Objectives

To maintain a competitive advantage in today’s fast evolving markets and societies, managers must have an in-depth understanding of how to measure revenue and cost information accurately, balance financial and non-financial measures, and interpret forces in the environment to adjust their strategies. The course Advanced Management Accounting explores the fundamental links between strategy, performance measurement, and control.

The objectives of this course are:

• Learn how to design and use planning and control systems in a company to implement its strategy efficiently;
• Access to a comprehensive review of how to design and use management control and performance measurement systems across different types of organizations and specific business-related, as well as organizational factors;
• Understand the contributions and the limits of the various management control systems used by companies for strategy implementation;
• Learn how to measure performance, its best practices and its limitations;
• Use strategic performance evaluation critically;
• Get familiar with the interplay between performance measurement and AI
• Get used to share in class opinions and constructively discuss the design and implementation of advanced management control systems;
• After completing this course, students are expected to have a comprehensive knowledge of how to design and implement performance measurement and control systems for strategy implementation in any organizational context.

Contents

This course provides students with the knowledge required to fully interpret the economics of organizational operations and strategies. It covers advanced topics in financial as well as non-financial performance measurement, the integration of this information into management systems and management control, and the emerging role of qualitative information. The course is designed for students who plan to manage or advise organizations that want to deliver superior performance. This knowledge is essential for strategy design and implementation as well as operational aspects of an organization.

Designing and implementing effective performance measurement and control systems, however, is not an easy task. It requires a good knowledge of the intricacies of system design and the properties of measures and information. Empirical evidence suggests that many control systems fail because of poor design and implementation. Effective systems, indeed, require managers to take into consideration multiple business and organizational factors. Business factors include the firm’s environment, its strategy, the horizon of managers’ decision-making, and structure of the resources available. Organizational factors include the accountability of users and the purpose of the information in systems. The course goes into the following topics: In specific, students will be learning how managers:

• Prepare business plans and evaluate performance;
• Customer profitability analysis;
• Cost information for product design;
• Capacity costing and Activity Based Costing;
• Non-financial performance measures;
• Strategic analysis of markets;
• Use strategic profitability analysis for performance evaluation;
• Performance measurement systems and machine learning;

References

This course has been designed for Master students in Accounting, Controland Finance. The course consists of seven sessions including case study discussions, lectures, and exercises. As pre-requisites, participants must have expertise in introductory financial accounting and management accounting, as well as an attitude of respect and strong curiosity.

The course language is English.

For each topic, background readings are provided. During class, we will analyze case studies[1] to understand not only the concepts themselves but also how to apply them to real life situations. We will also go through exercises to fully understand the mechanisms and get additional practice. Students are therefore expected to:

• Review and prepare all case studies that will be discussed in class;
• Participate actively in class discussion;
• Complete the exercises;
• Solve the required take-home exercises and small problems.

By the end of the course, students will know how to design an organization capable of bringing out the best in people and winning in any competitive market. Implementing these concepts will be essential to making an impact on organizations throughout their careers.

Students will have to purchase some of the case studies (that have a copyright) from the office of Fabienne Hanlon at Anthropole 3035. Most of the exercises and readings are free to access. Some texts will be available on the course Moodle while others can be downloaded from the Unil library website. Additional suggested readings will be downloadable from the course Moodle or accessible through the Until library website based on copyright agreements. The reading list may be adapted during the course.

Please be prepared to invest 3-4 hours of preparation (bi-weekly) prior to each session.

[1] The complete list of case studies is indicated in the syllabus.

Pre-requisites

As pre-requisites, participants must have expertise in introductory financial accounting and management accounting, as well as an attitude of respect and strong curiosity.

This course places emphasis both on the technical and on the complex, implementation aspects of performance measurement and control systems. We examine the managerial problems and tensions associated with the use of revenue and cost data as well as other nonfinancial information and how they may significantly affect managers' decision-making and therefore a company's success.

Evaluation

First attempt

Exam:

Written 2h00 hours

Documentation:

Allowed with restrictions

Calculator:

Allowed with restrictions

Evaluation:

Students are expected to individually prepare all case studies that will be discussed in class, contribute to the in-class exercises, solve the required take-home problems, and participate actively in class discussion. Classroom discussion should be provocative, enlightening, and fun.

After the course, students will be evaluated in a 2 hours digital exam session. This exam will be 100% of the grade. You can only bring the course booklet and a scientific calculator for the exam.

Each class there will be a quiz. Those students at the top 50% of the quizzes’ and homework grades will have an extra 0.5 towards their grade.

Retake

Exam:

Written 2h00 hours

Documentation:

Allowed with restrictions

Calculator:

Allowed with restrictions

Evaluation:

Students who fail the course are tested in a 2 hours retake open book digital exam session.