CMA Canada has worked to build a strong, professional relationship with the Government of Canada

Cost management in the most complex organisation: the government

The largest and the most complex organisation in Canada is the Government of Canada, says Mr Richard Monk, Chairman, CMA (Certified Management Accountants) Canada. “It makes over $200 billion in expenditures annually, manages a workforce of some 4,50,000 people, and provides some 1,600 different programs and services across Canada and around the globe.”
Such sheer size and complexity create significant challenges to comptrollership, financial management and accountability, he adds, during the course of a recent e-mail interaction with Business Line.

CMA has ‘more than 37,000 CMAs and 10,000 CMA students,’ as http://www.cma-canada.org/ informs. And as the new chief of the body, when Mr Monk spoke of his priorities in the latest issue of http://www.managementmag.com/ , first came the aligning of ‘major governance initiatives,’ and second, continuing ‘to cultivate relationships with international associations with similar values and services to those of CMA Canada.’

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Accounting and reporting regimes have become more complex

Gaping gap in insurance reporting

Your insurance company might be eager to know a lot about you before offering you cover, which you may not want to share, much to the chagrin of the insurance companies. But a new survey has found that analysts tracking the insurance companies are in a much bigger dilemma, as they are unable to gather relevant data about how the companies go about their business.

This is partly to be blamed on a gaping information gap, said a report titled Insurance reporting at the crossroads: What do Analysts think prepared by one of the world’s largest professional services companies, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

It finds that there exists a significant gap between analysts’ rating of the potential ‘usefulness’ and current ‘adequacy’ of financial statements like balance-sheet, income statement and cash-flow statement, etc.

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Indian companies are beginning to realise the benefits of risk management

Internal auditors should learn new skills

Recently, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) brought out a survey titled ‘Internal Audit 2012’, and followed it up with an Asia-Pacific (Apac) supplement. These reports found that internal audit should follow an audit plan that isclearly linked to an enterprise-wide risk assessment and the company’s strategic objectives, says Ms Satyavati Berera, leader, internal audit services, PwC.

“We also found that internal auditors should aggressively obtain new skills and use new tools and techniques to optimise the use of technology. And that they need to be more proactive to ensure they provide real value to their companies,” she adds, during the course of an e-mail interaction with Business Line:

Excerpts from the interview:

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Marketing in domestic formulations has become a competitive function.

M&A the main driver for value unlocking in Indian pharma

‘Generics’ is the old story in the great Indian pharmaceutical space. The new kids on the block are ‘contract research and manufacturing services’ (CRAMS) providers.

The emphasis is on future leaders rather than established captains, and the rapid expansion plans charted by these emerging breeds make them a perfect fit for private equity players, who are hot on heels to get their slice of the growing pie.

Naturally, funding is less of an issue for these smaller companies, says Mr Navroz Mahudawala, Associate Director, Transaction Advisory Service of Ernst & Young (E&Y).
In an exclusive interaction with Business Line, over the e-mail, he also talks about the change in strategies of pharma MNCs (multinational corporations) present in India and why Europe is where all the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) action could be for Indian drug makers.

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