Information and Accountants in the Role of Strategic Planning

This article on strategic planning practices is based upon a field study of five world-class companies. The strategic planning practices discussed in this article were extracted from the corporate environment. The information contained in this article, however, is of value alike to CPAs assisting with the enhancement of strategic planning practices in corporations and public accounting firms

Your EQ Skills: Got What it Takes?

Your EQ skills: got what it takes? So you thought the CPA exam was your last test? Read on. Question: Is success in life and career determined primarily by rational intelligence (the IQ or intelligence quotient) or emotional intelligence (the EQ or emotional quotient)? In other words, what\u27s more important: intelligence or intuition? Historically the professional accounting literature has placed little emphasis on behavioral issues such as EQ, although human behavior underlies most of what is written and taught about professional accounting. Now managers place increased value on behavioral skills that help people in the workplace. Look at this statistic: The productivity of one-third of American workers is measured by how they add value to information. Doesn\u27t that describe CPAs exactly? This article will examine the ways in which EQ is crucial to CPAs\u27 success and how they can cultivate EQ if they haven\u27t got a lot of it. The AICPA and the Institute of Management Accountants recognize that emotional intelligence skills are critical for the success of the accounting profession. In CPA Vision 2011 and Beyond: Focus on the Horizon (www.cpavision.org), the AICPA identifies emotional ..

Strategic Planning at Five World-Class Companies

Most successful executives know that strategic planning offers the best way to deal with their changing world. Information is central to successful strategic planning. A field study of 5 world-class companies revealed details regarding information used for strategic planning and the role of management accountants in this process. Key executives were interviewed at: 1. Johnson Controls, 2. Coors Brewing Co., 3. Schering-Plough, 4. Xerox, and 5. 3M Company. The executives were interviewed to find out how their companies did strategic planning. Issues addressed included the distinction between strategic and long-range planning, the strategic planning process, information used for strategic planning, and the role of accounting in strategic planning. Results of the field study are discussed

A case for post-purchase support programs as part of Minnesota's emerging markets homeownership initiative

The State of Minnesota’s Emerging Markets Homeownership Initiative (EMHI) seeks to boost homeownership rates among Minnesota’s “emerging markets,” defined as households of color, non-English speaking households, and households in which English is a second language. Many of the implementation strategies in the EMHI Business Plan address general barriers to homeownership and should increase the number of emerging market households that become first-time homeowners. EMHI doesn’t stop there, however. It also recognizes the need to sustain homeownership after initial purchase, in keeping with growing evidence that the cliché “once an owner, always an owner” is far from true, especially for minority and low-income households. In particular, the EMHI Business Plan includes a strategy for developing and implementing a post-purchase services network that will enhance their prospects for successful, sustainable homeownership. As a foundation for the implementation effort, this report explains why Minnesota is in a good position to use post-purchase support programs to pursue EMHI’s goals.

Targeting foreclosure interventions: an analysis of neighborhood characteristics associated with high foreclosure rates in two Minnesota counties

This study examines the statistical association of foreclosure sales with social, economic and housing variables measured at the Census tract level for two purposes of interest to foreclosure mitigation practitioners —- to assess whether it is feasible to identify in advance neighborhoods likely to have high rates of foreclosure, and to explore the socioeconomic traits of high-foreclosure neighborhoods so as to design appropriate mitigation programs. We collected data on foreclosure sales in 2002 from the sheriff’s departments of Hennepin and Ramsey counties, the two core counties that comprise the Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA. We find that several factors commonly associated with high foreclosure sale rates could have correctly identified, in advance, most neighborhoods with high rates of mortgage foreclosure. To guide the design of foreclosure mitigation programs, we also present evidence that foreclosure risks in our two counties were highest in neighborhoods with elevated credit risk indicators and a high proportion of homeowners who are recent minority buyers or young. We show that an accurate credit risk variable is among the best predictors of foreclosure and also critically affects our multivariate analysis of factors associated with foreclosure. To limit social losses associated with foreclosures, we conclude that consideration should be given to enhancing public access to data on mortgages, foreclosures, and foreclosure risk factors, especially the neighborhood distribution of credit scores.

Strategic Performance Measurement in an Air Force Logistics Organization

Strategic performance measures are being used to define and communicate longer term planning imperatives to organizational members and external stakeholders. These measures are designed to support the concept of a strategic management process, in which the progress towards strategic goals, and also the goals are continuously reviewed and updated. The measures are linked through associations and communicate the strategy as a series of hypothesized cause and effect relationships. One such performance measurement system, the balanced scorecard, describes the organizational strategy with reference to four common organizational perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Process and Growth and Development. A case study is performed to produce a balanced scorecard for a base level Air Force logistics organization. The four perspectives were found to provide a good framework for the squadron\u27s strategic concerns. More research is required to gauge the effectiveness of the strategic management process

Mechanochemical Topological Defects in an Active Nematic

We propose a reaction-diffusion system that converts topological information of an active nematic into chemical signals. We show that a curvature-dependent reaction dipole is sufficient for creating a system that dynamically senses topology by producing a scalar order parameter possessing local extrema coinciding with $\pm\frac{1}{2}$ defects. We consider two possible physical origins of such dipoles: (i) curved molecules that preferentially bind to nematic regions matching their curvature and (ii) nematic molecules that become reaction dipoles when deformed. We demonstrate the behavior of this system for stationary defects and in the presence of hydrodynamic flows as seen in active nematics. The model can help generate testable hypotheses for biological phenomena and motivate the creation of bioinspired materials that dynamically couple nematic structure with biochemistry