Herzlinger Honored in Articles of Merit Competition
Social Enterprise Newsletter, Fall 2001
An article integrating HBS Professor Regina Herzlinger's work in nonprofit governance and accounting won the 2001 Articles of Merit Competition of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). This annual award is presented to the author of an article that has made a valuable contribution to management accounting. Originally published in the June 2000 issue of Management Accounting, a leading journal in the field, "The Outsiders" focuses on Herzlinger's Four by Four framework for oversight of nonprofits and government organizations.
The Four by Four framework is a self-assessment tool Herzlinger developed for board members, with four specific questions to be addressed from the vantage point of four constituencies—clients, donors, staff, and society. The questions are substantial:
- Do we as a nonprofit have insufficient or excessive resources to accomplish our mission?
- Are we being fair to future and past generations, and across sectors of society?
- Do we have long-term resources to achieve long-term goals, or are we fantasizing about our ability to achieve them?
- Do we have sufficient diversification of resources so that we are sustainable?
By addressing these findings with key constituencies, a board can begin to track the organization's effectiveness and set benchmarks for improvement.
Professor Herzlinger adapted "The Outsiders" from her talk at the University of Edinburgh as the first recipient of the visiting professorship granted by CIMA. She has won similar research awards for her work in healthcare, and is a two-time winner of the Thompson Book of the Year Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives.
"This prestigious award recognizes the growing intellectual capital within our social enterprise and accounting areas, and the breadth of our faculty's research," says James E. Austin, faculty chair of the Initiative on Social Enterprise.