Bulletin Vol. 8 No. 1 Aug 1971

生 先 舜 乃 楊 Mr. Nelson H. Young L I B A News Applications for Admission For the academic year 1971/72, the Lingnan Institute of Business Administration has admitted 25 students to the first year of its graduate programme. During the past two years, the number of applicants for admission into LIBA t o pursue graduate studies leading to the degree of M.B.A. has increased. There were 46 applicants in 1969, 76 in 1970 and 105 in 1971. The applicants comprise not only graduates from The Chinese University and the University of Hong Kong, but also graduates from universities i n Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and the United States. Seminar on Management Control LIBA and the Hong Kong Management Association jointly sponsored a Seminar entitled "Effective Control for Better Management" on 15th July, 1971. The Seminar was planned fo r directors and other senior managers of industrial and business organizations in Hong Kong, and the featured speaker and discussion leader was Prof. Robert N. Anthony of the Harvard University Graduate Schoo l of Business Administration. Prof. Anthony is the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Management Controls at the Harvard Business School and is an outstanding authority in the field of accounting and control. He has had wide business experience and had served as a consultant to many of the largest U.S. companies, including General Motors and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. From 1965 to 1968 he was Assistant Secretary of Defense, Comptroller, where he worke d closely with Mr. Robert MacNamara in modernizing th e planning, budgeting and control procedures. At the morning session of the Seminar, Prof. Anthony was introduced b y the Hon. K. S. Lo, Chairman of the Hong Kong Management Association. Prof. Anthony then spoke o n the advantages of profit centres and cost centres in business organizations. Managers were urged to make certain that the accounting and control systems in their companies motivated branch managers and department heads to manage their branches and departments so as t o fulfil the overall objectives of the company rather than the lesser objectives of each individual branch or department. Prof . Anthony illustrated his lecture with a number of examples of management control systems which failed to do this and showed clearly that these systems frequently led to wasteful and inefficient practices. A lively discussion followed Prof. Anthony's talk. During the afternoon session, Prof. Anthony led the group in a discussion of a case study of a large paper company which was losing money because each division of the company was looking after its own interests rather than operating to the advantage of the company as a whole. Participants discussed the effects of the company's management control system in creating this situation and made suggestions for improving the system. Some of the suggestions would effect certain improvements but would create new difficulties. Hence , it became necessary to develop several possible contro l systems and to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each in order to select the one most suitable for the company's specific needs. Thus, through thi s case study, each participant acquired knowledge about plannin g a management control system to suit a specific set of company requirements. At the conclusion o f the discussion, Dr. H. Sutu. Acting Director of LIBA , thanked Dr. Anthony for the many constructive ideas he had given the participants during the. Seminar. A total of thirty-one directors and managers from Hong Kong's leading business firms attended the Seminar. Three faculty members fro m the University and a representative from the Hong Kong Management Association also participated. Five LIB A students attended as observers. (picture in Chinese section) - 3 -