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Many companies have attempted to improve their financial close process, but most are still burdened with the slow-paced record-to-report cycle even to this day. Some companies take several weeks, or worse, even months, to close their books. I even know of companies that produce a different version of truth every time they generate financial reports, thus, undermining the integrity and reliability of the reports.

Much of the discussion about corporate governance focuses on issues relating to boards of directors, and for good reason. Boards have oversight and control functions that serve to guard the interests of the stakeholders. The significance of these roles necessarily means that companies are expected to check the list of best practices in filling up their boards.

Who would have thought that a 17-year-old girl would spark a generation of Filipino stars on Broadway and the West End? That was what Lea Salonga did when she got the role of Kim in Miss Saigon 27 years ago.

In our work as external auditors of various companies, we need to obtain or update our understanding of our clients’ businesses, assess their internal controls and processes, review their significant transactions and check for critical changes made during the period under audit, etc. During the process, we may note certain deficiencies in internal controls or processes of their companies and then we recommend ways to correct these deficiencies. These recommendations are discussed and agreed with management and the board of directors, and are formalized through our issuance of a management letter. The adoption and implementation of such recommendations, though, rest with the companies’ management.

Digital technology has unleashed a perpetual hurricane of creative economic destruction. Software is not only eating the world, but also many mid-sized businesses. Only the paranoid will survive, and here is why: Timescales have changed. The long term used to be a nebulous dot on the horizon. But today, time has been so sped up by technology that whatever once appeared long-term is happening now. Take for example, the robot economy, once the preserve of science-fiction writers. Today, however, what is now known as artificial intelligence or machine learning is about to change every industry—from education to healthcare to transportation. The future is here and it’s not evenly distributed.

I was invited as speaker to the CPA (interchangeably used to mean Certified Public Accountant or Chartered Professional Accountant) Public Practitioners sectoral forum, which was part of the Annual National Convention (ANC) of the Philippine Institute of CPAs (PICPA) held last month in Davao City. More than 4,500 CPAs throughout the country attended the PICPA ANC, , coming from four sectors: education, commerce and industry, government and public practice).

Good governance plays a key role in supporting the execution of the strategy of any organization. It is, thus, the principal role of the leader to set the tone from the top by embedding good governance policies, procedure and processes throughout the organization and by letting the message across.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Go Negosyo, the advocacy arm of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE), in partnership with local chambers of commerce, have launched a laudable project to empower Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) by encouraging entrepreneurship in the country. Called the “Mentor Me Program,” it aims to help MSEs improve their entrepreneurship fundamentals to scale up and sustain their businesses by providing them with the needed skill sets by way of conceptual discussions and mentoring sessions.