For decades, Activity-Based Costing (ABC) stood as a cornerstone of modern management accounting, a truly revolutionary alternative to the traditional costing methods that I saw struggling to reflect reality. When Kaplan and Cooper introduced Activity-Based Costing (ABC) in the late 1980s, they presented a fundamental truth that resonated deeply with me and many others in the field: it is not products that consume costs, but the activities performed to create and deliver them (Kaplan & Cooper, 1988). This shift in perspective promised unprecedented clarity.
Yet, as I've observed across numerous engagements, particularly in Latin America, the dynamism ...