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Introducing Multi Dimension Impact Accounting (MDIA) and 7D-Capitalism

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Introducing Multi Dimension Impact Accounting (MDIA) and 7D-Capitalism Dear NAME I was a corporate CFO quite early in my career and learned the immense power of metrics in enabling everyone in the company to work towards the company goals. Later I did consulting assignments for the World Bank, IFC, the UN and others and learned how dysfunctional most metrics were in this space. This experience informs my current efforts. Fast forward to recent years and there is a huge conversation going on about sustainability, CSR and similar, but the metrics for this are, at best, very weak. Conventional accountancy is a powerful framework for analysis of financial performance, but is not well suited to handling the matter of impact on society, people, place and planet. A singular focus on the business organization is not enough. I am pleased that there is a growing interes in reporting initiatives about impact ... but I would argue that there is no 'accounting' behind most of these reporting intitiatives, merely an increasingly comprehensive and time consuming process of Q&A. CEOs are talking the talk, but CFOs do not have a methodology for rigorous accounting and reporting of impact. In this situation the conventional financial metrics will continue to hold sway. I have written this short essay to describe a framework that I believe can inform the design of a comprehensive coherent system of metrics that will address all the important issues in our complex enviro-socio-economic system at the same time. http://www.truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/MDIA/TVM-Short-Introduction-to-7D-Capitalism-and-MDIA-141212a.pdf This is a work in progress ... with the next step to handle the specific quantification needed for such as system. I would welcome feedback ... especially critical constructive feedback Exciting times Peter 'Jennifer Elks' 'Paul Herman' 'Bill Baue'