When accounting professors from the UK visited the Swaminarayan Temple in Kenton, London, they were most impressed to see how the gurus had emphasised the importance of detailed and regular financial record-keeping. This is unusual as normally this training is only for accountants! We now know that every household in the world needs to have a good and careful attitude to money and finance as it is key to their survival. What we saw that day was that when people are taught this from a young age, they become natural accountants.
I am writing this from Germany where I am visiting AKAD University who had commissioned me to write an unusual Master’s course in Accounting. Professor Markus Grottke requested me to write the course in three parts – Accounting as Camera, Accounting as Engine and Accounting as Brake. It was a most challenging request and I found the task highly creative.
As a measure and record, Accounting is a Camera, but we need to regularly read and analyse the pictures to enhance our enterprise. As an Engine, accounting information can guide us as to where we are making profits and growing, and even how to build on this success, and learn how to share it with our employees, suppliers and community.
MORE LIKE THIS…
How we design our accounting system can shape our ethics and values, and we can find our enterprise fulfilling not just in terms of profits but also how we benefit the wider community. Even paying the fair taxes that are due can be a source of pride in citizenship and helping the country build its public services like Schools, Hospitals and Transport. In Germany, the public services are excellent, especially the transport system which is both efficient and affordable. They must have some good accountants and taxpayers too!
Accounting information can also be an excellent early warning system when things are not going according to plan. Here it becomes a Brake, and some tough decisions need to be taken to salvage the business and ensure it is sustainable for the long term. Taught in this way, accounting training can be fun if it is combined with field trips to actual businesses and problem solving - how about helping students to do their own budgeting as a start? That can be a helpful life skill, and surprisingly many accountants today cannot even manage their own finances! Our Dharmic cultures have taught us about the meaning of money and its limits, and that has helped us protect our families and fund our community institutions likes temples, hospitals and schools. Long may this spirit continue.
MORE LIKE THIS…
Professor Atul K. Shah [@atulkshah] teaches and writes about Indian wisdom on business, culture and community at various UK universities and is a renowned international author, speaker and broadcaster.