This topic was explored during a roundtable discussion organised by the ACCA in Singapore on 2 November 2009. Chaired by its President, Brendan Murtagh, the roundtable gathered distinguished personalities across the board to share their views and thoughts. They include David Gereld, the President and CEO of Securities Investors Association Singapore, Yeoh Oon Jin, Head of Assurance Practice, Pricewaterhouse Singapore and Dr Ng Boon Beng, Finance Director, Oracle Malaysia. Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff, the CEO and Thought Leader of Inovastra, represented the Asean Federation of Accountants.

The value of audit was lengthy discussed especially on the background of corporate failures, declining public confidence and the widening expectation gap. A number of other issues were explored such as the possible widening of the audit scope, communication and alternative assurance services for the small medium enterprise sector (SMEs).

The panellists generally agreed that audit has value. However, almost everybody supported the view that auditors have to communicate more effectively to the shareholders and stakeholders. This would require the present audit reporting framework to be revamped.

In the area of audit for small medium enterprises, it was agreed that establishing audit threshold is necessary to elevate the burden of compliance from the smaller SMEs. The level of threshold should be determined based on the level of economic development of the jurisdictions concerned.

The roundtable also concluded that the auditing profession should also consider opportunities in the wider audit function especially relating to the environment and sustainability. Accounting profession around the world should not let this opportunity to be seized by other professions and accountants are in the best position to take up the role.

Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff, the CEO and Thought Leader of Inovastra was invited to give a key note address at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's International Management Accounting Conference held at Cititel Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 20 October 2009. Nik provided his views on how collaboration between academicians and practising accountants would enhance accounting knowledge.

Nik eloborated about the network-centric approach which is being applied by many companies. Using the concept of Wikinomics, he shared how companies are now looking for talents and brain power outside of their organisational walls.

Given that academicians have the knowledge based and research capabilities, they are well positioned to participate in a more collaborative environment. Their key challenge would be how to build relationships with industry players so that the academicians would be the first face to be recall whenever people in industry have certain business needs.

At the same time Nik also highlighted that business issues and challenges come from a multi-dimensional perspective. Therefore, offering a narrow and singular solution would not work well in solving real life problems.

The conference was officiated by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and also attended by foreign academicians from Australia, United Kingdom and few other countries.

His presentation could be viewed and downloaded at:

http://www.slideshare.net/hasyudeen/collaboration-between-academicians-and-practitioners-in-enhancing-accounting-knowledge-2291574
 

REPORTING failures can still occur even after all the structures, governance, standards and regulations are in place, says the former president of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff.

"We are only human, and humans can fail. Structures can only do so much (to ensure corporate governance)," he said.

Nik Mohd Hasyudeen was presenting a paper titled "Assessing the Integrity of Current Accounting Practices" at the Asian World Summit in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The event was organised by the Asian World Summit Sdn Bhd.

 

"Nevertheless, we cannot take for granted the possibility of reporting failures, but should instead, strive to drive governance to prevent the failures," he added.


Nik Mohd, who is also the chief executive officer of business advisory firm Inovastra, said that as the economy recovers, people will tend to forget what caused the downturn.

He quoted the example of how companies would join the bandwagon, even if it may not be right thing to do, just so as not to lose out on the competition.

Meanwhile, he suggested that in order to strengthen corporate governance, an important question that could be posed to companies even prior to their listing was on their financial reporting.

"May be there is a need to consider the capability of companies to have good financial reporting as part of their listing requisite."

This, he said, may even be included as a section within a company listing prospectus.

"The capabilities are even more imperative due to the complexity in the accounting standards and businesses going forward, especially since the public listed companies hold public money," he said.

As reported in Business Times 30 September 2009

You can download the presentation slides here:
http://www.slideshare.net/hasyudeen/assessing-the-integrity-of-current-accounting-practices
 

Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff, the CEO and Thought Leader of Inovastra,  was given the opportunity to share my thought and views on the issue of value creation in the changing business landscape at the MIA Regional Conference in Kuching, Sarawak on 10 and 11 August 2009.

 

Enterprises are encouraged to focus on the strategy when operating in business environment that keep changing. I advised businesses to understand what value proposition they are offering to their chosen market segment and keep validating their business models when environment and circumstances changes.

Change drivers such as politics, economy, society, technology and environment shape business environment and enterprises need to under stand the impact of these drivers on the demand of their goods and services, competitive levels and their capabilities of value creation.

During the first day of the conference, Nik moderated a forum with the topic Challenging Times - A Crisis or an Opportunity which was participated by Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff from the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research and Thomas Lam Tai Loong from UOB Group Singapore.