Reference no: EM132575993

Question 1: Changes in the business environment have altered the nature of competition and the types of techniques managers use to succeed in their businesses. These changes include (1) an increase in global competition; (2) lean manufacturing; (3) advances in information technologies, the Internet, and enterprise resource management; (4) a greater focus on the customer; (5) new forms of management organization; and (6) changes in the social, political, and cultural environment of business. Management accountants have responded to the above six changes in the contemporary business environment with 13 methods that are useful in implementing strategy in these dynamic times. The first six methods that follow focus directly on strategy implementation-the balanced scorecard/strategy map, value chain, activity-based costing, business intelligence, target costing, and life-cycle costing. The next seven methods focus on strategy implementation through a focus on process improvement-benchmarking, business process improvement, total quality management, lean accounting, the theory of constraints, enterprise sustainability, and enterprise risk management. Describe each briefly.

Question 2: Accounting is traditionally seen as fulfilling three functions: Scorekeeping, Attentiondirecting and Problem-solving. Explain.