Poor corporate governance allows economic crises and large business losses

Many experts rightly point out that one of the main causes of the economic crisis is the lack of corporate governance. But the solutions they advocate are stronger government regulation and stricter reporting requirements. Corporate regulation is not corporate governance.

How much more will corporations spend conforming to corporate regulations, before we realize that the whole approach to corporate governance is wrong? Today corporations measure and report contrived overlaid structures, rather than the actual business. Corporations govern by enforcing policies and rules, instead of governing approved business strategies and plans. Corporations and authorities address the symptoms of the corporate governance problem from the governance side with more rules and regulations, instead of solving the problem from the corporate side, by organizing and managing the business. We are now repeating the same past mistakes in response to the current economic crisis.

Good Corporate Governance manages the transition of the current business to the approved strategic business

Corporate governance is internal so that the corporate management has the capabilities to ensure continuation of a strong and ethical corporate business that is planned and managed to create strategic result value, maintain and manage capital worth, and control on-going performance costs. Rule No. 6 of 21^st century business management: Plan and govern the transition from today’s value to approved strategic value. Business management eliminates contrived 20^th century structures that cause our corporate governance problems and, instead, organizes the business itself as one integrated structure for 21^st century business management and governance. The future business is planned and approved in the strategic business structure to plan the value of strategic results and the result research, capital solution development, and strategic value creation needed. Result goals are set and managed time period by period to the strategic business. [more...]

20^th century accounting does not keep complete or accurate financial records on the business

Today's enterprise faces many obstacles to professional record capital management because of several 20^th century management problems. Financial accounting is often seen as enterprise records management, but maintains a professional view of what it will record, and acts as an administrative function. Financial accounting records some financial data against a chart of accounts laid over the business. Financial accounting does not keep complete and accurate financial and non-financial records of the actual business. Most actual business data is not captured in financial, statistical, or cost accounts or other enterprise records today. Most other enterprise records are not maintained as information capital to be available to provide needed management information solutions. Problems with intangible assets, unknown value creation, unknown costs, unknown capital worth, inaccurate business net worth, etc have never been solved. Records management is a growing problem in today's enterprise requiring a comprehensive professional records management solution.

21^st century business management maintains complete and accurate financial and non-financial records of the actual business

Business data and record transactions are captured against one business structure to integrate organization, planning, directing, control, and reporting. Structures laid over the business and irrelevant bases of data collected against the structures are removed. Management information includes result value, performance costs, result value-added in excess of costs, capital worth, and capital investment returns that are "unknown" today. Tangible information capital is maintained as facility records to record all financial and non-financial business transactions and activity in computer records, documents, images, archives, etc. Accounting continues independently but can be incorporated as one sub-set of professional records management.

Business management provides an opportunity for accounting to broaden to professional records management

Managing the actual business provides a unique opportunity for the accounting profession to expand to professional records management and eliminate unsolvable accounting and financial management problems. Professional facility records management maintains financial and non-financial facility records of the actual business, and provides information capital solutions from records, where needed to produce results at all levels of business management. [more...]

Rule No. 1 of the 10 rules of 21^st century business management: Organize and manage the business

The conventional definition of the enterprise business is the activity of providing goods and services. The 20^th century enterprise has never organized or managed the activity of providing goods and services, but, instead, lays rigid enterprise organization and management structures over the business. Business change conflicts with the rigid structures, creating unsolvable problems that can only be eliminated by organizing the business for 21^st century business management.

Eliminate unsolvable problems by organizing and managing one integrated business structure

The business must be organized as one structure to integrate enterprise business organization and management. Business activity is organized as capital solutions utilized in performance. Goods and services are organized as the results produced by business activity. Business results and capital solutions are organized together into a business structure. The business is organized by deploying specific capital solutions to performance domains to utilize in performance to produce specific results. The one integrated business structure is utilized for all 21^st century management planning, directing, control, and reporting to leave 20^th century organization and management problems behind. [more...]

Management consultants fail to address the unsolvable problems faced by all enterprises today

Most of the financial institutions, corporations, and other enterprises that have management problems retain management consultants for advice and management improvements. No current management consultant has the outlook or capability to help their client eliminate the one problem that holds back all enterprises and causes unsolvable management problems, the failure to manage the business.

All consultants today promote dead-end 20^th century enterprise management

Much change management consulting has been packaged into business services provided by hired staff, rather than professional problem solving for measured improvement. Recent books and media publicity show cases where the enterprise did not receive the professional services expected from management consultants. All consulting services today promote obsolete 20^st century enterprise management to lay new or improved organization, account, system, and other management structures over the business.

A new business management consulting model is available to restore professionalism and prevent business problems

A 21^st century business management consulting model is now available to help enterprises organize and menage the business to eliminate problems by providing:

• Services based on organizing the business for 21^st century management
• A method for the enterprise to lead and participate properly in business change
• A clear framework to manage the scope and participation for both parties
• Methods and tools that both the enterprise and consultant understand and use
• Planned and measured value of the consultant and success of the enterprise

The model builds enterprise capabilities to manage the business and business change, and focuses consultants on high-value professional results the client enterprise cannot achieve on its own.

The business management consulting model organizes services within an enterprise, market, industry, or economy business structure

The 21^st century business management consulting model scopes all services within a business structure, and extends the structure to cover the complete enterprise, enterprise businesses within a corporation business, and businesses within markets, industries, and economies. All services provide a measurable result value-added return to the client enterprise and service users. [more...]

20^th century management does not maintain accurate financial and non-financial records on the actual business

Management needs complete and accurate information on the actual business for good corporate governance and business management. This is not possible with 20^th century management used today, which does not organize or manage the actual business. Records are not kept on the capital investments utilized as capital solutions by the business as a set or on the economic output results produced by the business as a set. Thus, there is no set of complete and accurate records on the business to provide actual business management information. Instead, information is maintained against contrived structures laid over the business, such as organization, planning, budget and account, and reporting structures.

Instead of accounting for the business, a chart of accounts is laid over the business. Accounting maintains a sub-set of enterprise records in financial and statistical accounts. The full cycle of performance costs incurred and result value created is not recorded. Many non-financial records that should be maintained are not considered as accounting responsibility and are never recorded and managed as information capital.

The records management problem is getting serious with the explosion in email, file transfers, and other records created, entering, and leaving the enterprise. The enterprise has no way to reference records to the actual business, to prevent records being lost due to information complexity, and to properly manage records as information capital.

Rule No. 4 for 21^st century business management: Keep financial and non-financial records on full business operations and development

21^st century business management requires accurate financial and non-financial records for the full cycle of business operations, along the chain of results produced by the business, and across the operation-development continuum. Business management maintains financial and non-financial records on the actual business to provide accurate and complete management information. The actual business is recorded so that one consistent set of accurate and complete facility records can be maintained on the business and accurate reports on the full business cycle of cost-effective performance producing value-quality results, the results from supplier-provided input results and through enterprise business results to final customer results, and the investment costs in new capital solutions and the return in new result value are provided. 21^st century business management broadens traditional accounting to professional records management for complete financial and non-financial business records. [more...]

20^th century enterprise management lays strategic structures over the business

20^th century enterprise management contrives structures to define the corporate strategy in corporate plans, maps, investment plans, IT plans, financial plans, and other structures laid over the business. The strategic business is not planned. The overlaid structures do not relate to the actual business and may conflict with structures used to manage the corporation. Strategic value numbers are pulled out of the air. There is no good method to govern the transition from the current corporate status to the strategic objective. Corporate governance cannot govern the actual business, so it governs through compliance with arbitrary rules and regulations.

Rule No. 6 for 21^st century business management: Plan and govern the transition from today’s value to approved strategic value.

The business is “investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for cost and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results”. The business must be planned to know the economic output results that must be produced for business success and the capital investments in the business that are required to produce the results. The business must be managed to know result value, full performance costs, result value-added, complete capital worth, capital investment returns for all solutions, and other essential business measures that are unknown today. The strategic business structure provides the foundation for planning the results to be produced and capital to be utilized at a 2-5 year strategic horizon. Strategic result value is substantiated in specific period by period result goals requiring growth in value of current results and the value of new results enabled by implementation of capital of worth.

Business goals are planned from the current to strategic business for management and good governance

21^st century business management enables good management and governance of the transition to the strategic business by reporting financial and non-financial status against result goals and performance expectations, updating strategic estimates, providing result evaluations and performance assessments, and providing management information on anticipated opportunities, threats, and developments. Good corporate governance ensures responsible business management and planned progress to the approved strategic business. [more...]

20^th century management cannot manage investments, development, or returns

20^th century enterprise management develops capital as a tangible asset or project outcome. The specific capital items to be developed and the specific business improvements to be made are not defined or managed. So, it is impossible to plan and manage capital development to provide a measured return on investment.

Rule No. 7 of 21^st century business management: Manage all capital investments to gain a planned return

The investment management problem is solved by rule no 7 of 21^st century business management. All capital investments must manage the results to be produced by the investment as well as the capital needed as specific capital solutions. The increase in value in new and improved results and the development cost of specific capital solutions must be planned to justify the investment. Development project results are managed to implement solutions to create value and added result value is measured in operations know the return on investment.

Plan and develop both the results and capital solutions needed in results-driven capital development.

21^st century business management replaces capital development with results-driven capital development to actually plan and manage capital investments and development for a measured return on investment. The return on investment is provided by the value created in results produced to date attributed to each capital solution utilized. [more...]

20^th century enterprise management manages the enterprise, not the business

20^th century management used today manages the enterprise by laying organization and management structures over the business. We are familiar with the organization structure that requires periodic reorganization, and management structures in the corporate plans, business processes, information systems, account charts, and reporting structures used every day. These structures record a multitude of data entities and can report mountains of information, but do not record actual business data or report actual business management information.

21^st century business management manages the business to manage the enterprise

21^st century business management organizes and manages the enterprise business as one integrated business structure. The enterprise is managed by managing the business of the enterprise. Business is “investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for costs and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results”. 21^st century management manages the three entities that comprise the business: capital investments in the business, business performance in the utilization of the capital, and business results produced by performance. All business data is captured in one structure and one consistent, complete, and accurate set of business management information is reported.

There is only one source of knowledge for 21^st century business management

Result-performance Management (R-pM) provides the concepts and procedures for 21^st century business organization and management. The knowledge to manage any business is provided in the Business Management Toolkit. The toolkit is continually updated and expanded to guide 21^st century business management. [more...]

Conventions, definitions, and standards used in 20^th century enterprise management are inconsistent and confusing

20^th century enterprise management does not organize the natural business or apply common-sense management, as we do in our personal business. Arbitrary contrived structures are laid over the business. Each structure has its own set of conventions, definitions, and standards. Added together this produces an inconsistent hodge-podge of conventions, definitions, and standards that are applied separately for organization, planning, processes and systems, accounting, administration, IT architectures, performance management, reporting, and other parts of enterprise management.

Rule No 10 of 21^st century business management: Employ 21^st century business management conventions and standards

The 21^st century business must avoid the problems inherent in 20^th century enterprise management. This is done by organizing the business for 21^st century management. 21^st century business management uses one set of conventions, definitions, and standards that are applied to the actual business and used for all management organization, planning, directing, control, and reporting. Common conventions, definitions, and standards enable business collaboration and education, solutions, and services that can be applied to any business.

One consistent set of conventions, definitions, and standards define 21^st century business management

21^st century business management is guided by Result-performance Management (R-pM) knowledge and procedures. 21^st century business management conventions, definitions, and standards are defined, updated, and maintained in the R-pM Business Management Toolkit to support the organization and management of any business. The conventions, definitions, and standards can be followed by any education institution, solution developer, or service provider to meet the needs of any 21^st century business. [more...]

Enterprises today are organized and managed using many structures

Throughout the 20^th century and continuing today, enterprises implemented organization, process, account, performance management, and other structures. The different entities used to describe each structure, produce business and information complexity. The fixed structures conflict with the changing business causing many other known 20^th century enterprise management problems. Many books have been written and additional management structures have been devised, but the problems remain.

Enterprises and management developers have been looking for one integrating structure

There have been many efforts to replace these structures with one simple and consistently-defined structure for business collaboration, reliable management information, use of common solutions, and other needs. Until now, no one has defined the one integrated structure that can be used to organize and manage any enterprise in any industry. Each new structure is laid over existing structures compounding the problems.

The one integrating structure exists; it is the business itself

There is one structure. It has been there all along! That structure is the business itself!

The enterprise business is defined as “investments in capital as solutions of worth utilized for costs and effectiveness of performance to produce value and quality in results”. The business consists of three components:

• Business results produced as economic outputs of value from the business
• Capital in the specific solutions invested in the business and implemented to produce results
• Performance in the utilization of each capital solution to produce each result

These components of the business are organized into the current and strategic business structures that replace all structures laid over the business for transparent management of strategic result value creation.

R-pM provides the only method to organize and manage the actual business

Today's unsolvable business problems are caused by conflicts between the actual business and structures laid over the business. Result-performance Management (R-pM) provides the knowledge and procedures to organize the business, as current and strategic business structures, for 21^st century management. All overlaid structures are replaced by the business structure to leave all unsolvable 20^th century management problems behind. [more...]