Editorial

Citation

Bourne, M. (2005), "Editorial", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 9 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/mbe.2005.26709aaa.001

Editorial

In this issue we have adopted the new format for Measuring Business Excellence that we announced at the end of last year. So this issue has been subdivided into sections as follows:

• •

  Insight from research, reporting latest research findings that have implications for practice.

• •

  Insight from practice, reporting case studies, best practice examples and reflections from practice.

• •

  Focus on finance, which in this issue will provide insights and comments in the area of planning and budgeting.

• •

  News and events.

Insights from research

In this section, we start with Heinz Ahn’s paper based on his research in applying the balanced scorecard. One of the questions I often get asked is “why does the balanced scorecard have these four perspectives?”, to which there is no real answer beyond the fact that they are simple, practical and useful. Heinz Ahn’s paper suggests that companies should individualise their scorecards and adopt perspectives, which are most appropriate for the organisations’ circumstances and needs. He also goes onto describe how this might be done and gives a case study example of applying such an approach in a German pharmaceutical company.

The second paper, by Dr Herbert Robinson, Professor Chimay J. Anumba, Dr Patricia M. Carrillo and Dr Ahmed M. Al-Ghassani from Loughborough University in the UK, reports on their research into the use of performance measurement frameworks (such as the scorecard and EFQM) and highlights a number of key considerations when implementing such approaches.

Insights from practice

In this section we have two papers which reflect on practice and a case study. We start with Professor Andrew Chambers’ paper, subtitled “Do non-executive directors add value?” based on his recent inaugural lecture at London South Bank University. In his talk he held up an example of the “ideal” non-executive board filled with the great and the good from the city, law and even academe – then promptly showed how closely this reflected Enron’s board of directors. Andrew has a wealth of knowledge and practical experience and puts across his points in an entertaining manner.

In our second paper, Dr A.K. Sharma and Balvir Talwar look at corporate social responsibility from a modern and a Vedic approach. They use Vedic economic philosophy and examples of good practice from many companies based in the Indian sub-continent to enrich the concept of corporate social responsibility. Too often we look at concepts from a “Western” perspective and this paper takes a very different approach, interweaving Vedic philosophy into ethics and business practice.

The third paper, by Dr Chris Speechley, looks at the changing nature of leadership. He argues that there is a new phenomenon – the complex remote international team. These teams need a difference management approach and more importantly, leadership, to be successful. In this paper Chris describes his intervention in a multi-national pharmaceutical company and the impact of the changes.

Focus on finance

In Focus on finance, I have included a short reflective piece on improving the planning and budgeting process based on my experiences over the last three years researching and talking to practitioners who are grappling with the subject. Since Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser’s recent book Beyond Budgeting published by Harvard University Press, there has been a flurry of activity in this field. But with software developments I think the field is going to move forward rapidly again. The second piece in the focus section, Richard Barrett discusses the concept of predictive planning. He argues that to move from traditional planning and budgeting to a quicker and more predictive process, we need to integrate the financial data held in the company with the non-financial information. He describes the software needs for taking such and approach and the advantages this integration brings to organisations with such a system. Finally, we have included a very recent discussion between experts facilitated by Juergen Daum involving Dr Rainer Gunz of Borealis, Jean-Daniel Luthi of Nestlé and Steve Morlidge of Unilever, on Beyond Budgeting and avoiding the annual trap of the fixed budget.

Planning and budgeting developments are therefore far from dead and there is continued activity and developments in this area. We are expecting further contributions in the next issue of Measuring Business Excellence.

News and events

In the News and events sections we have briefly highlighted a number of changes that are about to happen. The merger and consolidation talks between the UK-based accounting institutes (CIMA, ICAEW and CIPFA) are still topical at the time of writing and will have implications beyond the UK. Changes to International Financial Reporting Standards will impact larger companies in the EU and the legal requirements for Operating and Financial Reviews are still unclear. In the events section in this issue we have highlighted events in the UK, Spain and the USA and will expand this section over time.

Mike Bourne