Archive for April, 2011

Slippery People: Corporate Governance at Berkshire Hathaway

By Francine • Apr 24th, 2011

Stanford University Graduate School of Business Professor David Larcker and his research associate, Brian Tayan, have developed a case study on the recent David Sokol – Berkshire Hathaway corporate governance slip-up. They emphasize, “The success of this system is predicated on the expectation that Berkshire Hathaway managers operate with high levels of integrity.” I don’t think Berkshire Hathaway’s leadership defines corporate governance the way everyone thinks they do. The bigger question is: Should that matter to their investors or anyone else?

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McKenna at American Accounting Association Public Interest Conference

By Francine • Apr 18th, 2011

Here’s the speech and slides I used for the AAA Public Interest Conference on April 1-2 and Top X list of possible research topics for accounting and audit academics interested in public policy.

I’ll be at the American Accounting Association Midwest Conference in Columbus, Ohio May 12-14. I’m on a panel to discuss the audit firm model and will take questions at a separate session. Hope to see you there.

If you would like me to speak for your group, please email me at fmckenna@mckennapartners.com

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McKenna Quoted in The Sunday Times Dublin

By Francine • Apr 11th, 2011

It may be that real accounting industry reforms will come this time. More likely than not they will not. But you can count on one thing. I will keep talking and writing about the need for those reforms.

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Not Over Until It’s Over: Price Waterhouse India Settles Satyam

By Francine • Apr 11th, 2011

It’s the potential for sudden conflagrations in developing countries that keeps the global audit firms – PwC in this case – up at night. The legal quagmires in developed countries are messy, too. PwC may want to put the Satyam scandal behind them but, unfortunately, I fear there’s still much more pain for the firm to come.

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@Forbes “The Gnome of Nebraska: Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, and Self-Dealing”

By Francine • Apr 5th, 2011

On the way to writing this story, I realized some disturbing things about Berkshire Hathaway and how Buffet runs it. So anxious are some to annoint gurus, sages, and oracles, that they overlook some of the worst corporate governance practices I have ever seen. And Buffett’s Berkshire doesn’t like to be told how to do its accounting, either. I’m writing about that next for Forbes.

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