All posts by alexandrianewman

Alexandria, Student Life

Lessons We Can Learn from College Football

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I’m sure it is no surprise that Longhorn football is an inherent part of the culture and collegiate experience at the University of Texas at Austin. I personally have been raised to understand and love the game, but I know not everybody has the same passion for the game that I do. I believe that football is so popular because it can be so much more than a game and I have learned a few key lessons about life and management from being a football fan.

Lesson 1 – You can’t control everything –as frustrating as it is, you just can’t. This ability to accept a lack of control is a good lesson for life, because as much as we try to, the future is inherently uncertain. Events will occur no one could have predicted, and it good to be aware of what you can control and what you can’t.

Lesson 2 – Odds are that there are people more skilled for a particular task than you are –no matter how frustrated I get, and think I could get the get the job done, it’s always wise to remember that I may not be the most skilled. I also have to remind myself that my Longhorn team is only human, and mistakes will therefore be part of each and every game, and I shouldn’t be upset when they happen. Each player  had to have been very talented in order to make the team, and it’s important to rely on them and their skill sets and trust in their ability to do their job.

Lesson 3 – Success takes time –when a college football team wins a national championship, it’s easy to overlook the 3-4 years of building preparation and effort on the team’s part. National champions aren’t born overnight, success takes time.

Lesson 4 – Practice and preparation are key – I think two quotes can sum up this lesson pretty handily. The first is by Sun Tzu from the Art of War, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” The second is by our own beloved former football coach Darrell K. Royal, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Lesson 5 – Don’t let the odds get you down –my high school cross country coach always had this little gem of wisdom: “there’s a reason they don’t play sports on paper.” Upsets and unpredictable outcomes are an inherent part of college football and life. Just because success may appear unlikely, doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Lesson 6 – Adjustments mid-game can make all the difference –many football games are won or lost during halftime based on the coach’s ability to make adjustments to his strategy based on how the opponent is playing. There seems to be a strong correlation between changes made at halftime and the outcome of the game. Play the game and make the adjusts needed  along the way.

Congratulations to our Longhorns and their victory in the Valero Alamo Bowl!

Academics, Alexandria, Centennial, MPA Council, Student Life

Happy New Year!

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Last year I wrote a blog about New Year’s resolutions, so this year I thought I’d switch it up and look at the past year in review. And because accountants love numbers so much, let us take a look at the past year in numbers.

300: Hours of lost sleep

268: Number of Intermediate Accounting problems worked

750: Cups of coffee drank

64.5: Hours spent researching tax law

90: Number of hours spent at McCombs studying during finals

10: Number of Esteemed Lyceum Speakers

13: Number of football games I wish I we had won

9: Number of football games actually won

11: Number of interceptions thrown by UT quarterbacks in 2012 (ugh, this just pains my heart)

28: Number of volleyball games won on the pursuit of the national championship (and this one warms my heart right back up!)

13: Number of Longhorn medals in the 2012 London Summer Olympics (6 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze)

67: Number of all-time gold medals won by Longhorns (not a 2012 fact, but this picture definitely went viral in the UT network during 2012)

309: Number of new MPA candidates admitted

2: Number of MPA Council awards given at 2012 spring commencement

100: Number of years UT Accounting has celebrated

7: Number of years in a row UT Accounting has been ranked #1 at the graduate level

2: Number of National Championships won by Longhorns this year

1: Number of med schools coming to the UT Austin community

2012 was clearly a fantastic year, and here’s to 2013 being as equally memorable and classy!

Keep it classy, Longhorns.

Academics, Alexandria, MPA Council, Student Life

MPA Council: Best Decision of my MPA Career

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One of my biggest passions in the MPA Program: MPA Council. Since the council is involved in so many areas of student life, it’s hard to fully describe it in a blog post. I’ll attempt to present a good overview of the group and if you have questions I haven’t answered, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments section.

What is MPA Council?

Before I describe the Council, I am going to describe the MPA Program the way I currently see it. The MPA Program is composed of 4 groups: students, staff, faculty, and alumni. Each of these groups have a lot to offer the program, and there will come a time you need help from one of these groups, and it pays to have a variety of contacts in each group to get things done.  One of the overall long term goals of MPA Council is to be a central body that facilitates communication between these four groups. I love diagrams, so I have drawn a diagram to illustrate this.  For example, if the MPA Program Office had a new idea, and wanted to gage student interest, it could talk to the Council and the Council could gain insight from a large number of students. The Council’s overall mission is to create a community within the MPA Program. It is commonly interpreted that this means the Council provides MPA students to get to know each other in a variety of settings. This is true, but more than that, the Council is about establishing a community within the four aspects of the program I described earlier. In other words, the Council hopes to synergize the unique and extremely proficient skill sets and capabilities of each of these groups and use them to ensure our program is the best in the nation.

MPA Council members at our boat party on Lake Austin

The council provides members with professional, academic, community service, and social events to participate in. Some of the events hosted this year include a boat party on Lake Austin, State of Accounting discussion with Dr. Lillian Mills, the Accounting Department’s Centennial Celebration with our lovely mascot Bevo, and a PhD panel (you can see pictures from our events here). Coming up we have Ethics Week, speakers for our distinguished speaker series, Faculty Appreciation Week.

Why did I join the Council?

I remember sitting at orientation listening to the professor panels, and professors saying how important it was to know your classmates for group cases and the importance of studying with classmates. I started freaking out, as I only know about 5 people on a speaking basis in the entire integrated class, and I was convinced I was going to fail everything. They talked about the Council at orientation, and I dove in so I could meet my fellow MPAs outside of the classroom. It was the best decision I have made in relation to my MPA degree. I have met so many people with distinct backgrounds and perspectives that I would never have been able to do in the classroom. It’s also provided me so many opportunities and resources within the MPA Program I don’t think I otherwise would have had.

What is my favorite part about the Council?

My personal favorite event of the Council is Member’s only Monday. One Monday a month, the Council provides its members with bagels, breakfast burritos, and coffee. It’s a come and go event, but it’s nice to sit in between classes with lovely MPAs and have a delicious free breakfast!

Alexandria, Austin

The Lance Armstrong Scandal from an Accounting Perspective

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The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced on Friday that it would be stripping Lance Armstrong’s 7 Tour de France titles from him, as well as permanently banning him from competitive cycling. I think this scandal is important to talk about in that it relates to our role as accountants.

You might be reading this thinking, “Does this scandal even relate to accounting?” The answer is yes, it absolutely does. The scandal in this issue is in part the results of the investigation, but mostly in how the investigation was conducted. The USADA used a number of procedures that were at best questionable and at most inherently illegal. We as accountants can learn from this scandal due to the fact that our role in society is very similar to that of the USADA. The USADA monitors US racers to ensure that bike races are fair and perfectly competitive. Auditors monitor organizations to ensure that the competition for-profits and shareholders are also fair and perfectly competitive. The difference between auditors and the USADA is what society expects of us and how we are socially reprimanded for unfair or unethical procedures.

This last statement may be a little strong, but let me frame it how I am seeing it. Armstrong was a retired cyclist when the case was brought against him. Any of the rulings wouldn’t make current cycling races fairer for riders. The USADA also brought charges against Armstrong that are over 17 years old, even though the organization has an 8 year limitation on these types of matters. The USADA seems to be changing its rules to get the results and publicity it wants while it preaches that everyone should be held to the same rules. According to U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks who oversaw the case against Armstrong, “USADA’s conduct raises serious questions about whether its real interest in charging Armstrong is to combat doping, or if it is acting according to less noble motives, such as politics or publicity.”

Now let’s pretend that instead of a cycling investigation, this was a public company’s audit. If something this negative was said by a U.S. District Judge in relation to how an audit procedure was conducted, the public would be outraged. There would be lawsuits and huge damages to be paid.  The accounting firm’s reputation may even be permanently tarnished. But because the USADA doesn’t affect the majority of people directly, most don’t care enough to hold the “watchdog” accountable for unethical actions.

As accountants, what we can learn from this scandal is that the most important thing is to be fair and objective. It is essential to follow proper and standard procedures and to not cater to things like publicity and politics. We are watchdogs, not bullies. We need to make sure that every action we take and every decision we make is done to ensure business is a fair game to be won, and companies that exceed our expectations are not punished for playing by the rules.

Academics, Admissions, Career

Creative Accounting….. wait, what?

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Although this is probably no new thing, I’ve just begun to notice how my generation treats creativity as a romanticized notion.  In my organizational behavior and strategic IT management class, my fellow classmates are always praising the creativity fostered by companies like Apple, Google, and Southwest Airlines.

The interesting thing about this is the business world tends to actually deter creativity. According to psychologist and Wharton management professor Jennifer Mueller, research shows that even as people explicitly aspire to creativity and strongly endorse it as a fundamental driving force of positive change, they routinely reject creative ideas and show an implicit bias against them under conditions of uncertainty. Subjects in Mueller’s study also exhibited a failure to see or acknowledge creativity, even when directly presented with it.

If you think about it, this observation makes perfect sense. One of the reasons the accounting major is extremely popular is because of the job-stability it provides, the low-risk nature of the job, and the fact it can be very compliance based. In the accounting industry, there are very adverse perceptions towards risk and creativity.

Now accounting and creativity are two words no one wants to hear together. With so many widely-publicized scandals of “creative accounting” leading to multi-million dollar frauds, there is no wonder why this is the case.  However, I have come to discover this year that accounting is a relatively creative organization, despite this negative association with “creative accounting”. The strict legal and ethical bounds of accounting contribute to making creativity in accounting more challenging and more rewarding.

What might I mean by this? A good example is the balanced scorecard. An article written by Theresa Amabile from Harvard Business School does a great job explaining the creativity and novelty going into the balanced scorecard and its immensely rewarding effect: Continue reading Creative Accounting….. wait, what? →