During the past half century, the productivity and global revolution turned the world of how we work and how we live upside down. Productivity has accelerated together with global outsourcing, which has applied increased pressure across the supply chain. New businesses have emerged with the technology bubble, bringing a proliferation of products and product lines. The decline of direct labor in our factories has been replaced with techno and administrative workers, dramatically shifting cost and expense incurred to produce products and services from variable costs to overhead. In an effort to compensate for the loss of relevance of management accounting, the accounting profession, academia, and controllers in industry have attempted to overcome the slide by assigning costs to activities in some effort to match costs with products and services. This activity analysis technique is called activity-based costing and management (ABC/M). This tool, and its many potential applications, is a critical component in improving the effectiveness of business processes through the use of activitybased analysis and continuous improvement. ABC/M is one of the enabling tools and techniques I feel is important. I will show you how it works, plus provide insight as to when and where to apply it.

The philosophies and techniques presented will not magically improve profit and build business value unless the underlying business processes are efficient and effective. The meaning of continuous improvement does not represent a magical solution to achieve breakthrough results. Continuous improvement is a necessary requirement just to stay in the game. It will...