Flexible Budget

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FLEXIBLE BUDGETING

meets at Bacardi Limited

This article is based on a study funded by the IMA® Research Foundation By Jon Bartley, CPA; Frank Buckless; Y.S. Al Chen, CMA, CFM, CPA, CGMA; Stephen K. Harvey, P.E.; Scott Showalter, CPA, CGMA, CGFM; and Gilroy Zuckerman

Bacardi Limited excels at innovation. One of its latest creations is an innovative application of flexible budgeting to physical measures of sustainability performance to get a more accurate picture of that performance. This picture is important because the company is seeking to become as environmentally friendly as possible and is leading and participating in a number of initiatives to do so.

December 2012

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One of the world’s largest spirits companies, the familyowned and privately held enterprise is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda (its Americas headquarters is in Coral Gables, Fla.); employs nearly 6,000 people; and operates 27 production facilities in 16 countries on four continents. It’s also an active member of the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER), a consortium of leading global beverage companies and suppliers focused on resource protection, energy efficiency, and climate change mitigation. In 2009, Bacardi Limited became the only major spirits company to attain certification with all of its production facilities globally achieving ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 certifications. The company began setting ing (SMA) titled “The Evolution of Accountability— Sustainability Reporting for Accountants” raises this issue: “One of the greatest challenges the management accountant will face is creating metrics that provide insight into an organization’s performance in the nonfinancial areas of the triple bottom line.” Yet companies need new decision-making tools to analyze their sustainability performance and resulting impacts. Bacardi Limited leadership asked Stephen Harvey, its global director...