S&P Cuts France’s Credit Rating by One Notch to Double-A – WSJ.com. It isn’t a great surprise to David or I that France’s credit rating is being downgraded yet again. And this won’t be the last time either. As the French government resists ongoing re-allocation of resources (i.e., people) away from what they’ve done in […]
In this interview, David and I present the case for managing the cash and working capital of the company for long-term value. This sometimes contrasts quite sharply with working capital practices in many companies.
In this interview, Kevin discusses the role of value creation in causing the global financial crisis and in management generally, and makes the case for more wide spread, and higher level of integrity, use of valuation techniques to support decision-making
From today’s FT: The top US securities regulator has warned that technology companies with lots of users will not always translate them into large profits, in comments that appeared to be timed to coincide with the eve of Twitter’s much-anticipated initial public offering. Mary Jo White, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, questioned whether […]
According to Sky News: A hospital trust could face a police investigation over allegations staff were “pressured or bullied” into falsifying data relating to cancer patients. A number of cancer patients suffered “undue delays” at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said. CQC inspectors found that there were “inaccuracies” with […]
The typical audit report is signed off with just the name of the auditing firm and the office from where the audit was managed. For example, you will see something like “PricewaterhouseCooper”, and underneath “New York”. Floyd Norris, who writes about accounting and finance for The New York Times, discusses some fascinating academic research on […]
Kevin and I have found many books to helpful in writing The Blue Line Imperative. What follows is the first of what promises to be many recommendations for worthy books that touch on at least one of the themes addressed in our own book. Capex Excellence: Optimizing Fixed Asset Investments, by H. Hansen et al. […]
In The Blue Line Imperative, we explain the inherent measurement problems by citing Goodhart’s Law, which is an economics analog to Heisenberg’s famous uncertainly principle. The idea is that by measuring a system, whether electrons in orbit or operating margin for a business division or anything else for that matter, we disturb it. Therefore, the […]
Kevin and I devoted considerable attention in our book to the issue of hierarchy in organizations. We argue that the presence of steep hierarchy can impede the flow of signals from customers, suppliers and other collaborators. It can also lead to perhaps the greatest sin of all in management–decision making by opinion, and not by […]
Two nurses in Staffordshire (England) are under investigation for having misreported waiting times in their hospital’s emergency room. For example, to get patients out of the waiting room (and therefore classify them as having been served), the nurses would transfer them to rooms that were not ready to receive patients. Their motivation appears to have […]
The Blue Line Imperative: What Managing for Value Really Means