2012年ACCA考试《F9财务报告》讲义辅导31Non-financial objectives

2012年ACCA考试《F9财务报告》讲义辅导31Non-financial objectives
　　The range of possible non-financial objectives which might be pursued is broad, and the list below is not comprehensive, but may be viewed as indicative of the aims of a typical business at the start of the twenty first century.
　　Non-financial objectives might include:　　· Growth of sales;
　　· Diversification;　　· Survival;
　　· Contented workforce;
　　· Leaders in technology development;　　· Product/service quality;
　　· Environmental protection.　　Clearly some of the objectives listed are specific to the interests of one particular group of people, and the extent to which they are pursued is dependent upon the bargaining power of that group. For example, employees may want to reduce working hours or raise the hourly rate of pay, but if management do not face a problem in recruiting staff to work under existing contract terms, it may be very difficult to persuade management to pursue objectives which serve the interests of staff. In one sense, the "controlling influence" is always the equity investors. Pursuit of alternative goals, relating to employees, the environment or whatever, will incur costs and reduce profits. Equity investors will be conscious of this trade off, and if they think that they are losing too much as a consequence, investors will sell shares and the market value of the firm will fall. Managers need to remember that the interests of shareholders are paramount, but those interests will be tempered by the influences and objectives of other parties.
　　The recent furore over the Millennium Dome in London is evidence of this. A large proportion of the finance for the Dome came from commercial sponsorship, from companies such as Roche, Boots, BSkyB and Mars, and low attendance figures at the Dome have led these sponsors to threaten non-payment of their last tranche of funding, unless something is done to improve visitor numbers. The reason behind the commercial sponsorship is ultimately that it buys publicity for the companies concerned - it is a form of advertising. If the adverts do not draw in the customers, raising corporate profits, then the money has not been well spent. The mix of objectives for the sponsoring companies is quite subtle; on the one hand they like the public relations benefits that come from being associated with a large public project such as the dome, but at the same time they want a commercial return on their investment. In some texts, sponsorship of community projects in this way is termed "corporate social responsibility", whereby the company recognises that its stakeholders extend well beyond the shareholders and out into the wider community. Regardless of the terminology, the fact is that companies now need to acknowledge some commitment to meeting the objectives of parties other than just the equity investors.　　In a large number of instances, the willingness of management to pursue wider objectives is a matter of goodwill on their part, combined with strong bargaining power on the part of the outside parties. In other cases, non- financial objectives are "forced" upon companies via legislation. For example, the furniture company Ikea is very environmentally conscious. This reflects Ikea's Scandinavian origins, but at the same time it also reflects the fact that EU legislation, and the Kyoto Protocol are forcing companies to become more environmentally conscious. For example, Ikea banned the use of HFCs and CFCs in its products some years ago. The ban might indicate a strong environmental conscience on the part of the company, or it may simply indicate an anticipation of legislation that would ban such products anyway. Nonetheless, regardless of the reason behind the ban, its very existence indicates that Ikea is typical of the many companies which pursue non-financial as well as financial objectives.