High-level business intelligence initiatives such as the balanced scorecard and lean management are alluring. Companies can quickly assemble a team of executives, revalidate corporate strategies / missions, define a "new" set of targets or metrics, begin tracking progress, and communicate success across the organization. This is not just exciting; it is "sexy." A high profile role, working with cutting-edge solutions, surrounded by the executive elite, with a ton of press and exposure - who wouldn't want to be on this glory team?

Getting a handle on the true costs for IT services continues to plague companies even though many have implemented server virtualization and cloud technology as a cost reduction strategy.  While companies may have been able to consolidate physical resources to reduce cost and increase resource flexibility, these same efforts have only made it more complicated to determine the true costs of the services provided to the business.  In his recent CFO Magazine article The New Star of IT Cost Allocation, David McCann discusses the challenges with IT cost allocation methodologies and their utility for managing consumption of IT resources.   He cites a CIO Executive Board study that shows 72% of organizations surveyed who use a lump sum allocation method for IT related costs, which provides little or no connection to the amount of services consumed.  This provides consumers of these resources absolutely no incentive manage and consume fewer IT resources.  Only a small percentage of respondents indicated that they used a granular chargeback method based on actual resource consumption and a unit price for these services. 

The Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) presented its GRC Achievement Awards to six leading companies last week.   Among the winners was Carnival Corporation, which was highlighted in Eric Krell's case study Inside Carnival Corp: A GRC Case Study last year for Business Finance Magazine.  Carnival's approach is worth considering because they have clearly integrated governance, risk and compliance (GRC) into their overall performance management framework.   Like the company I referred to in my blog post, How Well Do You Manage Your Risk?, Carnival has applied GRC management at every applicable level within the organization, essentially making risk "everyone's job."  There are a lot of similarities between leading companies' approaches to performance management and GRC management.  Let's take a look at how Carnival tackled the problem.

As the saga in the Gulf of Mexico continues to unfold we're all reminded of our collective responsibility as stewards of the environment.  The impact the oil spill is having can be easily seen and will likely have a long term negative impact on the fragile ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico.  The environmental impacts of many other decisions we make on a day-to-day basis aren't always so easy to see and, even if you are aware of them, making a more sustainable choice will often cost you more.  The complexity and costs involved with sustainability have made it easy for many companies reprioritize its importance lower or ignore it altogether.  However, consumer sentiment is changing and more and more companies are beginning to realize that going green doesn't always translate into red.  In fact, the world's largest company has found ways to make green by going green.  I am, of course, referring to Wal-Mart.