American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants agree to offer new CGMA designation

New AICPA-CIMA designation -- Chartered Global Management Accountant -- to advance knowledge and practice of management accounting worldwide
LONDON / WASHINGTON, DC (May 23, 2011) – The governing bodies of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, headquartered in London, today agreed on creation of a new professional designation, the Chartered Global Management Accountant, that will be a worldwide standard of professional excellence in management accounting.
With approval now given by the AICPA and CIMA councils, the two accounting bodies will create the new CGMA designation to give management accountancy a higher profile in the United States and promote the professional development of management accountants across the globe. Backing the new CGMA designation will be an AICPA-CIMA joint venture with international resources and experience in management accounting, business and cultural knowledge.
CIMA president George Glass said: 'We are delighted that management accountancy is to be given a strong new global impetus by this joint venture. This advances our strategic aims and will ensure management accountants, committed to strict ethical standards, will receive world-class support in a fast-globalising world.'
'This is truly an historic moment for management accounting and the accounting profession worldwide.' AICPA chairman Paul Stahlin said. 'Our joint venture with CIMA creates long-term strategic value for our members and literally opens up the world for US CPAs in management accounting.'
CIMA is the largest professional body in the world focused exclusively on management accounting and the AICPA is the world’s largest professional accounting organisation with members in a wide range of accounting and financial executive roles. Together, the new venture will cover more than 550,000 members and students worldwide.
The new AICPA and CIMA joint venture will promote and establish the CGMA as the preeminent, globally recognised management accounting designation. The joint venture will combine the strength of the AICPA in North America with CIMA’s presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
CIMA chief executive Charles Tilley said: 'The new CGMA will be recognised throughout the world as the gold-standard designation for management accountants who play a vital role in building sustainable business value. The joint venture will raise the profile of the profession and be a passport for careers throughout the world.'
'Economic globalisation is a reality for all businesses now and in the future and so it’s critical that we have a universally accepted standard of excellence for management accounting,' said AICPA president and CEO Barry Melancon. 'Combining that commitment to excellence with ethics and integrity, the CGMA will help produce and recognise top management accounting professionals worldwide.'
It is proposed that the new CGMA letters will be issued to members early in 2012. AICPA voting members with at least three years working in management accounting or a financial management role would qualify for an accelerated route to obtaining the new designation. Those holding the new designation will commit to a programme of developing and maintaining competency in management accounting as well as leadership and strategy.
This knowledge base will be derived from an expert-panel assessment of skills and competencies needed to succeed in various career paths in management accounting. CIMA members, all of whom hold either an ACMA or FCMA, will be entitled to use the letters ACMA CGMA or FCMA CGMA if they wish to. The new CGMA will be issued by the AICPA and CIMA through a license with the joint venture, with membership remaining with the existing organisations.
The AICPA and CIMA had announced their proposal to form a joint venture on March 28, 2011.
For press enquiries please contact:
CIMA Victor Smart Director of profile and communications +44 (0)20 8849 2254 victor.smart@cimaglobal.com
AICPA William Roberts Director media relations + 01 202 434 9266 wroberts@aicpa.org
Notes to Editors 1. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, founded in 1919, is the world’s leading and largest professional body of Management Accountants, with 183,000 members and students operating in 168 countries, working at the heart of business.
CIMA members and students work in industry, commerce, the public sector and not-for-profit organisations. CIMA works closely with employers and sponsors leading-edge research, constantly updating its qualification, professional experience requirements and continuing professional development to ensure it remains the employers’ choice when recruiting financially-trained business leaders.
CIMA is committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of members and students, and to maintaining public confidence in management accountancy. CIMA is proud to be the first professional accounting body to offer a truly global product in the fast-moving area of Islamic Finance. According to independent research conducted by the University of Bath School of Management, CIMA’s syllabus and examination structure are the most relevant to the needs of business of all the accountancy bodies assessed. See the CIMA Difference report for further information at www.cimaglobal.com/cimadifference. For more information about CIMA, please visit http://www.cimaglobal.com/ Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CIMA_News 2.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (www.aicpa.org), founded in 1887, is the world’s largest association representing the accounting profession, with nearly 370,000 members in 128 countries.
AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education, and consulting; membership is also available to accounting students and CPA candidates. The AICPA sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for audits of private companies, non-profit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination. The AICPA maintains offices in New York, Washington, DC, Durham, N.C., Ewing, N.J. and Lewisville, Texas. Media representatives are invited to visit the AICPA Press Center at www.aicpa.org/press. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AICPANews.

Masters in Accounting - Great USA site by Mark Macaluso

Masters in Accounting was created as a nonprofit resource to serve students considering enrolling in a masters in accounting program. Actively maintained, Masters in Accounting is the only nonprofit website which lists and links to every accredited masters in accounting program as well as answers some basic questions about the degree so that students have a single unbiased resource from which they can begin their research.


About Us

Who and Why?

Masters in Accounting was created by Mark Macaluso in June 2010. Mark, a MSA graduate, decided to create Masters in Accounting because despite the fact that you can find almost anything online, there were to-date no reliable nonprofit websites devoted to presenting prospective students with an understanding of what a masters in accounting program entails, which schools offer the degree, what differences exist between various masters in accounting programs and sub-specialities, etc.

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Feedback is always welcomed. While I generally try not to give advice about specific schools and programs in an attempt to remain unbiased, I will be happy to answer questions relating to other aspects of the degree, career options, etc. So please don’t hesitate to email me, Mark Macaluso, at: info #at# mastersinaccounting #dot# net.

Managing joint ventures and alliances

40% of joint ventures and strategic alliances result in divorce within five years. Making them work is about going beyond best practice, says Dr Alan Barlow, former CEO international engineering group and former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The world economy is emerging from its biggest ever global recession. Organisations' approach to growth in the 2010s will be very different. Management’s mantra will be how to optimise what’s already in place, at minimum marginal cost with returns over the near term and at low risk.

However management will also be cautiously taking steps to secure growth opportunities. Some cash rich companies will benefit from bottom fishing with acquisition of under-valued companies.

Joint ventures and strategic alliances
Joint ventures and strategic alliances are a proven tactic for management to secure faster and lower risk growth. The alternatives are to grow organically (100% control but generally slower growth); or with acquisitions (faster growth but demanding on capital and challenging to integrate post-acquisition and secure the forecast benefits).

Benefits
Joint ventures and strategic alliances allow faster growth by accessing markets and technology, and sharing and controlling risks. The main catalysts for the growth in such alliances are: the increasing internationalisation of markets; the growing importance of innovation management (with rapid technology transfer and shorter product lives); and, the increasing costs of R&D (with the complexity of technology and convergence of it).

Downsides
With such benefits, there are also potential downsides. 40% of joint ventures result in divorce within three years – which is not necessarily a sign of failure. But, when joint ventures are not properly managed over their life time, then the exit costs can be huge.

For example, after ten years of operating in China with its local partner, the French company Danone accepted an exit settlement of 21% below its book value as payment by its local partner of $450m for the 51% majority ownership of their joint venture*. The divorce took place because Danone accused its joint venture partner (Wahaha) of setting up at least 96 parallel companies, with production and sales networks, that competed with the joint venture.

Danone also believed its local partner was in breach of confidentiality agreements. While Danone ‘controlled’ the joint venture at board level, the Chinese partner had almost total day-to-day control.

Best practice for success
For success at joint ventures and strategic alliances, there is a strong body of best practice. This includes:

• plan, plan and plan - objectives, operations, resources and contingency
• balance trust with self-interest - avoid being selfish or naïve
• anticipate strategic conflict in advance and continuously - avoid the tendency to gloss over conflict
• establish clear strategic leadership - the vision and purpose of the venture with unambiguous and unbiased authority
• learn flexible management - recognise the evolution of the venture, understand all partners’ intents and roles, and communicate effectively
• allow for and gain from cultural differences - the law of requisite variety, and components of culture
• manage strategic asset transfer - including technology and understanding
• learn from the partner and the venture.

Negotiating framework
These are basic, generic requirements. It is important to go beyond them, particularly in three distinct areas. Firstly, it is vital to prepare your own negotiating framework, that is, what is important to you in and from the joint venture. Similarly, it is exceedingly useful to draft what you believe to be the important considerations for your prospective partner. They are likely to be considerably different to yours, as both of you are contributing and requiring different ‘returns’ from the joint venture. Such a framework and assessment then becomes a tool for comparative assessment of what you are achieving and/or acceding in the negotiation, and that of your prospective partner.

Managing differences in organisation structures and business drivers
It is also increasingly important to understand and manage the differences between the parents’ decision making structures and its business drivers. Both of these two considerations vary tremendously between corporations. Organisation structures for western corporations can, for example, vary from centralised-hierarchical to decentralised-federal, with a wide range of variations.

Likewise the four main causes of growth are: cash, market share, growth and profit. It is impossible to maximise all four concurrently, which is another reason for the generally big differences between the businesses forming a joint venture. Again, a clearer understanding of your partner’s mix will greatly help both successful negotiation and subsequent ongoing operations.

The problems above are exacerbated when, for example, western and Asia Pacific organisations form a joint venture. The difference and the impact of factors affecting their business growth and organisational decision making can be dramatic. These must be managed for success.

Joint ventures and strategic alliances only exist because each party has something the other party wants at a point in time. Hence, in the face of changing market circumstances and as corporate learning takes place over time, divergence between the joint venture partners should not be unexpected.

Mastercourse - Joint ventures and strategic alliances
In recognition of the importance of joint ventures and strategic alliances to businesses, CIMA has introduced a new Mastercourse - Joint ventures and strategic alliances presented by Dr Alan Barlow. Through a series of case studies, the Masterclass delivers best practice and proven frameworks for initial and ongoing negotiation and management of joint ventures and strategic alliances for ensuring greater success.

*Source: Financial Times, 10 November 2009.

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