Joseph KK Ho's work diary

Some Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) students ask me to offer a suggested report structure for the SMA assignment : [September 2013] Essay title Table of contents 1. Introduction ["Introduction" section of the assignment essay is to briefly explain your essay purposes and what you intend to talk about; thus it is very brief.] 2. Background of the company under review 2.1 Scope of businesses for the company as a whole 2.2 The external environment facing the company 2.3 Company vision and mission 2.4 A SWOT review of the Strategic Business Unit (SBU) under review; also see: http://www.slideshare.net/joh5700/vision-mission-goals-and-objectives-whats-the-difference 2.5 An examination of the business strategy of the SBU under review and its sources of sustainable competitive advantage 3. Formulation of the Balanced Scorecard for the SBU under review, with business and theoretical justifications 4. Formulation of the Strategy map based on the proposed SBU bala...

Notice from Mile Tayles for SMA classes And C [will also be posted to SOUL): Strategic Management Accounting 26144 September 2013 Note to Groups A and C I am sorry that we had to stop the teaching a little early on Sunday afternoon, but we were unsure of the weather. I have spoken to Dr Joseph to ensure he can cover the material that we did not. So all groups will then have covered the same content. Assignment Note to All Groups This note records statements I made to you all in class about the assignment. It should be read along with the requirement printed on page 7 of the Module Handbook. Aspects which should come out in your work on the assignment are: 1. Application to the real world; 2. Some of your views on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and 3. Evidence of your reading of the theory. So, as a rough guide: • The outline of a BSC, the company vision, mission and strategies involve application. • A strategy map for the company involves application and your views. • ...

For doing Strategic Management Accounting assignment (using Balanced Scorecard), I will use the example of CEC (759) as an example for illustration in coming SMA tutorial session. The Internet link doc See also related Youtube video 1 Series 1 ; series 2 ; series 3 ; series 4 ; series 5 ; series 6 ; series 7 ; series 8 Make sure you also study: Kaplan and Norton (1996) "Linking the Balanced Scorecard to Strategy" California Management Review , Vol 39, Vo. 1, Fall. pp. 5379. Reference FB folder on 759 Note: For SMA assignment, try to study a pofit-making company (not a non-profit-making organization); it is acceptable to study a company that is not listed in Stock Exchange [if it is feasible for you to do so.] It is theoretically tricky to appy strategic management thinking for a non-profit-making company.

Due to my recent involvement in teaching in Accounting programme, I encounter a problem: do people need HKICPA to be employed as Financial Controller(s) in HK, especially in listed companies. I find that discussion about ACCA and HKICPA qualification are getting tricky (and emotional). Briefing sessions by some Professional Bodies can be quite biased and confusing (like a typical promotional talk by sales people in commercial enterprises). I am a teacher and my concern is for students to be a competent intellectual with good employability. Not to get too involved in the "debate", my findings are that: a. If you want to be a CPA in HK (qualified external auditor in Hong Kong), you need to go through the HKICPA scheme. b. If you want to be a Financial Controller in HK, e.g. in a listed company, it is not compulsory, legally speaking, that you must be a member of HKICPA. [see also video from Youtube and related article (pdf)] If you work for a non-listed company, the case i...

Very often, I am not fully aware of the implications of my viewpoints as expressed in my lecture. Thus, it is interesting to learn my student's account of what she picked up from my lecture. I quote the following from a student's email: "讀完SMA之後我最記得你講过要“maintain sustainable competitive advantages". 当要連做幾份assignment及考試透不过氣時，又想起你的教導“just do it",“ 咁少事都驚，怎去保家衛國？“，便充滿能量！" Yes, I did say that in my Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) lecture, but I still find it interesting to have this student's account on my lecture. Many thanks to my student indeed. I understand that my teaching style does not suit all students.. but then I "just do it".

The education centre asks me to deliver a 5-hour workshop for Master Degree (Accounting) students doing Dissertation in Nov 2013; the workshop agenda is as follows: A. How to avoid Plagiarism : re: blog article * Referencing, quotation & Citation: blog article on referencing B. Common available frameworks on accounting research methodologies C. How to turn your dissertation into a forum / Journal paper: a) condense the article to around 3,500 words b) make the article reader-friendly c) conform to specific journal format d) on Open Access journals D. Defense your paper in academic panel interview at master degree level: a) Be informed, e.g keep reading around your thesis topic; you need to be aware what you know and what you do not know on your research topic b) Be genuinely interested in your topic c) Be prepared to explain the academic and practical values of your research work d) Try to publish your findings in some academic journals and conferences beforehand Rel...

The following thesis and articles on Multi-perspective, Systems-based (MPSB) Research have open access: MPSB Research e-learning Managerial intellectual learning Enlightening Management Education

Univeristy requires the Business Admin students to make an oral presentation for their dissertation projects. Most students just read out the content from their notes with poor pronounciation; and the notes they read out have lots of grammatical errors. 1 student did not even provide powerpoint slides and just kept saying sorry. The summarized notes read out are often not a proper highlight of their dissertation reports. Anyway, the line of reasoning in the presentation content, very often, is disorganized and intellectually unimpressive. After listening to their "presentation" for 1-2 minutes, I felt so bored that I just made some brief comments and gave a low but passing mark to most of them. Quite many of them would tell me that they were busy these days and did not have much time to work on their dissertation projects nor to prepare for their oral presentations. One of the students did a bit better than others; but, after the presentation, she walked up to me and said t...

Main topics in Sept 7 lecture of IS A. Probability/ Impact Grid in Risk Analysis B. Investment appraisal and Requirement Determination 1. 4 appraisal techniques: payback method, accounting rate of return, NPV, IRR\ - Accounting rate of return: (average annual accounting profit/ average investment) x 100% Average investmnet = (initial investment + scrap value)/ 2 2. Comparison of NPV and IRR 3. Business requirements and user requirements * Business requirments * User requirements: functional requirements and non-functional requirements 4. Requirement determination * What is a requirement * Requirement definition - "as-is system" and "to-be system" * The basic process of analysis: (1) understand "as-is system"; (2) identify improvements, and (3) developing requirements for "to-be system". - identifies requirements as those within the scope of the system study. * Requirement analysis techniques: BPA, BPI and BPR - Bu...