August-September 2012 - CIMA

Keeping a tab on the world of business Aug-Sept 2012

Vol III

Message from

Pratik Patel

Message from Pratik Patel.......................1

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Overall, the pass percentages across papers in India have improved in the May 2012 diet vis-à-vis the previous two diets.

Recap • CIMA MD visits India ...........................2 • WNS Event ............................................2 • ET NOW Panel Discussion .................3

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Content

• Induction-Manipal University............3 • Inauguration - ShadWell's ..................4

Up Next • Corporate Governance Seminar .......4 • Revision Lectures .................................4

CIMA's New Alliances • Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL) ...................................5 • Prime Academy.....................................5

Member Speak • Mark Bevan............................................6

Latest Vacancies on CIMA MYJOBS............................8 CIMA Insights .............................8 Important Dates ........................8 CIMA Applause...........................9 Contact Details ........................10

Dear CIMA students and members,

thereafter. Many students have grabbed this opportunity with both hands. Best Welcome back to another edition of of luck to them! Exam entry for CIMA Pulse. As always, it was heartening to see so many responses and feedback November diet starts from 1 August 2012 and closes on 14 September 2012. coming our way. They go a long way in helping us make Pulse more relevant, We are pleased to announce that CIMA interesting and insightful. and Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL) have come together to After the May exams, I am sure most of offer a Post Graduate Diploma in you were anxiously awaiting your Management from SCDL combined with results. Congratulations to all those who an Advanced Diploma in Management cleared the exams and for those who couldn't, remember Henry Ford's saying Accounting from CIMA. The CIMA-SCDL programme allows you to complete a “Failure is simply the opportunity to corporate Post Graduate Diploma in begin again, this time more Business Administration (PGDBA) with intelligently.” dual specialisation in Finance and Overall, the pass percentages across Management Accounting as well as papers in India have improved in the acquire the CIMA Advanced Diploma in May 2012 diet vis-à-vis the previous two Management Accounting. diets. The Professional gateway results CIMA India would also like to have been excellent, witnessing an congratulate all the students who have increase of more than 50% in pass gained admission, after the rigorous percentage vis-à-vis the previous diets. admission procedures, to Manipal The pass percentage of the students University, Christ University and studying at our listed tuition providers ShadWell's for their undergraduate has also been exceptional. On an programme integrated with CIMA. average, 65% of them cleared their respective exams. Well done to those These and many more events, issues and candidates. announcements can be found in detail in the following pages. We hope you enjoy For those who need to re-appear this edition of CIMA Pulse. We look Strategic level papers - we have good forward to your valuable feedback. news. Students can now appear for

strategic level re-sits on PC in September 2012. T4 exams and Strategic papers re-sits will be conducted in March and September

Regards, Pratik Patel, ACMA, CGMA Manager - Business Support CIMA India

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Keeping a tab on the world of business

recap CIMA Managing Director visits India

Andrew Harding, Managing Director - CIMA

Andrew Harding, Managing Director - CIMA, was on a whirlwind tour of India from 9-13 July. During this visit, he participated in two panel discussions, one held in Bengaluru and the other in Delhi, attended by many CIMA students, members and tuition providers. The discussions were based on the recent CIMA report 'Managing Responsible Business: A global survey on business ethics'. The Bengaluru event saw participation by Mr Sanjay Ramanujam, ACMA, CGMA, who shared his views on the report. Mr Ramanujam is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA, US) and the Chartered Institute of

Sanjay Ramanujam, Real estate head, Biodiversity Conservation India

Management Accountants. He currently heads a real estate company, Biodiversity Conservation India Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based organisation that is one of the largest sustainable developers in the country. In the Delhi edition, Mr Sidharth Vishwanath, Executive Director Risk and Advisory, PwC, shared his insights on the issue of ethics. He spoke about how, and why, ethics should be incorporated by the Management of all organisations. The sessions ended with interactions between the panelists and the CIMA students, members and tuition providers in the audience which involved some keen questioning.

WNS Higher Education Initiative WNS, a leading global business process outsourcing company, recently organised a 3-day event in Mumbai and Pune. The focus was on helping WNS employees understand the importance of a professional qualification such as CIMA. CIMA participated in this event as a Training Partner of WNS. The event received an overwhelming response in both the cities. As a result, more such events are now being planned for the future.

WNS

Extending Your Enterprise

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ET NOW Round Table Panel Discussion

From L-R: Neville Dumasia, Girish Bhat, Paromita Chatterjee, Andrew Harding and Keshav Murugesh

Andrew Harding also participated in a televised panel discussion organised by CIMA in collaboration with ET Now. The topic was Managing Responsible Business: The role of reputation and ethics. The aim was to achieve the following: • Explore and share the building blocks needed to manage responsible businesses, with inputs from the panelists • Share new perspective on the impact of reputation and ethical behaviour on business and discuss if reputation and ethics can be effectively measured for a business • Discuss how employee behaviour, external environmental pressures on ethical behaviour and ethical misdemeanour impact the business, reputation and goodwill

• Explore best practices in building responsible ethical behaviour in organisations, role of the 'tone from the top', business vision and values in doing so. The panel was moderated by Paromita Chatterjee, ET NOW presenter, and had the following as participants: • Mr Andrew Harding, Managing Director - CIMA • Mr Girish Bhat, ACMA, CGMA, CFO - Gammon India • Mr Neville Dumasia, Partner - Risk Advisory, Ernst & Young • Mr Keshav Murugesh, CEO - WNS The event was telecast on ET Now on 28-29 July 2012. To view this discussion, click here

Induction of 6th batch of BBM students, Manipal University On 20 July, the Department of Commerce, Manipal University inducted its 6th Batch of BBM students. The event was inaugurated by Mr M Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Overseas Bank. Ms Arati Porwal, Chief Representative - CIMA India, was the other Chief Guest. In her speech, Ms Porwal highlighted the history, growth and need of professional qualifications. This year, Manipal University has launched a new BBM (Professional) programme in collaboration with CIMA. The first batch consists of 40 students. They will study the CIMA qualification along with their BBM degree and emerge with a BBM from Manipal University and an Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting from CIMA at the end of three years.

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Inauguration of Academic Programmes for 2012, ShadWell's School of Business ShadWell's School of Business, an institution having campuses in Kochi, Trivandrum, Calicut and Bengaluru inaugurated its Academic Programmes for 2012 on Saturday, 21 July at Kochi with Ms Arati Porwal as Chief Guest. This was a common inauguration for all programmes offered by the institution. ShadWell's has been successfully running CIMA programmes for the past three years and is currently CIMA's largest learning partner in India in terms of student recruitment.

Up

ne t Corporate Governance Seminar 28 September 2012, Mumbai CIMA, in collaboration with Corporate Dossier - a supplement of The Economic Times with a special focus on management and strategy targeted at the CEOs of corporate India - is going to sponsor a seminar on Corporate Governance. In its fourth year now, this seminar plans to bring industry stalwarts onto a thought leadership platform to discuss superior

business performances and how the underlying trends and strategies can help a company become more effective and transparent. The panel will see participation from eminent industry people. Mr Charles Tilley, CEO - CIMA, is also scheduled to be a speaker in one of the panels. If you would like to attend the seminar, mail us at [email protected]

Revision Lectures To assist the students appearing for the September PC exams, two revision lectures via WebEx have been organised. The schedule is as follows: Date Paper Faculty

: 18 August 2012 : T4 : Jyoti Narayan

Date Paper Faculty

: 25 August 2012 : E3 (Enterprise Strategy) : Arj Wignaraja

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CIMA's

New Alliances Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL) Finance and Management Accounting. Mr Andrew Harding, Managing Director - CIMA and Ms Arati Porwal, Chief Representative - CIMA India signed the MoU on CIMA's behalf while Dr Swati Mujumdar - Principal Director of Symbiosis Open Education Society and Mr Namdeo Kumbhar, Registrar of SCDL, signed on behalf of Symbiosis.

Namdeo Kumbhar and Andrew Harding

On 10 July, CIMA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SCDL, Pune, to roll out a two-year distance learning Post Graduate Diploma in Management with dual specialisation in

Some of the key features of the programme are that it does not have any entrance test. Neither does it require any minimum graduation percentage. Features that are in sync with CIMA's philosophy of open entry. SCDL is going to provide support in terms of virtual classrooms, live chats and call centres in addition to study material and CD/ DVDs of lectures. While this year, the focus is on offering this programme to all graduates, in 2013 Management Accounting may become an optional dual specialisation for all SCDL Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDBA) students.

Prime Academy Prime Academy is the largest institution for CA coaching in Chennai. Till date, they have trained more than 70,000 students for CA. Known for their quality of teaching and success in CA exams, Prime signed up as a CIMA Listed Learning Partner in May 2012 to offer a wider range of programmes to its students. The academy plans to offer tuition support to CIMA students from Certificate to Strategic level starting August-September 2012.

prime academy IN PURSUIT OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

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Member Speak Ethics in an Uncertain World information. As time has progressed, there has been a drive for standardisation of this information to ensure that owners and investors alike can have a 'true and fair'

will truly test whether your VoE has a moral compass or not and will stand the test of time. It is only in the day-to-day work context where you will, as a Management Accountant, begin to find the true test of one's No amount of research, ethical strength. This is where simulation or exams will truly your VoE will either become louder and stronger or will test whether your voice of ethics perish into obscurity and a line has a moral compass or not. Assistant Vice President - Finance will have been crossed which is JCB India then difficult for most individuals to return from. Do As a professional Management Accountant, view of the business. This has led to a need not follow this path! the 'Voice of Ethics' (VoE) has always been for consistency, openness and standardised in my head, talking to me softly. Over time, work methods to an extent. But We all, I believe, have ethics or morals throughout, there has been a need to the voice has become stronger and more within us but it is also about how we ensure the human interface (you and me) demanding of me. The VoE has never been choose to use or deploy them that makes does what it is supposed to do. This has in a lone voice but as I have become more us different from others and is perhaps a experienced in my work, it has become one itself led to professional expectations from key differentiator for others in the individuals who prepare accounts and a of the louder and more consistent voices workplace too. Or at least it should be. As a focus on their training and work practices. that I listen to. Management Accountant, we also have a professional requirement to ensure we I have always had what I would call a moral From the beginning of an accountant's life, follow ethical practices. we are taught the five basic principles of upbringing where the sense of right and accounting (Going Concern, Accruals wrong was taught to me through various So along with standards, training and a Matching, Historical Cost, Consistency and willingness to deploy ethical behaviour, methods, mainly through my parents but Prudence). Thus, our road from moral to also through my schooling. But it wasn't what else has influenced the strong shift ethics has begun and that VoE in our head really until I became a qualified towards a stronger VoE over time? The has now been switched on (or I hope it Management Accountant that the moral business environment has definitely shaped code transformed into a strong ethical one. has!). the changes and driven a greater ethical expectation in the general business sense. So why has VoE become a stronger, more This has meant that employers, too, play a We all have ethics or morals persistent voice for me and others in our key role now in ensuring strong ethical within us but it is also about profession? And why has it transitioned behaviour from all their employees. In my how we choose to use or deploy from a moral code to an ethical one? The them that makes us different view, this can only be a good thing. answer is of course the convergence of a from others… multitude of different influences which I In addition to this, the fact that our However, books, training and knowledge will attempt to explain in the following business environment globally has become do not really prepare the newly qualified paragraphs. less predictable, less seasonal almost Management Accountant for the real world means that situations we as Management Since accounting began, people have used where his VoE will be tested daily. No Accountants find ourselves in have become certain methods to provide financial amount of research, simulation or exams

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Mark Bevan

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Member Speak less predictable too. This means that we need to be constantly alert to ethical issues and should be able to react to situations we come across, perhaps now more frequently. For example, as a business grows quickly in a market such as India, business controls and employees both get stretched. This means opportunities for ethical concerns could perhaps arise. As opportunities arise and people are too busy trying to get the day job done, opportunities can be taken by the unscrupulous. This means, now more than ever, the Management Accountant has a key role to play in ensuring a strong VoE within the organisation they are employed.

One concerning trend… is the apparent decline in the importance attached to ethical practices at the top of the company. So can this view be backed up by data? A recent report by CIMA, Managing Responsible Businesses: A Global Survey on Business Ethics, presented at a recent CIMA meeting held in Delhi by Andrew Harding (Managing Director of CIMA) shows an increase in the focus on ethics over time and during higher business uncertainty. For those of you interested in the report, it can be found here. The summary of the report shows that from 2008 to 2011, organisations seem to have improved their ethics framework. Most have done so in theory, like documentation or policies and also in training and incentives to staff for upholding ethical standards. This is encouraging in some respects, but policies

and tick lists are only a small part of a strong ethics culture in an organisation. One concerning trend from this report is the apparent decline in the importance attached to ethical practices at the top of the company. This is critical for ensuring that an ethical culture is maintained and sustained for the long term good of the organisation and its stakeholders. A Management Accountant has a clear role here and his internal VoE should drive him to play an active role in making 'ethical practice' a key agenda and a basic day-to-day activity for all. According to the report, one in three people felt pressurised to compromise with the organisation's standards or ethical business conduct, with India unfortunately scoring higher here. Again, a Management Accountant has a key role to play here and ensuring good visibility of information on the company's performance and health to senior management is one of them. Surprises in businesses performance often create pressures on management and can lead to ethical dilemmas for some. This can to an extent be avoided by good financial systems, risk and opportunity analysis and clear timely communication to the management. Often, it is the desire to hide poor results or show inflated ones that create the pressure on Management Accountants to give an inaccurate view. But here training, experience, clear policies and the resolve of individuals can and will often make a difference, thus ensuring our internal VoE is heard by others at crucial times. A Management Accountant has a key role in ensuring that a strong ethical culture is sustained by getting himself

actively involved at such times.

Often, it is the desire to hide poor results or show inflated ones that create the pressure on Management Accountants to give an inaccurate view. So in quick summary: as a Management Accountant, you have a well-trained 'Voice of Ethics'. Deploy it whenever required, train it as you gain experience and never be afraid to use it when your professional standards require it. In this ever-changing business world, the Management Accountant should adhere to his role of upholding ethical standards and be more than comfortable in being a torch bearer of ethical standards for all stakeholders.

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Latest Vacancies on

CIMA MYJOBS Employer Job Role Position Location Sector Eligibility

: : : : : :

Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd Assistant Management Accountant Management Accounting Trainee Multiple l ocations Retail and FMCG Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting

Employer : Prudential Process Management Services India Pvt Ltd Job Role : Finance Operations Position : Analyst/ Assistant Manager Location : Mumbai (may need to travel abroad) Sector : BFSI Eligibility : CIMA qualified/ final stage of qualifying with 1-2 years of experience

APPLY

APPLY

For more vacancies, log on to http://myjobs.cimaglobal.com

CIMA Insights Ethics & Performance Report

experience pressure in the workplace, set against the wider ethical environment, as well as exploring in more detail the context of five CIMA markets.

CIMA has recently released a new report titled Acting under pressure – how management accountants manage ethical issues.

Building on the CGMA report 'Managing responsible business', this CIMA report is based on responses from 1760 CIMA members and students from over 80 markets, working in functions from analyst to chief financial officer.

This report highlights the different areas where management accountants might

To read the entire report, click on the image below.

Important Dates Sept (T4 and re-sits) - PC based Exam fee deadline Admission Advice Exam Exam results released

8 August 2012 w/c 13 August 2012 28, 29, 30, 31 August, 1 September 2012 20 September 2012

November Paper Based Exam entry closes Pre seen material for students Admission Advice Exams Exam results released

14 September 2012 (5.00pm BST) Mid July 2012 w/c 13 August 2012 20, 21, 22 November 2012 Mid January 2013

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CIMA

Applause

CIMA is delighted to announce the names of students who have achieved top ranks in the various papers of the May 2012 exams. Congratulations to all of you. Well done on all your hard work. You make us very proud!

CIMA Applause – May 2012 exam diet Paper Name

First Name

Surname

Marks

Country Rank

CIMA Gateway Assessment A1 Professional Gateway A1 Professional Gateway G1 Management Accountant Gateway G1 Management Accountant Gateway M1 Masters Gateway M1 Masters Gateway

Ajay Vinay Rajendran Vipan Dimple Keshav

M Bajoria Ramesh Jain Thakkar Sreedharan

85 80 70 66 70 65

1 2 1 2 1 2

Operational and Mangement Level Papers E1 Enterprise Operations E1 Enterprise Operations E1 Enterprise Operations E2 Enterprise Management E2 Enterprise Management F1 Financial Operations F1 Financial Operations F2 Financial Management F2 Financial Management P1 Performance Operations P1 Performance Operations P2 Performance Management P2 Performance Management

Ann Yashwin Sheldon Sanjiv Rajib Kolla Aravind Kasturi Kolla Yashwin Sushmitha Nikita Prasun

Dattani Jain Dsouza Rastogi Biswas Sravan Kumar Sathyanarayana R Sravan Kumar Jain Bhat Iyer Bajoria

77 71 71 66 64 72 72 79 77 85 83 87 85

1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2

Strategic Level Paper E3 Enterprise Strategy E3 Enterprise Strategy F3 Financial Strategy F3 Financial Strategy P3 Performance Strategy P3 Performance Strategy P3 Performance Strategy

Shahnas Rahul Emma Reeta Ashish Megha Pazhayannur

Shajahan Choraria Njavally Gupta Kamath Nair Sivaramakrishnan

75 71 74 69 66 62 62

1 2 1 2 1 2 2

31 credits 31 credits

1 1

Test for Professional Competence T4 Part B Case Study T4 Part B Case Study Examination Kumari T4 Part B Case Study Examination Vishwanath

Tinku Chidambaran

• In case you wish to share your achievements, please write to us at [email protected]

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Contact Contact details of CIMA India representatives as per region North

West

Arti Sarup E. [email protected] M. +91 98102 24121

Saifuddin Lokhandwala E. [email protected] M. +91 84520 41550

Aditi Gupta E. [email protected] M. +91 99996 41841

Cochin

Bengaluru Lata Murli E. [email protected] M. +91 97314 07446 Shikha Nag E. [email protected] M. +91 81974 71556

Fenil Vadakken Sunny E. [email protected] M. +91 98470 05818 Chennai K Senthil Vadivu E. [email protected] M. +91 93813 84899 Backia Lakshmi D E. [email protected] M. +91 90032 32603

For more details, contact: CIMA India Liaison Office T. +91 22 4237 0100 +91 22 4237 0111 +91 22 3291 1383 E. [email protected] www.cimaglobal.com/india

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