Chapter 1 Lesson 2 Business Strategy Art vs Science Discussion Paper The readings (including the commentary) discuss the notion that much of what accountants and finance professionals do is “art” rather than “science.”In an essay of at least 500 words, discuss five ways in which financial professionals can significantly impact the financial statements of an organization by the use of estimates, assumptions, alternative valuation methods and other accepted accounting practices.In each case, explain the impact the different ways of accounting for these items can have on various financial accounts. Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions
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Director, Steven. Business Strategy, Financial Strategy and HR Strategy. Financial
Analysis for HR Managers. Upper Saddle River. FT Press. 2013. 013299674X. pp.
1-8.
Date prepared: 04/19/2016
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I
Business Strategy, Financial Strategy,
and HR Strategy
What makes one company more successful than another? Is it
becanse it has nicer office buildings, newer research labs, or better
manufacturing equipment? If it is the differences in people that ere- .
ate differences in corporate value, then the HR function (though not
necessarily the HR department) is critical to a co1poration’s success.
Clearly line managers have an important role in hiring, developing,
and motivating the people that can make an organization successful.
Perhaps surprisingly it is the role of human resource managers in this
process that is less clear. Should human resource managers have primarily an administrative role focusing on the processing of transactions and compliance with regulations? Should human resource
managers be business partners charged with developing and maintaining a workforce with the ·specific capabilities required to execnte
their firm’s business strategy? Or should human resource managers
be true strategic partners participating along with top management,
and their counterparts from other functional areas, in the actual
development and monitoring of a firm’s business strategy? In many
organizations HR departments play only one or two of these three
roles. It is a premise of this book that many firms fail to achieve their
maximum success because they do not utilize their HR departments
optimally. It must be acknowledged, however, that line managers may
be underutilizing their HR departments because they are not confident that HR can perform at higher levels.
1
2
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS FOR
HR
MANAGERS
Is HR Weakest in the Most Critical Areas?
A study conducted by the Cmporate Leadership Council (CLC) 1
found that in the opinion of the 16,000 line managers who were surveyed, fewer than one in five HR business p:utners were highly effective in their strategy roles. That’s a statement that the HR profession
should find troubling. The good news is that there’s lots of room for
improvement, and we know how to generate those improvements. The
CLC study also estimated the relationship between HR staff competencies and degree of success as a strategic partner. Their findings are
summaiized in Exhibit 1-l. Each vertical bar represents an estimate
of the ma”
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