UK Sunday newspaper with the highest circulation and  known as the most read paper in the English language was dramatically closed yesterday by News International.

At 00.01 this morning, 1 July 2011, illicitly received or gifted golden coaches may well turn into pumpkins, or certainly costly liabilities, as the UK Bribery Act came into force, highlighting the continued global fight against corruption.

The golf fanatics amongst you will know that Celtic Manor in Wales, UK was the venue for the Ryder Cup in 2010.  Well, on 5-6 July, it will play host to another golf competition - although I suspect that the standard might not be quite so high.

But before we are allowed on to the golf course, over 150 CFOs and FDs from across Europe will be getting together to network and discuss current challenges facing finance leaders at the CFO Event.

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.