It is a sine quo non for business leaders to use, rather than just produce financial information. I am in absolute agreement with this phenomenon in that the information generated by the international professional accounting community highly affects various stakeholders in the decision making process to govern businesses. Therefore any material elements within the financial information that boarder on misguidance will lead to corporate financial disaster as can be deduced from history.
Being in the accounting and finance fraternity, I have always being challenged by a million dollar question relating to the complexity of the stakeholders of financial accounting information. Indeed it is a challenge; however, this cannot be used as an excuse to perpetrate financial accounting information misguidance to satisfy selfish interests.
People that indispensably make use of financial accounting information include customers, suppliers, shareholders, employees, financial institutions etc. I am of a view that these stakeholders have adventedly and vividly been duped by the international accounting profession to an extent that confidence has been corroded.
There is a long list of historical cases that document a series of financial scandals that are as a result of deliberate misguidance instigated by the international financial professional in order to fulfil ill financial ambitions. The famous Enron, WorldCom, HIH Insurance, Barrings Bank etc. Apparently, this is why I am totally agreeing to the fact that the international accounting profession has lost its way and is no longer attending to the needs of diverse users of accounting information in a manner which is apposite and evocative for the global business environment today. In conclusion, I would like to assert that there is a need of a holistic and concerted set of efforts to curb all these mushrooming financial machinations.
References:
Stockholders and
References: Stockholders and Stakeholders: A new perspective on Corporate Governance. By: Freeman, R. Edward; Reed, David L.. California Management Review, Spring83, Vol. 25 Issue 3, p88-106 Shiller R. (2003), “From Efficient Markets Theory to Behavioral Finance”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 17, n. 1,