Gmail Peter Burgess
Reaching out prior to the upcoming ACAUS Conference.
5 messages
Peter Burgess Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 4:21 PM
To: 'Amir Dossal
Dear Amir
I intend to be on my best behavior later this week at the ACAUS, but you should know that I am more than a little concerned about the state of the world, and how little seems to be getting done to mitigate the big issues that have emerged.
The idea that I may have lived through one of the best times in human history is good ... but the trajectory of decline that seems to have taken hold gives me concern. More than 25 years ago I started to observe that while the world was making positive progress, compared to what was possible, it was minuscule.
I am bothered more than anything else by the focus of management on profit performance to the exclusion of everything else. This comes in part from academia, and especially the Business Schools. I see accountancy as a great foundation for management systems, but see profit improvement as coming from the application of engineering and technology in a tangible way.
My work on the development of TrueValueMetrics is ongoing ... and while it is not ready for prime time, the core concepts are pretty solid, and the outline of a blueprint that could be the future of the accountancy profession. Clearly the structure of the modern accountancy business is very different from the structure as it was when I was training 50+ years ago ... and arguably much worse. More than anything else I want to see accountancy used to manage for social performance, environmental performance and economic performance all together in one system. As Peter Drucker has said many times ... you manage what you measure. I always add, you had better measure the right things.
I intend to be on my best behavior ... but I am not at all optimistic that I will be happy at the outcome of the ACAUS event. Maybe I will be surprised. I hope so!
Best regards
PeterB
_____________________________
Peter Burgess ... Founder and CEO
TrueValueMetrics ... Meaningful Metrics for a Smart Society
True Value Impact Accounting ... Multi Dimension for ALL the Capitals
http://www.truevaluemetrics.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peterburgess1/
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/PeterBurgess2/
Twitter: @truevaluemetric @peterbnyc
Telephone: 570 202 1739
Email: peterbnyc@gmail.com
Skype: peterbinbushkill
Amir Dossal Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 11:18 AM
To: Peter Burgess
Hello Peter,
Great to hear from you. I totally understand your frustration. We are living in challenging times and our leaders are not helping much!
I am delighted that TrueValueMetrics is progressing well – we need to focus on ESG and for that we need good data and we need to measure the outcomes and hold people accountable. Please do raise your concerns, it will make for a more thoughtful discussion!
Really looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Yours,
Amir
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Peter Burgess Sat, Apr 27, 2019 at 11:30 PM
To: Amir Dossal
Dear Amir
Thanks for your polite encouragement at the ACAUS Beyond Accounting conference ... it was very much appreciated.
I am not quite sure how to proceed.
Obviously, there is a new younger generation that is now running things and many of these folk are very bright ... but so many are very expert in their speciality, but not so well informed in the more generalized broader issues and how everything is connected. This is a problem in the area of technology, and in many parts of the banking and finance system, not to mention in the multilateral institutions, and in many areas of academia.
I was surprised on Thursday at the number of accountants that I talked to who had a singular focus on the corporate world. In part I understand this because it is where the customers / clients with money are located ... but it is also a mindset that disappoints me because it is my belief ... and experience ... that accountancy and well designed numbering systems are a very very powerful management tool everywhere and should be deployed to change the trajectory of everything so that we avoid catastrophe whether it is climate change or social inequality or mega-corruption or a host of other issues.
My work with TrueValueMetrics.org / .com is based on a good number of years in both corporate controllership experience doing profit improvement and public sector development / humanitarian work via the World Bank, the UN and others in over 50 countries. I probably did in excess of a thousand project evaluations at various stages of the project cycle and in the process learned something. The bad news is that I did this without being associated with a 'name' organization and in some ways I might as well not exist ... and I don't know marketing and salesmanship at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nevertheless, I am becoming pretty confident that the TrueValueMetrics framework that is emerging can be a game changer. Maybe there are better ideas around, but I don't see them ... perhaps because they are behind paywalls and not accessible to the profession at large. Much of the work I have been able to see that is related to ESG, Impact Investing, Sustainability Accounting. SASB, IR, GRI and others is very wordy and little progress towards easy to use numbers. ... and mostly focused in a way so that profit and money wealth accumulation are still the dominant metrics. The world has the money ... but most of it is not going to be deployed where it is most needed unless we take a radical new look at how owners of wealth deploy their financial capital.
Your panel was the only one where there was interest in the bigger picture beyond the world of corporate success ... Lisa Sachs knows me somewhat from my many visits to Columbia over the years ... and some interaction with Jeffrey Sachs almost since the beginning of time! I also have a positive feeling about Sarah Johnson who has the CA foundation and is heading towards international development studies.
Hopefully one day soon I will have a reasonable clear presentation about what I am doing ... at this point I have a huge amount of material that is rather dated, but giving me a pretty good foundation for eventual success.
Again ... thanks for your encouragement.
Peter
_____________________________
Peter Burgess ... Founder and CEO
TrueValueMetrics ... Meaningful Metrics for a Smart Society
True Value Impact Accounting ... Multi Dimension for ALL the Capitals
http://www.truevaluemetrics.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peterburgess1/
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/PeterBurgess2/
Twitter: @truevaluemetric @peterbnyc
Telephone: 570 202 1739
Email: peterbnyc@gmail.com
Skype: peterbinbushkill
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Amir Dossal Tue, May 7, 2019 at 9:29 AM
To: Peter Burgess
Dear Peter,
It was wonderful to see you at the ACAUS conference last week. Thank you so much for your very thoughtful note and feedback. I fully agree with you that your concept as embodied in the TrueValueMetrics can indeed be a game changer. As you rightly point out, the finance sector in general is not yet ready to rise to that challenge – it is fully immersed in instant financial gratification. However the good news is that there are some important Wall Street leaders voicing concern about the impact of extreme capitalism on society, and they are looking for ways to bring in the human and humanitarian dimension into the equation. I guess it is a matter of time before things change.
On my side I will also keep a look out for interesting opportunities/platforms where TVM can be presented as a base case for sustainability and transparency.
Looking forward to continuing our engaging dialogue.
Warm regards,
Peter Burgess Sun, Jul 21, 2024 at 12:46 AM
To: 'Amir Dossal
Dear Amir
Time flies when you are having fun ... and even faster when you get to my age!
I came to the CAW event you organized at the UN last Thursday and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I had not realized that it was more than 20 years since I was last wandering around those buildings. Time flies.
I was hoping to have the opportunity to talk with you one on one last Thursday, but the meeting structure did not make that possible.
I have been interested in 'management' all my adult life both in the corporate business sector, in government and in the development sector (World Bank, UN, etc.). Compared to the business sector, the UN and the development community generally lacked meaningful management during the time I was active with these organizations. I cannot find evidence that my concern on these fronts has progressed much since I was actively engaged more than 20 years ago. It seems that many of the countries where I worked in the past have regressed significantly as the socio-enviro-economic situation gets worse rather than better as time passes.
The 'value' of development assistance is huge when it is used productively and in the right amount. This had become rare in the 1980s and 1990s and my sense is that it is worse a couple of decades later.
Am I completely wrong? I hope so!
I am living out in the Poconos of PA ... but come into Manhattan once in a while. Lunch perhaps?
PeterB
_____________________________
Peter Burgess ... Founder and CEO
True Value Metrics ... Multi Dimension fImpact Accounting for ALL the Capitals
http://www.truevaluemetrics.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/peterburgess1/
Telephone: 570 202 1739
Email: peterbnyc@gmail.com
Skype: peterbinbushkill
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