IFAC Articles of Merit are worth a look

IFAC (the global body for the accounting profession) recently posted the shortlisted entrants for the 2009 articles of merit competition - an X Factor for writers on accountancy - and (yay) I'm on the list at an ominous number 13. No need thankfully for a SuBo on-stage experience, as the award is based on online votes. You can vote until 15 Nov.

This is not (just) a shameless attempt to drive traffic to the IFAC site, the articles are genuinely worth a look - they've all been specifically selected for the award, and cover a range of topics. I particularly like

No 19 - as shared services seems to be an unfairly neglected option;

No 24 on pensions - earlier this year according to KPMG, FTSE 100 companies reached a tipping point, as their pension obligations to former employees exceeded their contributions to the benefits for current staff; and

no. 21 which made me think "just how much waste and inefficiency is caused by having too much choice?"

For example, I don't think "choice" of schools has been a positive thing for my local authority. Pupils are bussed all over the borough, poorly performing schools are catapulted into failure as they are deserted by pupils, parents or teachers who can wrangle a place/job elsewhere and some pupils don't have a school place at all.

For some contexts, Henry Ford had it right. "Any colour as long as it's black" at least made the car affordable for the ordinary person and grew a new market quickly enough to achieve the critical mass to support the rapid growth of the necessary infrastructure of roads, petrol stations, and garages. Sometimes choice is greed.

So take a look at the IFAC articles - if nothing else you're getting some CPD reading in, but odds are you'll find something useful, informative or thought-provoking there too.