Peter Burgess Dialog
Marco Monfils (in Hungary)

October 2013 ... About MDIA ... trying to make it useful

Gmail Peter Burgess
RE: About MDIA ... trying to make it useful
Peter Burgess via LinkedIn
Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 10:43 AM
To: Peter Burgess
Cc: Marco Monfils

On 10/14/13 10:15 AM, Peter Burgess wrote:
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Dear Marco

I am not sure whether this link will work ... but it gives access to a paper on my TrueValueMetrics - Multi Dimension Impact Accounting initiative. http://www.truevaluemetrics.org/DBadmin/DBtxt001.php?vv1=txt00005637

It also gives access to a couple of slide sets that try to explain MDIA in a relatively few bullet points.

Your critical feedback is welcomed

Peter

I read all 3 links (i speed-read 700 words/minute, faster if i want:-)

I really like the TBL idea, modified to fit People, planet

In line with your conclusion, i see a serious inconsistency between today's linear profit reporters/money makers and tomorrow's TBL thinkers(dreamers?)

I dislike the metrics proposed for product, place, etc, as it makes more sense to make metrics for people, planet.

Maybe People includes place?
Maybe Planet includes place?

My loose thoughts for your consideration.

Best, Marco

Thanks for the observations.

The MDIA metrics are an integrated comprehensive system that uses a single set of data to measure state, progress and performance for: (1) profit; (2) people; (3) planet 1 (land); (4) planet 2 (water); (5) planet 3 (atmosphere); (6) place; (7) product; (8) organization; and (9) time.

Time is not written into what I sent you ... but the others are (maybe not very well!).

All these elements have different characteristics, of course ... but they all have their purpose.

The dominant metric for the organization at the moment is the money flow and profit. The externalities are ignored.

Keeping track of metrics at the people level is great, but impossible to do where there are all sorts of issues around privacy.

Place is much easier. The town I grew up in in England was documented in the Domesday Book by William the Conqueror immediately after 1066. It is still there, and not much bigger!

People can see things in a place and report on them. Others can check on the reporting and validate the data.

People live in a place, and quality of life is impacted by what is in the place and goes on in the place.

Everything to do with planet happens in a place. It can be identified in a place.

Waste originates in a place and landfills are in a place. Factories and industries pollute (Niger Delta) in a place, and have accidents (Dhaka) in a place. These can be reported on and put into a dataset for tracking.

People (investors) invest in an organization that operated economic activities in a place. People (executives) make decisions in an organization in a place. People (workers) work in an organization in an economic activity in a place and get paid.

Workers' pay is a cost to the economic activity and to the organization. The same pay is a value to the worker, the workers' families and the community (place). The pay either stays in the place or moves to another place.

The planet is very large ... but all the impacts that hit the planet start off with an economic activity in a place. The economic activity may or may not involve organizations and people, but something (nature) is happening that is important for the planet and enables everything else.

Product is important. It is the value chain link that exists in many organizations, many places, and is what people buy, use and junk or choose not to buy use and junk. Product is a part of the decisions that go into changing behavior. We know all about product and price, and what our friends on social media think about the product, and what organizations advertise about products, but we don't know much about the TruCost of the product (PUMA and others are trying, but it is tiny compared to what is needed).

Product is part of a supply chain, there is a buy or not to buy decision, there is the use of the product and then there is the post use waste chain.

Economic activities have products that are consumed and products that are produced. All the truecost elements flow into and out of an economic activity as part of a data coherent analytical set.

I thought about positioning TVM-MDIA to displace the conversation about the TBL but have chosen instead to embrace TBL and expand it as described above.

The weakness of TBL is that it has an organization focus. On the other hand MDIA is completely agnostic with respect to how society and economics gets organized. Being agnostic is a critical characteristic of good metrics.

One other issue that I wanted to address with MDIA is the problem of 'silo' thinking ... single sector initiatives that cannot work because the problem is multi-sector.

There is also a focus on progress. Progress is change of state. It does not really matter how one gets there. Performance is the relationship between resources consumed and environment degraded relative to the progress achieved.

And all of this has to be quantified in a widely acceptable manner. This I propose to be done using a system of standard costs rather like standard costs in a cost accounting system.

You tell me you read fast ... and it certainly appears you do. (When I read fast I miss a lot, but as an old auditor I am quite good at reading upside down!)

I also write a lot, but not very clearly, and by the time I have finished I have forgotten what I was trying to say! I am trying to write less and clearly ... so have used this message to practice!

I really appreciate your criticism and encouragement. I hope this little essay will help. Corrections are valuable.

Peter
peterbnyc(at)gmail.com