Britain is edging towards agreeing its $30bn share of the $500bn of extra funding demanded by the IMF for eurozone bailouts, a sum so large that it will require parliamentary approval. That’s the clear message I’ve taken from a speech made by the Chancellor, George Osborne, to British business leaders here in Davos. I may [...]
Britain is edging towards agreeing its $30bn share of the $500bn of extra funding demanded by the IMF for eurozone bailouts, a sum so large that it will require parliamentary approval. That’s the clear message I’ve taken from a speech made by the Chancellor, George Osborne, to British business leaders here in Davos. I may [...]
One of the major issues IT executives face is how to charge their departmental costs back to each part of the business according to their usage. It’s a touchy issue that can be the source of end-user disenchantment with the performance and contribution of the IT organization. Ultimately, charge-back friction can hobble IT’s ability to make necessary investments in new capabilities and become the primary cause of misallocated IT spending. The two risks are related: Unless an IT department can calculate the real costs of the services it provides to specific parts of the business and charge for them accordingly, it is almost impossible for line-of-business department managers to assign priorities to the “keep the lights on” part of the budget, so even low-priority maintenance or upgrade efforts can crowd out all but the most pressing needs. The issue of allocating IT department costs spills over to Finance, which typically handles the allocations in budgeting and profit calculations. As a first step toward establishing an effective means of funding the IT function, I believe the finance department must establish better methods of allocating IT costs. Eventually the proper allocation of IT costs also becomes an issue for senior corporate executives as well because it has a direct impact on how effectively a company uses information technology. (more…)
When practitioners, consultants and academics discuss leading organizational risk management practices, they hone in on people, processes and supporting technology. As major risk management failures in recent years have illustrated, mastering these three dimensions is necessary but not sufficient.
Effective enterprise risk management (ERM) — or any discreet risk management process — hinges on other dimensions as well, including organizational culture, behavior, ethics and change management … all the squishy, human stuff that defies convenient categorization in COSO cubes and other traditional risk management frameworks. (more…)
Britain is edging towards agreeing its $30bn share of the $500bn of extra funding demanded by the IMF for eurozone bailouts, a sum so large that it will require parliamentary approval. That’s the clear message I’ve taken from a speech made by the Chancellor, George Osborne, to British business leaders here in Davos. I may [...]
Another excellent paper by Simon Tilford from the Centre for European Reform. He writes: “Eurozone policy-makers – from President Sarkozy and Wolfgang Schäuble to the former President of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet – advocate that Italy and Spain should emulate the Baltic states and Ireland. These four countries, they argue, demonstrate that fiscal austerity, structural reforms and wage cuts can restore economies to growth and debt sustainability.”
