Accounting in the Knowledge Era

Last night, I gave a talk to accounting students at the MBA program at Simmons College. I plan to post a recording of the talk at some point but, for now, you can see the slides accounting-in-knowledge-era

Nasty Surprises

The news has been full of nasty surprises in recent months. Troubles at financial institutions. Surprise losses at Southwest Airlines from fuel price hedges. Lead paint on toys sold by Mattel.

Of course, all these surprises have external causes but that’s not enough of an answer or an excuse. It would be very dangerous to write off the many nasty surprises facing us today as out of the control of Read more

Much Reviled Financial Innovation

One of the stories of the past couple months has been the dissection of the financial instruments that fueled the boom and bust of the mortgage market. I want to add my two cents on the roots of the problem. Because it is not in the instruments themselves. It’s in how they were used. These kinds of financial transactions will not go away but they will hopefully be used more efficiently in the future.

There are countless sources on this subject but two good background pieces can be found Read more

Think like a farmer, act like a hunter

The title of this post comes from a piece by Jeffery Philips on using innovation consultants. He has a very good discussion of the many sides of innovation. The farmer has to build an organization that can produce new ideas and that knows what to do with them when they arise. The hunter needs to jump on an opportunity when it presents itself. He says:

Without the farming, there’s no ready stock of ideas in the pipeline. Without the hunter, there’s no recognition of the opportunity.

In my experience, people like the excitement of the hunt but their organization is not ready to create or leverage the opportunities that come along. Innovation is the strategic imperitive of the coming decade. Don’t go hungry.

Obama as a Management Innovator

Umair Haque has a great post here that talks about Obama as a radical management innovator. He says that the campaign built:

…a new kind of political organization for the 21st century. It differs from yesterday’s political organizations as much as Google and Threadless differ from yesterday’s corporations: all are a tiny handful of truly new, 21st century institutions in the world today.

He goes on to identify seven management lessons Read more

The Role of Intellectual Property in M&A

It is clear in this very thoughtful article in Mergers and Acquisitions that there is a growing appreciation of the role of intangibles in business. The article features a discussion among eight figures from the world of Intellectual Property (IP). Some of the themes that I saw in this discussion include:

Role of patents as a protector of value in acquisitions - IP represents the legal right to specific inventions or know-how. This is becoming an important feature of mergers and acquisitions. Acquiring companies need to Read more

Starting Today

Today seems like a good time to talk about the future. Yesterday, the United States elected a new president, Barack Obama. For months we have talked about the challenges that face our nation. Success is not guaranteed for our nation or our business community. We need to up the odds and strengthen the companies that form the foundation of our national economy. Starting today.

Where does the strength of our companies come from? Read more