Other
David Hancox, CIA, CGFM: Samurais and Accountants
By Paul Lee (OIG/HHS/OAS)
After watching his master sharpen his samurai blade
incessantly, a young apprentice finally decided to question him. The
apprentice asked, “Why do you always sharpen your blade when there is no
battle to be fought? Isn’t your blade sharp enough already?” His master
replied “One’s blade can never be sharp enough.” This reflection led to the
principle of Kaizen, or continuous improvement.
Kaizen, simply put, demands a continuing drive in search
of improvements and never settling on prior accomplishments. This principle
revolutionized the manufacturing industry. Japanese manufacturers adapted
this principle into their work culture, which helped them surpass and
nearly extinguished their competitors. In order to survive competitors
began using the principle in the same way as the Japanese manufacturers.
Similarly, the accounting industry is in a state where
change is essential. According to David Hancox’s presentation,
“Accountability, Ethics, Control Environment and Governance” (January 30,
2007), the accounting profession is failing because it is not meeting the
public’s expectations. In recent years, the public has become more aware of
accounting scandals like Enron and Tyco, but these were only a small
fraction of frauds that occurred.
Fraudulent activity can be hidden by collusion or by a
lack of controls within the workplace. In fact, management could hide
embezzlements by overriding the controls they are responsible for
enforcing. Mr. Hancox noted that having rules and policies do not suffice
if employees are not willing to follow them. He stated that fear within the
work environment is not measurable in accounting standards and often times
plays a large role in the amount undetected fraudulent activity.
Sarbanes-Oxley (the Act) was established during the aftermath of
high-profile fraud cases, but the profession is still hammering out
weaknesses within the Act, so we can’t rely on it completely yet.
Therefore, Mr. Hancox suggested that we need to revolutionize the
accounting profession.
Mr. Hancox described the importance of “re-imaging the
audit organization”. He quoted Tom Peters, a management consultant, who
expressed the importance of radical changes by stating “Incremental changes
are not sufficient. We must have dramatic changes in order to correct
dramatic problems.” Mr. Hancox then gave examples of how the accounting
profession could be improved. “Excellent management is important” and
“Being able to follow rules does not equal good management” were among the
examples. Also, “Managers need to be able to think outside of the box,”
“Interpersonal skills of management are important,” and “Excellence and
dynamics are important characteristics that can be found in people with
knowledge of various experiences” were included. Just as a samurai would
keep his blade sharp, Mr. Hancox emphasized the importance of keeping the
accounting profession sharp and astute. As a result we should continue to
sharpen our profession and never settle on prior accomplishments. There are
always improvements to be made.
Microsoft to Launch “MySpace” for
Accountants
Software giant Microsoft is preparing to launch an
online community site for financial professionals. This was revealed at the
company's Convergence conference in San
Diego this week. The site, which has yet to get a
formal name, is currently known as the Dynamics Live Beta Community.
Microsoft is referring to it as 'MySpace for financial pros.' The site is
aimed at corporate controllers, finance managers, finance staff and
accountants and includes blogs, forums, tagging, RSS syndication and other
community-specific features. --Excerpt from Larry Schlesinger, Accountancy
Age.
THE
INTERNET AND YOUR TELEPHONE
by Steven C. Neuman, CFE, CGFM - NYCAGA
Webmaster
718-935-4833
SNEUM@schools.nyc.gov
You may find the following websites
useful for:
Finding Someone's Personal
Telephone Number or Address.
·
www.switchboard.com
·
www.whitepages.com
·
www.555-1212.com
·
www.worldpages.com
Finding Someone's Name
&Address if You have only their phone number:
·
www.switchboard.com
·
www.555-1212.com
Finding Business Phone Numbers:
·
www.yellowpages.com
Finding Toll Free Phone Numbers:
·
www.anywho.com
You can also be notified in a window on
your computer screen of incoming phone calls while your phone line is
hooked up to your computer to surf the net. If you only have one phone line
and it is being used by your computer's modem, you can use the following
sites (at a cost) to get voicemail or internet call waiting so you won't
miss important calls while internet surfing.
·
www.buzme.com
·
www.callwave.com
(Most of the information listed above was
obtained from Newsday-Merritt)
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