In the good old days when accountants were in vogue, and IT was in its infancy, the phrase ‘lean ‘ accounting probably didn’t exist either as a phrase or a concept. Nowadays, being ‘lean’ and ‘just in time’ is more appropriate for Operations management.  But, if we are talking about ‘lean ‘accounting, what do we mean?  There are a couple of concepts here which at first seem dichotomous, but on closer inspection  are very similar  Firstly Lean Accounting as defined by Operations.  This concept, which has evolved from the Automotive and high volume manufacturing sectors, is relatively  straightforward to understand. It means accounting processes designed to report waste and slack in order to give operational personnel the facts to improve their own area of operations into a slicker and faster process.  The Accountant needs to be responsive and identify the relevant controllable costs within the Operational landscape so that service and product delivery is done to maximise return.   The reporting function here is often counter intuitive because  what we are talking about is examining the respective operational processes to identify bottle necks, minimise inventory holding costs and have a ‘just in time ‘ mentality. The dichotomy here is that, at every stage of the production process, snags are liable to occur, so the JIT way of working may not work where there are interruptions to the supply chain and, knowing this; managers build in slack to their plans.  JIT aims to meet demand instantaneously with perfect quality and no waste, to an accountant this is music to the bookkeeping ears, however, life (and production processes) is messy.  JIT has a large variety of sub definitions including synchronous flow, continuous flow, stockless production, fast throughput and short cycle time operation.  In more traditional operations management models, excess stocks exist, there will be down time and personnel issues. Operational personnel put buffers in to cope with these, not necessarily telling the Accountant that they exist and using these as permanent backups for when things go wrong.   The larger these buffers, the greater is the degree of insulation between each operational stage  and such buffers give the false impression that each stage is operating in an efficient manner.  This is an important point, this insulation effect needs to be identified and accounted for, its most perverse syndrome is the holding of excess stock and so we are accounting for capacity utilisation  When stoppages occur this insulation effect assists in the smoothing of operations. However, we accountants are missing a trick. The whole point of lean operations management is that it is demand led, i.e. you are only producing to order, not producing for stock (which is in itself costly). Unless the output can be sold quickly, there is no point in having surplus stock hanging round.   So lean accounting is all about a) identifying costs of production and eliminating wasteful practices and b) ensuring that costs and costing systems can identify variable and fixed costs which are directly related to the ‘costs to serve’ approach rather than the ‘costs to produce’ After all , if nobody wants to buy the product, what is the point of making it?  The lean philosophy of operational accounting is doing simple things well and efficiently and identifying those areas where buffers can be minimised, efficiencies enhanced and stock holding minimised.  Typical KPIs include working capital ratios and Cash Conversion cycles which attempt to show measures of time expressed in days rather than absolute numbers, so the what is trying to be measured  and accounted for here is a process flow of operations rather than absolute returns on investment of profit per out unit.  Where the Accountant struggles in terms of collating data about measuring how ‘lean’ processes are depends on what is precisely being measured. There are Six Sigma metrics, Capacity Utilisation rates, levels of process waste and order fulfilment cysles,  What is important in these sort of metrics is that the measures are consistently obtained over a period of time and rather looking at absolute KPIs they are looked at on a periodic basis for trends .  So, a lot has been written about lean operations management, the accountant can support this initiative by pro actively reporting the key areas of waste, inefficiency and down time, but what of the very  accountancy processes themselves, this is the second definition of ‘lean accounting’,   Lean Accounting as defined by Accounting   This is a largely philosophical area in how fundamentally the business views the Accounting Function, and how, more importantly the Accounting Function views its own internal processes in supporting and reporting the operational processes.  It is also a function of how the organisation is structured.  The traditional silo approach to organisations has largely been replaced by cross functional design, and lean organisations are now flatter.  KPIs such as time to market, or machine process flow indicate measures of value streams in an organisation and measure flow rather than output, This means that the traditional accouniting functions which are based around post hoc reporting of events ,e.g monthly management accounts, usually produced after the events, don’t sit comfortably in this environment.   There will still be a need for Financial reporting and ,management accounts still have their uses, but the ‘Lean accounting system’ simply has to be as close to real time as possible.  Process flow reporting needs to be available instantaneously so any downtimes or blockages can be immediately identified and available to all those involved in the operations from senior management to machine operatives. There may be some visual indicators in this process such as flashing lights when a machine is inoperative, but the accountant can help identify more subtle changes in the process flow, for example, tracking the number of deliveries that have been made on time and in full.  However, I started this section with the notion that and Accountant has to be involved in drawing up the numbers or time related criteria. This is not necessarily the case in larger organisations where measures of

There were a couple of articles in the UK Press recently about  10000 more over-70s hit the road every month ( source- Institute of Advanced Motorists). In this instance it used the data to advise manufacturers to consider Sat Navs with bigger screens, blind spot cameras for drivers who struggle to look over their shoulder and higher driving positions with wider opening doors.  In addition to this the UK comes 4th in an Active ageing index   ( European commission statistic)as the over-65s are making use of zero hours contracts ( source Southampton University) as it suits that age group to not have a long term commitment and work when it suits them .  Coupled with a potential pension’s crisis, the demographics would indicate that the issues surrounding an ageing population allied with better health care may be here to stay.  According to a recent study by the charity Age UK, the number of people aged over ) to 16 ,million by the end of the next decade  This part of the work force therefore may create opportunities for manufacturers and retailers to sell specific products for this market.  Bearing in mind that the older worker may not have the disposable income they once enjoyed, they may well have capital locked up which one day will be realised.  So products that are offered to this market may well have to be ‘marketed’ differently, advertising should be more informative rather than persuasive and less reliant on ‘trending ‘ and products should be what are needed rather than ‘must haves’  The point here for any MBA student is that sitting in a lecture on marketing and market segmentation, please realise that this is an ever growing segments and a real opportunity to innovate.   For any graduate MBA student, realise the world has changed and we are all working longer and are still active consumers for the right product.  Speaking personally I would like to be sold products based on fact and not fantasy and not be patronised or lied to, because, quite frankly as you get older and have had more ‘customer experience’ you have , literally, seen it all before.  A real opportunity indeed to chase the ‘silver pound’.   

The Chinese have a saying that a fish rots from its head, so are we seeing the beginning of the end of the leadership/succession issue at FIFA?  Instead of securing the trust of its stakeholders, including those who play the game at (literally)  grass roots level , FIFA has just displayed the classic mistake of attempting to secure power for the incumbents and  displaying monumental lack of empathy or emotional connection with the people it is supposed to represent.  This is also part of the current zeitgeist towards Governments and other NGOs where leaders are merely motivated by self-perpetuating interest. We have other examples of MPs expenses, allegations of impropriety by rich, famous and political leaders who have simply abused the power of their office. This is an international issue affecting all parts of the globe; FIFA is just the latest example.     Going back philosophically even the Ancient Greeks struggled with societies that were democratic, oligarchic or just plain tyrannical at various points in their history, so there is no one model of governance that works on every occasion.  So how can we choose better leaders, or indeed do we just get the leaders we deserve?  The Beautiful game?  FIFA will say that there leaders have been democratically elected. If those in power are correctly selected by an electorate’, then there will be a reduction of distrust and cynicism towards them. This begs the question of how the electorate decides. Even in Ancient Greece there were disenfranchised parts of the population at various times.  Some would say that selection is made on the basis of the espoused values of the leader. Manifesto commitments have been broken many times due to circumstance change once in office, so hindsight is not a reliable indicator of how and electorate behaves..  I think this is probably a function of backing the person and their values as a reliable indicator of suitability for office. If you walk round Sepp Blatter’s home village they have the utmost respect for the man, the global village has lost this, so how come there is this mismatch. Has Sepp simply lost it on the basis that the organisation has too many stakeholders, vested interests and divergent views, if so how did this come about? He has repeated the mantra that he acknowledges the organisation needs reform and he is the best man to do the job, but how did he allow this in the first place on his (long term) watch?  How did his vison of beauty that he had for the organisation transform itself into a model of ugliness and behaviour that we now see?  Plato may have the answer (back to ancient Greece) , perhaps Mr Blatter no longer displays the love of wisdom and beauty  that got himself elected in the first place and that, like many other leaders we are just talking about corruptive power. Or indeed he takes the notion of justice, truth and fairness to extremes and believe that leaders should lead and ‘slaves should be slaves’ so views and habits become entrenched and not open to change due to external pressures, so adherence to the status quo and clinging on to power is a strong belief and legitimisation for their prolongation.  Sepp Blatter simply lost his love of beauty, desire to understand all there is and stopped asking questions.  He forgot his basic training in business and economics and stopped thinking. This stopped him relating to his constituency.  If he has studied basic business and economics, he would understand, or at least recognise the right question to ask and draw lessons from the wider community and relate to problems such as  China’s economic slowdown, the financial meltdowns and bailouts of EU nations ( especially Greece!),  the debt issues of the US Government or  large Corporate collapses such as Enron or Worldcom, and ensure that the Governance of FIFA was fit for purpose.  –  Leaders who understand this connectivity understand that change is a pre requisite for an appropriate  and beautiful response  Training  Footballers train every day to keep their skills sharp, Sepp Blatter simply didn’t show up for training so his skills in developing business and public relations became stale, the very attributes that got him elected in the first place. To use a Plato metaphor he simply retreated metaphorically and physically into his ( FIFAs) cave and lost his skill base and awareness of life outside.  Conclusion  We should choose our leaders using the criterion of wisdom gained via their own natural curiosity and love of training (learning)   because learning involves receptiveness to new ideas and change and  we would gradually reduce our distrust towards those who govern. This is because training means the refinement not only of one’s intellectual capabilities, but also exposure to other  and perhaps more beautiful ways of thinking/doing/behaving since the very process of training requires the exercise of thought and analysis. Skills, information and knowledge are attained through constant reinforcements and exposure to new experiences. Fundamentally this is a platonic thought. In present day elections where we can see only the sanitised and public face of the candidates, the assessment of the suitability of a leader can only be based on superficialities. The day of reckoning comes with a heathy dose of sceptical hindsight when the leader comes up for re-election, even then , because of the checks/balances and processes that exist, the re-election may not prove reliable. (FIFAs processes again).  We can see how engaged philosophy can be with the theory and practice of leadership.  Beauty and Virtue remains in all of us, the trick is to remain true to your ideals and not be distracted by personal agenda’s or even delude yourself that what you are doing is fundamentally right. The basis of a football game is that there will be a winner and a loser. So too with FIFA; you cannot always win, or get your own way. It is no good taking your ball home if you disagree. If you want

This is an area of many tradeoffs which has a slightly different twist to non family companies with shareholders and stakeholders who are not as intertwined as Family   1 what is the minimum cash/working capital requirements required to sustain the day to day operations  2 what is to be done with any surplus cash is it reinvested or stripped out for the benefit of the family  3 How do you accommodate a diverse group of companies with different family members all with different and personal agendas?  4 who is the overall decision maker and what are the voting rights  5 is there a succession plan?  Family businesses tend to think along legacy and long term lines which also mean total control over the day to day decision making.  What is key is the quality of the top management team and also the quality of the management information upon which they base decisions. Some decisions are also based on other factors that have a more emotional resonance than a publicly owned company and so therefore straightforward business cases don’t always appear to be straightforward.  A good run family business will have procedures and controls in place to resolve disputes as well as a belief that any decisions they make are for the benefit of future generations. This generational thinking is very important to family companies because they recognise that more of the same may not suit the next generation and the pace of external change may well dictate the very survival of the Family and well run families recognise this and invest in innovation and outside help where they lack knowledge. This is the remit of the chairman, or the main family decision makers who recognise skill gaps and plug these gaps through outside help.  Research has shown that Family Companies have lower growth than others but the flipside is having a higher profitability and survival rate in the long run.  As in any business, people have to get along with each other, more so in families that continue the relationships after office hours and so in a positive way this is a stimulus to resolve disagreements.  Family and business are interwoven with a real sense of ownership and a long term attitude, on the one hand this can also lead to resentment if childhood incidents are not managed properly, but on the other hand having a strong patriarch (or matriarch) to defer decision to in the event of deadlock or necessary compromise is a positive strength.  Generations will come into the business at a different time and maybe a truly entrepreneurial relative may require a period of trying it for themselves before fully accepting the family mantle, conversely other individuals may just blossom better in a safer environment -either way it is all about recognising the skills may come and go with different generations, characters and gene pools.  With this culture comes the biggest challenge of all, succession planning, a subject fraught with emotion, Successful business handle this with care , showing a great deal of compassion and empathy to choose the right moment, or indeed having a (un) written rule that at a certain age , it is time to go.    There is much talk of destiny and a lot of comfort can be drawn from past generations which also include long standing customers who also have a cross generational relationship with the family business and so respect and loyalty runs deep.  Against this culture is also important that non family members embrace this history and by the same token for the relationship to work it is important that the family members respect the unique talents that they are employing and that any post is filled with a deep cultural empathy on post sides, remember you can choose employees but you can’t choose your family so outside help can sometimes prove beneficial and promote innovation and in the long term provide stability.  Against this background the FD should be able to negotiate the divergent stresses within the family as to what to do with the money and the questions at the start of this piece need to be answered.  There is no magic bullet here, or indeed any formula for success but the FD who bears in mind the unique capabilities of the family and embraces the culture could do no better than provide the usual timely, reliable and accurate accounts with as little emotional involvement as possible and then let the decisions makers have a note of the alternatives. The emphasis, as always should be on correct and apolitical accounting rather than politically correct accounting  and that accounting in a family business is a responsible process because you are the gate keeper to preserving the business and maintaining success without ending up as a riches to rags story because of inappropriate decision making  based on inaccurate information. 

Edinburgh Epistle- Response and Responsibility  I was at the Edinburgh Refresher event last week which was well attended with around 50 attendees. We had an excellent day with some very relevant material and superb facilities provided by the Edinburgh Business School.  My conclusion from the programme was basically distilled into two questions  1 Have you clearly identified the issue?  2  How are you going to respond?  The speakers explored a wide range of topics from leadership models, trust and governance, not only discussing reactive actions but also how innovation can enable businesses to remain competitive.   We also heard about how businesses should respond and react to the growth of social media and cyber -crime. Not only was it a hard ware issue and using appropriate platforms to get the message across, it was also about responsible use of software and acknowledging that security measures need to be properly enforced.  The recurrent them was about having a ‘Responsibility’ to behave correctly in leadership and communications with the all stakeholders  and also having a ‘Response  Ability’ to act ethically and with Trust in protecting Brands and personal reputations. We had many examples were inconsistent behaviour of individuals and businesses broke this code by not remaining true to their espoused values and breaking that all important Trust between themselves and Society.  This is very important when information is put out into the cyber-sphere from different sources and all must be on the same message to ensure the firm is protected.   In Scotland, there is a rich philosophical tradition of actions which emphasizes the values of improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole. Indeed, Adam Smith set the tone for the modern economy and the benefits of market forces.  The overriding conclusion, again going back to basic philosophy, is that you can’t control what happens in the external environment, but you can control your reaction  to events .  As MBAs we can all draw on our knowledge to ensure that our actions and responses are responsible.  

Introduction  Driver based modelling is becoming a function of the current economic uncertainty (aka the ‘new normal’.)  Traditionally, forecasts and models have been prepared along the lines of last year’s actuals plus a control /expectation margin either to increase sales revenue by x % or to decrease certain costs by y%.  Throw in a measure of cost control around HR and IT and most businesses would get by. If there were capital projects or new ideas in the forecast then these would be added as appropriate with certain sensitivities. The problem with that approach is that it assumed a steady state economy with reasonably predictive markets.  Latterly we have been also talking about going back to ‘zero based drivers’ and looking at reducing costs to fund growth, the problem we have with that approach is knowing what costs to reduce which  will free up working capital to invest in other areas.  The benefits of this approach is that it may lead to more visibility on the cost base, almost like starting with a blank canvas.   CEOs and FDs acknowledge this is not a precise science because of the laws of unintended consequences and the fact that such a strategy is a bit of a gamble.   Certainly over the recent past, businesses have been instrumental in eliminating long term and fixed costs and trying to align all costs in direct proportion to output, i.e. ‘variabalise ‘ their cost base so that any reduction of increase in Revenue is merely trickled down to the appropriate cost and that margins are more easily managed (at least that is the theory)  This, in turn has led to a further conceptual debate about  what is ‘ driving the business’ hopefully this is a revenue led initiative and not one where the primary objective is to cover a fixed cost base ( usually salaries)  This inevitably means that if we are freeing up resources because of a cost reduction exercise, where does this spare resource end up? This means concentrating on the Drivers of the business (which should be aligned with the overall strategy) and ensuring that there is an appropriate cost base to support the growth area.     Focusing on the key drivers helps re-align management to key priorities, sources for growth and obtain better odds on their gamble.  Timing is also worth mentioning, because basing your cost expectations on costs that existed twelve months ago may be the wrong focus. Circumstances change, and indeed last quarter’s costs may not be appropriate as FDs struggle with variances in deciding whether they are a blip or a longer term trend.    One of the issues with ‘ Big Data’ is sometimes too much data creates an analytical paralysis of simply having too much information.  The trouble with Driver based planning is that an FDs perspective can be different from a CEOs and that is sales ratios may not be appropriate but rather sales per sales person and performance related criteria may be what is required.  The short answer is it all depends on what you want to achieve by using driver based forecasting as one of your levers of control   What are the advantages and disadvantages of using driver-based planning and rolling forecasting?   The primary advantage is focus and re alignment, turning a business culture at all levels into looking at what really matters and what costs are required to support the growth. Many SMEs have this instinct, especially start ups, and there comes a time in a business life cycle that admin functions start to take a disproportionate amount of costs for their value. Driver based planning re focuses the resources of the business into what creates wealth.  Rolling forecasts are equally a useful tool because they focus on the more recent past rather than what happened a year ago ( in different circumstances) and so this rolling ( or more real time) affect means that resources and  capabilities can be more quickly and easily identified to support the driver.   This also depends on the broader response times of the Management Information system and what KPIs are used by the senior management team to measure success ( or at least adherence to plan).  As in most cases the main disadvantage is pinning your colours to inappropriate drivers because they were the wrong choice in the first place or circumstances have changed which makes them obsolete.   Again, it is a question of how responsive and flexible the reporting functions are in the Finance team.  How should a business go about setting appropriate forecasting horizons?  Most traditional budgets start creaking after the second quarter, appropriate time horizons are KPI or driver dependent.  What is required is a trend analysis and a time horizon that says there is enough data for the predictive modelling to be supported as accurate and robust or requires changing. This is always situation ally specific.  It all depends what the business agenda is (shareholder dividends / reinvestment in capital plant etc,) and what time horizon are these short term and long term strategies allowed before they themselves are changed.  The choice of driver will dictate the time horizon. A key driver may be the number of widgets produced, in which case data should be provided on a timely basis about machine throughput, this may indeed be monthly or even hourly. The rationale behind the provision of this data on a ‘timely’ basis is actually , if the number of widgets is less that you thought it was going to be on an hourly basis, what are you going to do with this information?, wait until a longer period is examined?. The thinking behind this (and the provision of ‘Big Data’) is that it increases corporate anxiety.  So you end up throwing more resource at monitoring the data and the pendulum swings back to an administrative culture rather than a fast paced slicker growth mentality.   Getting the timing right is therefore a matter of what you want your response to be and why you chose

Hi Sahill, thanks again for the invite to this  film, it was a  thought provoking experience and I thought I would set down a view comments /observations .  Firstly I thought the cinematography was stunning and had shades of David Lean ( desert) and the Blair Witch project ( campfires) and of course the music was very appropriate. It was a pleasing film to watch.  Secondly here are some thoughts which may have been raised before but I find inspired to set these down    In no particular order  Although the film was entitled ‘Down to Earth’ I thought it also brought out the key elements of earth, fire, air and water as being a holistic view of nature.  There were some great moments round the campfire and it is interesting to note how much commonality there is in respect of these elements around the globe. If there is to be a follow up film I think exploring campfire wisdom might be a good theme.   There were some memorable quotes, about  birds do not nest in the air, elephants and insects as well as some interesting thoughts about rocks and how man had shaped the environment ( Machu Piccu). Each elder relating their own individual philosophy to their local environment and what they knew.  The message that was also consistent was that time really has no meaning. Modern day management techniques talk about ‘mindfulness ‘and ‘being in the moment’, these elders talked about a longer timeframe and had a more of a curation approach to life, merely being part of a long chain of humanity.   It was interesting also the juxtaposition of thinking on different continents and there were some real leadership type behaviour when elders talked about respect for the environment. It was also interesting that there was mention of dis- ease when heart, mind, soul and environment were not in harmony and that certainly strikes a modern day chord when we talk about sustainability and models of the planet.  I am sure there were equally some great moments that landed on the cutting room floor but it really was an enjoyable event. It would be equally interesting to hear what the children got out of it and the perspective of the other children they met because there was a comment about how children played without a common language which I found particularly interesting.   What was also evident was a common respect for their (literal) elders   What resonated with me was the singular theme of respect for nature which was not dependent on climate or topography but the same comments kept coming out (albeit via different metaphors) that really there is only one landscape and one life.   This was a really interesting film and I am sure when I see it again I will get something more out of it.    This was a film that deserves a wider audience.  I am not sure how it would go down with a bunch of MBA students and how relevant it would be without some guidance, so I would be interested to hear your views on that and also general reactions to the screening from Renata and Rolf .   I think the message was quite clear but I am not sure whether it will be retained in the longer term memories of a younger ( than me) audience without some form of continuous or periodic reinforcement because their exposure to Capitalism and short term gain may just mean some of the important messages in the film may get forgotten.   I think this last point is very important and the role of the Family and Elders in western societies probably needs revisiting.  I am trying also to weave some of these key themes into some of the presentations I will be doing to MBA students  Apologies if this email sound a bit like a cross between a film critic and a philosopher but it really was a memorable oeuvre.  

We know about our algorithmic assistants and their ability to talk, based on a capability that can use your speech patterns to detect what is said and what the request is.  This is important for the use of robotic devices as ‘personal assistant’ and there have been recent innovations with devices that can help you book a table at a restaurant based on your verbal instructions, freeing up your valuable time and we have seen not so subtle adverts where these devices will make your life easier.  This raises a some of points  1  learned helplessness- over reliance on these devices eliminates the experience  of actually doing what that device does for you, so , as with any other aspects of leadership, don’t ask a device to do something that you can’t do yourself. If we educate our children to copy our habits of telling a machine to do things, we will , generationally , lose the ability to do them ourselves should the DA ( Digital Assistant) not be around or fail, or simply get the instruction wrong.  2 We then run the risk of living in a bubble, Siddartha like and realising we may have a first world problem of no DA when in fact the third world is still living in extreme poverty so inequality becomes more entrenched and we don’t venture beyond the palace walls or indeed our only exposure to the outside world is via a driverless vehicle. .  3  These machines are acquiring human attibutes being named chatbots, Siri, Cortana or HAL and becoming anthropomorphous.. The test is , would you as a parent allow such devices to be a childminder?, I suspect no one has really thought through that point just yet, or indeed done any research on it ( intuitively how many parents trust their children with other people, never mind machines…?). Would you or your child fall in love with a chatbot?  4 At the other end of the generation scale would you permit your ageing mother and father to rely on a DA or robot to take care of them and cope with the vagaries of old age, dementia and just plain cantankerousness.? 

I have written before about the need tp collaborate and sooner or later the MBA in a big organisation, or an MBA in a strat up is going to have to deal with other parties and realise that thongs cannot be done on their own, or indeed simple tasks like selling also involve interaction with a customer to ask them to buy what you have.  There will be many occasions contracts will have to be drawn up, whether it is a simple meet you for a coffee and let’s put the world to rights or a long winded legal document stetting out terms of behaviour and trade with lots of parties to the deal and a grand signing ceremony.  Either way some ground rules should exist as to what sort of relationship is being transacted.   A good analysis is found in the book ‘ Structures of Social Life’ by AP Fiske ( Free press 1991) in it he outlines four ‘generative models’ of contract in brief they are-  These four kinds of contracts lead to different decision making and consultation processes in doing business and real life transactions invariably incorporate one or more of these characteristics.  Quite often the Shareholder value mantra favours the Market pricing mechanism, but I would argue that sustainable contracts have to accommodate some measure of the wider society and so Communal sharing might be better, or indeed any of the other characteristics  above.  The issue here is that there is no one size fits all when an MBA student or graduate is looking for a relationship, they would be well advised to consider these four possibilities and understand that dealing with other parties is not straightforward. 

Restoring trust in business seems to be a recurrent theme, not least because of the recent global downturn and the bad press that has targeted corporate performance and individual behaviour ranging from  excessive pay, environmental damage, child labour and tax avoidance.  Public trust in business varies internationally.  The  Edelman Trust barometer   http://www.edelman.com/2015-edelman-trust-barometer/  shows , for example that UK Trust in business has declined from 2013 when the UK was the fifth most trusted in the world.  MBAs therefore have a major role to pay in maintaining (and restoring) Trust in business.  A healthy business sector is good for society and business needs to respond to wider stakeholder interests beyond its shareholders.  I think we still struggle with ideas for best governance models within each business/sector/country but individuals, wherever they are located, should be able to bring businesses to account, even if it is a simple as complaining about local water and air pollution.   The Edelman Trust Barometer also measures the investment in skills and education that a country and business makes and so innovation and the encouragement of innovation is a way to improve Trust also.     Lack of trust has the potential to affect our futures so MBAs should be mindful of their actions and deeds and recognise that an MBA qualification is a step along the way to restoring trust by responsible behaviour.