Sustainable Accounting in Common Wealth Bank of Australia Sample

Question: Discuss the Case Stydy of ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Answer: Sustainable accounting in Common wealth bank of Australia There are many multinationals working in Australia; however, there are few that can match the size of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is the biggest bank in Australia and has branches across USA, Fiji, Asia and the United Kingdom. It is the largest company in Australia that is listed in the Australian Securities Exchange. It has other brands and subsidiaries like the Bankwest, commonwealth Insurance Limited, ASB Bank in New Zealand and the First State Colonial Investment Ltd. Commonwealth Bank of Australia also known as Commbank is involved in many financial services including insurance brokerage, investments, securities agencies trading and funds management (Ansoff, 2014). It was initially founded in the year 1911 by the Australian government to help the government and the people of Australia sound financial services. It is among the list of banks called the big four. The global headquarters of commbank is in Darling Harbour on the west side of Sydneys central business district. The previous headquarters were at the commonwealth Trading bank Limited. This is at Pitt Street and the Martin place. The bank operates in the banking and financial sector. However, there are also other sector that the bank operates in including insurance and investments. By the end of 2016, the bank had over 45,000 employees working for it. Internally or locally the number is more than 25000 which makes it among the biggest employers in Australia with others including BHP Billiton. The key personalities and executives in Commonwealth bank are Catherine Livingstone- Chairman Ian Narev- CEO and Managing Director The company is in the Financial and Banking sector (FB industry). Strategic accounting as an opportunity for business development in corporations Shareholders need to evaluate the results of management in the management of their resources, the profitability generated by their investment and the equity of the company in which they have invested, in order to determine their continuity; And, the State requires, mainly, that accounting information serve as a basis for the calculation of taxes. The main user of accounting information in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is the manager or administrator who, in most cases, is the same owner, who requires accounting to provide him with sufficient information adequate to his needs (Arora, 2010). The making of operational or management decisions companies require the application of an accounting model of strategic direction, generating information about the company and its competitive environment and linking the strategy within the accounting information to guide companies towards growth and competitiveness; That is, accounting should become an instrument of business developmen t for this type of business. As an instrument for linking the strategy to accounting, it is important to implement tools such as the Balanced Scorecard (CMI) and enterprise risk management systems in the organization, of which accounting will generate a series of Measurements and reports to give management much more complete, analytical and useful information, not just in financial terms. Shareholders need to assess the results achieved by the management in the management of their resources, the return on investment and the net worth of the company they have invested in, in order to determine their stability; And the State requires, primarily, that the accounting information serves as a basis for calculating taxes. In corporations like Commonwealth Bank of Australia the main user of accounting information is the manager or administrator, in most cases also the owner, who necessitates that the accountancy provides the information, sufficient and appropriate to its needs, to make op erational or management decisions. Big corporations require the implementation of a strategic direction accounting model to generate information regarding the company and its competitive surroundings and include the strategy within the accounting information to steer the companies towards growth and competitiveness; That is to say, accounting must become an instrument of business development for these businesses. As a tool to link the strategy to the accounting, it is important the organization implements such tools as the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), and the business risk management systems, from which accounting will generate a series of measurements and reports to provide management (Bebbington, 2007). The shareholders must evaluate the results of management in the management of its resources, the profitability generated by the investment and the equity of the company in which it has invested, in order to define continuity; need the application of an accounting model of strategic direction, which generates information about the company and its competitive environment, rather than linking the strategy within the accounting information to guide companies towards growth and competitiveness; Moreover, accounting should become an instrument of business development for this type of business. As an instrument for linking strategy to accounting, it is important to implement in the organization tools such as the Balanced Scorecard (QMI) or enterprise risk management systems, from which accounting will generate a series of measurements and reports , Seeking to provide management with much more complex, analytical and useful information, not only in financial terms. Financial accounting addre sses the needs of large organizations, whose main function is to create value for the investor. Shareholders are the most important users of financial accounting, who demand that the accounting inform them about the state of their investment and the profitability generated by it. Regulatory framework in management accounting All organizations have initiated a process to reconsider the applied system in matters such as: decision-making processes, elaboration and presentation of economic information, control structures, etc., in order to determine that configuration in its structure that Maximize the value of their activities, and therefore the value that customers receive when purchasing the corresponding products or services (Coombs, Hobbs, Jenkins, 2005). To this end, special emphasis is being placed on the behavior of the human factor since, through an adequate motivation, it is intended to improve the tasks developed in the processes, as well as to increase the quality of the products, a concept that is acquiring in the In the last few years, it is of particular importance given the need for organizations to minimize the waste that may occur, both in processes and in applied factors, in order to progressively achieve greater levels of competitiveness. Companies, since the beginning of this decade, a re moving towards a completely different organizational model, which is more like a molecule - more organic in appearance - than a pyramid. In this sense, certain measures are being taken that may allow a better adaptation to the current process of change, and which involve concrete questions such as: It is clear that the contribution of management accounting has to be progressively improved so that it can respond adequately to the new information needs, since the factors which in this context can be considered as critical are precisely the control and measurement of the performance. Therefore, it is necessary to implement measurement systems that allow continuous improvements in the organization, and overcoming systems that do not evaluate more than partially performance. Analysis of costs within the company Decrease both quality and productivity levels. Aiming at reducing advertising costs only opens the way for competitors and lose position in the market. Staff restructuring is also an important tool for cost reduction. Likewise, it tends to acquire lower cost inputs, or to change formulas, structures or contents of goods or services with the intention of reducing costs, without taking into account the consequences not only of the total costs, but also of the effect on the consumers. There are companies that very little decrease the work or preventive maintenance activities. Methodology and Application/ Methods of cost reductions Critical analysis of the reduction of costs in the company Aiming at reducing advertising costs only opens the way for competitors and lose position in the market. Likewise, it tends to acquire lower cost inputs, or to change formulas, structures or contents of goods or services with the intention of reducing costs, without taking into account the conseque nces not only of the total costs, but also of the effect on the consumers (Epstein, Lee, 2010). There are companies that very little decrease the work or preventive maintenance activities. To exemplify this last concept can be taken the case of a photocopying machine in a company, with which are emitted a lot of unnecessary photocopies or not related to the activity of the company, it would be totally wrong to reduce such costs by renting a cheaper photocopier or using Paper of lesser quality, it is really a question of avoiding the incorrect use of the photocopier. Critical analysis dynamic budget for your business -A regularly controlled dynamic budget is necessary as your business evolves over time. It may be that now is the best time to invest more in marketing or reduce some labor costs, so you should review it and make decisions again without getting stuck in the initial forecasts. Take Marketing on the Internet seriously Investigate the market Although you may think that market research is only for large companies, this is not so. First, market research can be made profitable without spending a lot of budget for it. Secondly, research is a first step towards the development of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely goals for your business, which will give you the best results at the lowest possible cost. Focus on key areas (Heidmann, 2008) Focusing on these areas from a good perspective will increase your likelihood of success and can reduce the unnecessary costs of other areas not so important. You must find developers at reasonable prices for your website as a way to reduce business costs. You may be overpaying for a service that another can do for less. Many well-prepared people are venturing to make the leap in web development and make competition to large companies with the same service at a more affordable price. Set your message Borrow from the big a simple but effective advice to make your busines s work is to acquire those business practices from other organizations and adapt them to your company, adding an added value (based on your experience) that makes them more sophisticated and useful for your company. How a company would improve its monitoring of performance Performance management and organizational efficiency are aimed at increasing employee productivity using the same resources. They could also be interpreted from another point of view: to achieve identical levels of productivity, but starting from a smaller base as far as resources are concerned. On the practical side, performance management would go through: Redefine task allocation and workload planning. Reality shows us that it is always possible to find people who have been assigned excessive tasks. This can be a problem. At the same time, it is possible to find in the same apartment someone who has few tasks and too much free time. Something fails and it is necessary to realize as soon as possible.Rationalize resources. Being aware of situations like the one described in the previous point is a way of saving because, in fact, no more people are needed to cover the apparent workload of the department, but what is really necessary is to make sure that people Of each department are working properly and that the tasks have been distributed consistently (Saloner, Shepard, Podolny, 2011). In short, it is about making workloads equitable and getting people to work better. The combination of both factors allows excellent results in terms of productivity. Productivity improvement If we combine an adequate performance management with a better organizational efficiency, we will achieve an even greater increase in these levels of productivity. In order to achieve this second objective it is necessary to detect in time possible hidden costs that may appear in inefficient processes. Usually they are given in systematic tasks, often related to e-mail or document management. Implementing policies that contribute to improving internal processes means taking an important step towards organizational efficiency. Which indicators should be monitored Dashboard indicators In order to improve performance management and achieve organizational efficiency, three indicators can be met. Activity, would be the first of them. It is clear that we are interested in how much time the person has worked since arriving in the office until he leaves. This data serves as a reference in order to arrive at a better interpretation of the metrics that will be obtained from the following indicators. Productivity. In this case it is fundamental to know if the person is engaged in productive activities for the company during its time of activity (Warren, Reeve, Fess, 2002). Use of applications. Thanks to the interpretation of this indicator it is possible to know for how much time an employee uses each application, and what applications it uses during its time of activity. Knowing what you spend your time is possible to detect situations that are not entirely productive and avoid them. It is also interesting, at this point, to define good working practices depending on e ach position, so that each employee knows exactly how he can improve his time management. References Ansoff, H. (2014). Strategic management. [Place of publication not identified]: Palgrave Macmillan. Arora, M. (2010). Methods and techniques of cost accounting. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House. Bebbington, J. (2007). Accounting for sustainable development performance (1st ed.). Burlington: Elsevier. Coombs, H., Hobbs, D., Jenkins, D. (2005). Management accounting. London: SAGE Publications. Epstein, M., Lee, J. (2010). Advances in Management Accounting, 18. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing. Heidmann, M. (2008). The role of management accounting systems in strategic sensemaking. Wiesbaden: Dt. Univ.-Verl. Issues in management accounting. (2007). Harlow. Rotha?rmel, F. (2017). Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Saloner, G., Shepard, A., Podolny, J. (2011). Strategic management.. New Delhi: Wiley India. Warren, C., Reeve, J., Fess, P. (2002). Accounting. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western