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The Purpose of the Corporation

Accountability in Corporate Governance and Financial Institutions Conference

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

The Purpose of the Corporation 193 members Member

Andrew Keay Follow Andrew Accountability in Corporate Governance and Financial Institutions Conference

Andrew Keay Barrister at 9 Stone Buildings Top Contributor

A conference addressing Accountability in Corporate Governance and Financial Institutions is being held at the Centre for Business Law and Practice, School of Law, University of Leeds, UK on 19 June 2014 (9.00-17.00). The conference is inter-disciplinary. The identity of all speakers and further details, including how to register, are available at : http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/events/2014/accountability-in-corporate-governance-and-financial-institutions - the keynote address will be given by Melvin Dubnick. There is no charge for attendance and lunch and refreshments throughout the day are provided.

Accountability in corporate governance and financial institutions law.leeds.ac.uk

This conference held by the Centre for Business Law and Practice will address the concept of accountability in the context of corporate governance and financial institutions. It will also consider what benefits accountability could have in this...

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Christopher Halburd Christopher Christopher Halburd Head of Brussels Operations at Frank Bold Society

Many thanks indeed for sharing Andrew. This looks very interesting.

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Peter Burgess Peter Burgess Founder/CEO at TrueValueMetrics developing Multi Dimension Impact Accounting

I like the idea of the conference ...

But when I look at the subject matter, I see a lot about 'accountability to', but not so much about 'accountability for'.

Maybe I am missing something ... but I don't get the feeling that those who are leading the intellectual discussion have a sufficient investment in the idea that the purpose of economic activity is above all to improve the state of people (their standard of living and quality of life) and to do this in a way that does not 'fry the planet' and deliver in the long term an uninhabitable moonscape.

Having corporate leadership accountable for profit and nothing else at this point in the 21st century is irresponsible ... something way better is needed.

Peter Burgess - TrueValueMetrics Multi Dimension Impact Accounting Delete 1 day ago

Andrew Keay Andrew Andrew Keay Barrister at 9 Stone Buildings Top Contributor

Peter,

I agree. The reason is that I think the concept of accountability is used cavalierly, and not really understood, primarily because there has been little said about its meaning. The issue you raise will, I think, be considered at the conference to some extent. I am also writing a book on accountability in Corporate governance and I am seeking to address the issue, amongst several others.

Andrew

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Peter Burgess Peter Burgess Founder/CEO at TrueValueMetrics developing Multi Dimension Impact Accounting

Andrew ... thank you for your comment back

I am curious about from where the conference participants are starting their journeys. I am a huge optimist, but also something of an engineer and systems analyst. The reason I am an optimist is that our technical knowledge is so much deeper than it was when I left college a little more than 50 years ago. I started to travel the world in the early 1970s and have watched how the number of educated young people has grown. These two facts should be enough to mean that the socio-economic situation of the world gets to be way better than at any time in history.

But there are other facts. Socio-economic progress has been rather modest compared to what it could have been and should have been. This is because of powerful negative factors that are causing socio-economic dysfunction.

The mathematics of complex systems suggests to me that what we presently think of as 'governance' is incredibly outdated ... more suited to the age of horse drawn carriages than the potential hyper-loop transport systems envisioned by Elon Musk and his ilk!

As a one time Chartered Accountant, I am an advocate for metrics at the center of management and decision making ... but the metrics must be those that are relevant to the complex society that we inhabit. Conventional money profit accounting is inadequate for the 21st century where the man-made environment is getting to be about the same scale as the natural environment, with serious damage to the latter. Metrics are a powerful tool, but the purpose of this tool is to have everyone start to make better decisions that will impact society and the environment for the better.

I am not an expert on law ... though I do have a pretty clear idea of what is right and what is wrong. I am concerned that 'rule of law' needs to be looked at with very clear eyes to determine to what extent it has been 'gamed' so that wrong things have become legal! The recent revelations by Michael Lewis concerning how stock markets have been working for the last few years is just another case of dysfunction in critical parts of the modern economic system.

Exciting times ... but a lot to fix!

Peter Burgess - TrueValueMetrics Multi Dimension Impact Accounting