OVERVIEW
MANAGEMENT
PERFORMANCE
POSSIBILITIES
CAPITALS
ACTIVITIES
ACTORS
BURGESS
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IRAQ
ACCOUNTABILITY One of the biggest problems there is in the modern world ... the allocation of resources to actually get things done. 
Original article: Burgess COMMENTARY This graphic describes one of the biggest problems there is in the modern world ... the allocation of resources to actually get things done. My life and career progressed through a number of stages. The first stage was all about learning as much as I could as fast as I could about the way the world works and about life and living. During this period I got a very good formal education and a little bit of experiential learning. There were three legs to my formal education ... (1) engineering; (2) economics and (3) accountancy ... especially cost and management accountancy. A second stage was to work in the corporate arena and apply what I had learned in theory to the real world. I described nyself during that time as a specialist in 'corporate turnaround' where my job was to help get decisions made that would improve corporate profit performance. This was not about creating the illusion of profit performance through financial engineering but actually creating value add through business performance involving real revenues and real costs. A third stage was working as an independent consultant doing much the same work. I was not super-successful at this for a good number of reasons. In a small consultancy, I did not have the benefit of a 'team' which was a key element of my success in the corporate setting. In that setting, there was always a team of people, and the opportunity for this team to work together in a better way. As an individual consultant and an outsider this performance improvement opportunity was lacking. Nevertheless, I did find consultancy work through the World Bank, and especially IFC, the United Nations and some for-profit organizations around the world. I did very little consultancy work in the United States. The contrast between 'management' as it is practiced in well-run corporate organizations and the way it functions ... or doesn't ... in the public sector came as a huge shock. Over a period of about 25 years, I was able to inject my management thinking into a variety of organizations ... government public sector and private companies ... but my work and impact was tiny relative to what was needed. I made some friends in the course of my work ... but a lot more enemies. My friends understood the issues and wanted things to be done in a more respectful manner, but the enemies wanted me to disappear because I was trying to address issues like corruption and all sorts of misfeasance. My friends had little power. My enemies were all about power, and if possible absolute power. The graphic that heads this page explains why so much of what has been talked about during the past many decades can never work. The 'talk' happened but actually getting money invested in what needs to get done simply does not happen. There are reasons ... none of them good ... that explain why accounting and accountability is almost totally dysfunctional throughout the modern global economy and social system. A better world is possible ... but not when the money flows are hi-jacked by the corrupt and rich and powerful !!!!!! Peter Burgess | ||
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