The Parker Review targets for ethnic diversity on UK boards are already influencing director recruiting for FTSE companies and are becoming an important governance issue for both boards and investors. It is hard to collect data on this topic…
The gender balance of the boards of the UK's public companies has rightly received a lot of attention. Over the last decade, starting from a low base, the number of women on these boards has increased significantly. So where does…
While working on Numerable, I've been building my knowledge of the public companies whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange. I'd (perhaps naively) thought that these companies were 'British'. It was a surprise to find that many companies…
Today we celebrate the achievements of women on International Women's Day. But in some areas there is a long way to go to achieve gender equality - and it's important to understand how that equality is measured. We used Numerable…
One of the biggest business networks in the UK is "hidden" in plain sight - it's the network of the UK’s 4.7 million registered companies and their directors, other officers and owners. Many directors and owners are (or have been)…
In my previous blog on financial reporting I described steps 1 to 3, that make up the bookkeeping phase in which accounting records are created. But that looks at the past. It's already happened; it's done and dusted. Hence the…
Do your eyes glaze over when you look at financial reports? Mine do - and I've seen it happen with lots of other people. I've talked about this with both 'producers' of reports (FDs, CFOs, accountants etc.) and 'consumers' (Owners,…
Accounting is taking a new direction. We’ve all seen it — cloud-based software and automation has stormed the gates but, in the settling dust, lie hidden challenges that we must address before embracing the new age. More and more I’m…
In my last blog I introduced the 6 steps in the financial reporting process. Now I'm going to discuss the first 3 of those and some related problems - and I'll give a few tips on how to solve them.…
In this series of blogs I'm going to discuss the financial reporting workflow in SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). I'm doing so as an entrepreneur, so I'll be focusing on business issues, not technicalities. I'm not an accountant. But I've…