Essay About William L. Ferrara And Managerial Accounting Award

Topics Worthy of Continued Discussion and Effort
Maureen G. MangaringBA 220 – WFX“Topics Worthy of Continued Discussion and Effort”        As a recipient of the Lifetime Contribution to Managerial Accounting Award, we could say that William L. Ferrara is one of the brightest scholars in the field of business and management, who shaped the concept of Managerial Accounting to what it is now. In this article, he explained to us three major points that he believed members of the academe should consider in order to revolutionize how courses/subjects would be more appropriately taught to keep the “golden era” alive. First, he mentioned that it is important for research and instruction to go together to be able to keep the academe and students abreast with information, solutions, methods, models, etc., which may be applicable in todays business issues. He was saying that in any field, one must continuously learn, in order to apply appropriate strategies necessary in adapting accordingly to change. For Ferrara, continuous research is key in increasing the competency and efficacy of not only the academe, but its students as well. Second, Ferrara further explained that as businesses become complex and in the advent of advanced technology, one cannot isolate a business function from the other. Core business functions must  harmoniously collaborate and integrate their related activities towards the organizations competitive advantage and synergistic impact.  This was the reason why he suggested the integration of various related subjects into one multi-credit, team-taught course in business schools, to give the students a general/holistic perspective in running a business/organization. And lastly, he mentioned that it is very crucial for an organization to “walk the talk”. This means that managements decisions must translate and be consistent with the organizations performance. To improve this, Ferrara proposed that the academe and practitioners as well must take a closer look at the relation ship of financial and managerial accounting.