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.

Is Tony Scales winning the war on fraud and corruption at Miralux? Is he deeply committed to a greener planet? Or is Tony, like many chief executives, caught in the trap of his own rhetoric? Find out in ‘Words in Action’, a new edrama series.

‘Words in Action’ – where rhetoric and reality collide! Learn about fighting fraud and corruption, and what real commitment to sustainability is.

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.  

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 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.

The Financial Reporting Council has published two reports that seek to increase transparency in corporate reporting.  Boards and Risk focuses on ensuring companies report primarily on strategic and major operational risks, rather than publish indiscriminate lists of risks that all companies face.  In Effective Company Stewardship - Next Steps, the FRC considers the case for narrative reporting standards, improvements to the reporting of strategy, risk and going concern together with a widening of the role of the audit committee and other aspects of the audit market

I am pleased to share with you some new guidance from the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) - Risk appetite and Risk tolerance.  This is one of those topics where it’s easy enough to understand the rationale for knowing what risks you are prepared to take in pursuit of strategic objectives, but putting the idea into practice is another matter altogether.

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? 

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.

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.

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.

"Global attention on fighting corruption is intensifying" was one of the conclusions at a CIMA seminar at St Paul's cathedral held earlier in April.  The introduction of the UK Bribery Act is part of this "crest of a wave" and the growth of anti-corruption initiatives and focus on ethical business are evident everywhere.  "Call to end corporate corruption" read the headlines in the Malaysian press the day I was presenting

Climate Week is happening this year between 21-27 March. It's an opportunity for UK companies (small and large) to share the positive steps they've taken to tackle and reduce climate change.

They run awards that celebrate the UK’s most innovative, effective, and ambitious organisations, communities and individuals and their outstanding efforts to combat climate change.

The year 2011 according to the Chinese Calendar is the year of the Rabbit.

For anybody in the business of managing risks, this could be positive or negative. If the year of the Rabbit is one of swiftness, then we need to be swift in our identification of those 'carrots' that could be driving our Rabbits underground to find the sweeter ones.

Hi,

As a finance manager, a large proportion of my role is spent with the management accounts. I find it frustrating that CIMA does not incorporate a Tax or Audit module. Does anybody else share in this belief?