Top 7 Trends
in Management
Accounting
By Gary Cokins, CPIM
G
Part 1 of 2
The field of management
accounting is experiencing a
punctuated shift toward more
progressive methods and prac-
tices. The cause is reaction
to (1) business marketing and
sales techniques that are increas-
ingly customer centric and
require predictive planning and
(2) operational manager needs to
improve productivity by remov-
ing waste, shortening cycle times,
and increasing efficiency and
effectiveness. What are the major
trends involved? I’ll cover the
first three trends in this article
and the other four in Part 2.
Throughout my career I’ve observed
numerous management fads appear and then
fade away as a temporary craze. I’ve also
watched managers excitedly jump onto these
new bandwagons only to be disappointed
when they haven’t lasted. In some cases,
though, what begins as a good idea actually
sticks and becomes a trend, which is what I’ll
describe here for management accounting.
December 2013
I
S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E
21
C OVER STORY
Imagine if you reviewed the titles and content of The
New York Times best-selling business books or of Harvard
Business Review articles from the last 25 years. How many
of them might cause you to react with a chuckle and say,
“Oh, that one”? Do you remember any of the items in the
following list? (Warning: Some advocates or book authors
may be offended.)
N Quality circles (for total quality management, or
TQM)
N One minute manager
N Business process reengineering (BPR)
N Management by objectives (MBOs)
N Six Sigma
N Matrix management
N Core competency
N Intrapreneuring
N Search for excellence
N Best practices
N Management by walking around (MBWA)
I’m not saying those practices served no purpose. They
did introduce useful ideas, but they didn’t live up to their
promises as they ascended. Many organizations jump
from one improvement program to another, hoping that
each new one will provide that big competitive edge, only
to discover with hindsight that it was just a method du
jour. Most managers would acknowledge that pulling one
lever for improvement rarely results in a substantial
change—particularly a long-term sustained change. And
the business media haven’t helped. They hype what’s
fashionable at the time, mostly because that’s their role.
Will the management accounting trends that I describe
here take root or be just another fad or fashion?
Management Accounting Eras
First let’s look at some history. Figure 1 illustrates a
humorous but valid timeline of the shifts in accounting:
1. Ancient Era—Rocks and stone piles.
2. Medieval Era—Piles of precious metal and paper
money. This situation ultimately led to the book pub-
lished in 1494 by Luca Pacioli, an Italian mathematician
and Franciscan friar, titled Summa de arithmetica, geome-
tria, proportioni et proportionalità. It dealt with Hindu-
Arabic arithmetic and its offshoot, algebra, and contained
Pacioli’s 27-page treatise on Venetian accounting that
described double-entry bookkeeping.
Figure 1: Six Eras of Management Accounting
6. Predictive
Analytics
ERA OF COSTING MATURITY
Precious metal
and paper money
piles, ultimately
leading to
double-entry
bookkeeping
(Luca Pacioli, 1494)
Rocks and
stone piles
Standard cost
accounting (to reflect
Frederick Winslow
Taylor’s manufacturing
scientific methods,
1911)
The U.S.
Great Depression
resulted in regulatory
reforms to protect
investors (1930s)
“Causal” cost
tracing of
increasingly
diverse types of
products, services,
channels, and
customers
A shift of emphasis
from a historical
to a predictive view
of strategy and
operations
5. Consumer
3. Industrial
Age
4. Regulatory
Compliance
2. Medieval
1. Ancient
20,000 BC
22
S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E
1494
1911
1930
1980
2015
Top 7 Trends
in Management
Accounting
By Gary Cokins, CPIM
G
Part 1 of 2
The field of management
accounting is experiencing a
punctuated shift toward more
progressive methods and prac-
tices. The cause is reaction
to (1) business marketing and
sales techniques that are increas-
ingly customer centric and
require predictive planning and
(2) operational manager needs to
improve productivity by remov-
ing waste, shortening cycle times,
and increasing efficiency and
effectiveness. What are the major
trends involved? I’ll cover the
first three trends in this article
and the other four in Part 2.
Throughout my career I’ve observed
numerous management fads appear and then
fade away as a temporary craze. I’ve also
watched managers excitedly jump onto these
new bandwagons only to be disappointed
when they haven’t lasted. In some cases,
though, what begins as a good idea actually
sticks and becomes a trend, which is what I’ll
describe here for management accounting.
December 2013
I
S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E
21
C OVER STORY
Imagine if you reviewed the titles and content of The
New York Times best-selling business books or of Harvard
Business Review articles from the last 25 years. How many
of them might cause you to react with a chuckle and say,
“Oh, that one”? Do you remember any of the items in the
following list? (Warning: Some advocates or book authors
may be offended.)
N Quality circles (for total quality management, or
TQM)
N One minute manager
N Business process reengineering (BPR)
N Management by objectives (MBOs)
N Six Sigma
N Matrix management
N Core competency
N Intrapreneuring
N Search for excellence
N Best practices
N Management by walking around (MBWA)
I’m not saying those practices served no purpose. They
did introduce useful ideas, but they didn’t live up to their
promises as they ascended. Many organizations jump
from one improvement program to another, hoping that
each new one will provide that big competitive edge, only
to discover with hindsight that it was just a method du
jour. Most managers would acknowledge that pulling one
lever for improvement rarely results in a substantial
change—particularly a long-term sustained change. And
the business media haven’t helped. They hype what’s
fashionable at the time, mostly because that’s their role.
Will the management accounting trends that I describe
here take root or be just another fad or fashion?
Management Accounting Eras
First let’s look at some history. Figure 1 illustrates a
humorous but valid timeline of the shifts in accounting:
1. Ancient Era—Rocks and stone piles.
2. Medieval Era—Piles of precious metal and paper
money. This situation ultimately led to the book pub-
lished in 1494 by Luca Pacioli, an Italian mathematician
and Franciscan friar, titled Summa de arithmetica, geome-
tria, proportioni et proportionalità. It dealt with Hindu-
Arabic arithmetic and its offshoot, algebra, and contained
Pacioli’s 27-page treatise on Venetian accounting that
described double-entry bookkeeping.
Figure 1: Six Eras of Management Accounting
6. Predictive
Analytics
ERA OF COSTING MATURITY
Precious metal
and paper money
piles, ultimately
leading to
double-entry
bookkeeping
(Luca Pacioli, 1494)
Rocks and
stone piles
Standard cost
accounting (to reflect
Frederick Winslow
Taylor’s manufacturing
scientific methods,
1911)
The U.S.
Great Depression
resulted in regulatory
reforms to protect
investors (1930s)
“Causal” cost
tracing of
increasingly
diverse types of
products, services,
channels, and
customers
A shift of emphasis
from a historical
to a predictive view
of strategy and
operations
5. Consumer
3. Industrial
Age
4. Regulatory
Compliance
2. Medieval
1. Ancient
20,000 BC
22
S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E
1494
1911
1930
1980
2015
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