Blogs

IMA26 Tampa Discounted Rates

By Trent Kramer posted 18 days ago
The IMA's biggest event of the year is coming to Tampa, Florida in June 2026. These are memorable experiences from both a learning and networking perspective. Register before December 31st and save up to $350. Additional information is available here: https://web.cvent.com/event/acfd5bf5-c7bc-4cc1-9dcd-cdb677391594/summary

Anthropic AI to Pay $1.5 Billion for Pirated Books and Creative Content.

By Ilya Ilienko posted 19 days ago
🚨 # ClassAction suit comes to a decision‼️ SETTLEMENT: Anthropic must 𝐩𝐚𝐲 $𝟏.𝟓 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 . . . Billion❕ authors allege ~half a million books had been pirated to train its chatbots. Its possible that # Anthropic 🆚 # authors will go to trial if the settlement is not accepted. ➡️ Settlement would creative content producers abt $𝟯,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸. ➡️ Thus far there are ~𝟱𝟬𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 books on the list pirated by Anthropic. Numbers may go up. Can you say '𝙋𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙀𝘿𝙀𝙉𝙏'❔❓ Read below 👇 Anthropic AI to Pay $1.5 Billion for Pirated Books and Creative Content. Check Below if Your Work is Included in the Settlement. ...

Ten Myths Draining Your Company’s Profitability Without You Even Knowing

By Pedro San Martin posted 10-15-2025
A Conversation That Changed Everything “Are you seriously telling me our top-selling product is costing us money?” the CFO of a mid-size industrial company in Monterrey asked. He wasn’t shocked, but he was clearly unsettled. Our customer-profitability analysis had just revealed that 27% of his revenue came from products with negative margins. What really got to him was not the numbers themselves, but what they meant. He now had to make tough decisions, have difficult conversations, and question beliefs that had been in place for years. After two decades working with executive teams across Latin America, I’ve learned that the biggest problems for companies ...

Unfortunate News - Boz Bostrom Passed Away

By Trent Kramer posted 10-11-2025
It is with a heavy heart finding out that Boz Bostrom passed away on Thursday, October 9th. This followed a recent health struggle, of which he publicly shared. Boz was a larger-than-life advocate for our profession, his students and was an all-around great guy. You might recognize his trademark "Accounting" shirt and smile. Whether hanging out or wearing a suit, his Accounting Superman cape was center stage or just under the surface. Boz lived and breathed his passion for Accounting/Finance with a deep caring for those who were lucky enough to know him. He inspired students just being introduced to the fundamentals all the way up to professionals achieving ...

Are Your Tariffs Creating Strategic Value — or Just Adding Noise?

By Pedro San Martin posted 09-13-2025
How to visualize, model, and mobilize your global operations before volatility strikes again by Pedro San Martín, Principal at Asher PwC Interamericas This week, I sat down with the executive team of a global logistics firm facing mounting friction in their international operations. The CFO leaned forward, clearly exasperated: "How are we supposed to plan if the game changes every quarter?" His question isn’t an exaggeration. In just a few months, their operations faced new tariffs in three countries, customs delays in Asia, and a talent shortage spanning Central America and Eastern Europe. I've heard similar stories across industries. ...

IMA Virtual Women's Leadership Summit 9/25/25

By Trent Kramer posted 09-08-2025
The IMA Virtual Women's Leadership Summit is approaching on Thursday, September 25th. This goes from 9am CST to 3pm CST. Attendees can earn up to five CPE. A discounted registration fee is available through Friday (9/12) and then slightly increases thereafter. Additional info is available here: https://web.cvent.com/event/9a250d4c-eae5-45a3-a3cc-bea263ce18de/summary

When the Report Doesn’t Report: Communicating with Impact in Cost and Profitability Analytics

By Pedro San Martin posted 08-30-2025
When the Report Doesn’t Report: Communicating with Impact in Cost and Profitability Analytics Intro Picture this: I’m sitting in a boardroom with the CFO of a leading hospital group in Latin America. We’re poring over a quarterly report on oncology treatment costs, segmented by insurance type and patient profile. The document is dense with data—charts, tables, percentages. But the room is silent, save for the faint tick-tock of a wall clock. After what feels like an eternity, the CFO looks up and says, “Pedro, I don’t get it. There are numbers everywhere, but what’s the point ?” That moment hit me hard. It wasn’t about the data being ...

Follow the PM-SIG on LinkedIn

By Hessel H. Brouwer posted 08-17-2025
Dear PM-SIG members and followers. Please follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ima-performance-management-shared-interest-group You can help us reach a larger audience and grow our community by commenting, liking and sharing our posts. Thank you! Hessel

Revamped IMA Competency Framework

By Trent Kramer posted 07-31-2025
The IMA recently released their latest and greatest competency framework. This expands upon the key hallmarks previously outlined for our ever-evolving profession. Having first been established in 2016, the pace of change makes it vital for continuous education. A deeper dive, including a nine page white paper, is available here: https://www.imanet.org/en/Career-Resources/Competency-Framework

IMA's Financial and Managerial Accounting Associate (FMAA) Certification

By Trent Kramer posted 07-31-2025
Our chapter just had its first recipient of the FMAA certification. It was awarded to Marie Saunders. She also happens to be a CMA holder and a long-standing Minneapolis member. This is a relatively new certification offered by the Institute of Management Accountants. It is a one-and-done exam if that helps. With a focus on the five competencies below. That's an extra special accomplishment being among the first testing groups worldwide to achieve this. Thanks for being a pioneer on this front and being an ambassador for our chapter. Congrats Marie! Additional information about the FMAA certification and eligibility is available here: ...

Why CFOs Can't Delegate Their Voice to an Algorithm

By Pedro San Martin posted 07-18-2025
Why CFOs Can't Delegate Their Voice to an Algorithm Pedro San Martín — Principal at Asher PwC Interamericas The quarterly board meeting was going smoothly. Clean slides, solid margins, targets met. Then an independent director cut through the comfortable silence: "What actually changed in customer behavior to explain this sudden improvement?" The room went quiet. Our CFO's report was full of the usual suspects—"operational efficiency," "process optimization"—but it didn't answer the real question. It couldn't, because it had been written by a machine. The CEO leaned over and whispered what we were all thinking: "This was auto-generated, ...

IMA Minneapolis Chapter Election Results 2025-2026

By Trent Kramer posted 06-13-2025
Below are the results for the IMA Minneapolis Chapter 2025-2026 elections: President – Ashley Davis, CMA, CSCA, FPA Vice President of Engagement – James Powers, CMA Vice President of Communications – Trent Kramer, CMA, CPA, CSCA Treasurer – Todd Stenson, CPA Director of Education – Andrew Galas, MBA Director of Events – Ryan Chase, CMA, CSCA Secretary – Willy Arevalo, CMA A special thanks to Dave, Lianne and Warda for their contributions over the years (opted not to seek re-election). These board roles are effective with July 1st. Looking forward to another great year. Thanks for being a ...

From Waste to Worth: Why Capacity Management Is the Missing Link in Profitability Models

By Pedro San Martin posted 06-11-2025
From Waste to Worth: Why Capacity Management Is the Missing Link in Profitability Models By Pedro San Martín, Principal at Asher | PwC Interamericas It started with a blank stare... In a steering committee meeting at a manufacturing conglomerate in Monterrey, I asked: "What’s your current capacity utilization rate?" The COO blinked. “Are we talking machines, people, or plants?” That single question exposed a blind spot I’ve seen across industries—from healthcare in Bogotá to logistics in Panama: companies are building profitability models without first understanding their capacity baseline. It's like trying to optimize a race car's fuel efficiency ...

Unmasking the True Cost of Business Ignorance

By Pedro San Martin posted 06-06-2025
When Your Dashboard Hides the Storm In a well-known consumer goods company boardroom, the CFO proudly displayed a slide: "Our flagship product delivers a 45% gross margin. It's our crown jewel." Six months later, the company was executing mass layoffs to prevent a liquidity crisis. But... What went wrong? When we applied Activity-Based Costing, the harsh reality emerged: that "crown jewel" was profitable only if we ignored complex logistics costs, intensive post-sale support, and channel discounts that cannibalized its value. In reality, it generated a 12% net loss on every unit sold. This isn't an anomaly—it's a symptom of a silent epidemic. ...

How could the new COSO CGF framework be applied to Pricing and Profitability Management Processes?

By Pedro San Martin posted 05-30-2025
Governing Profitability: How the New COSO Corporate Governance Framework Transforms Pricing Strategy The margin crisis hiding in plain sight—and how governance can solve it The Silent Profit Killer "Forty percent of our clients don't even cover their total cost of service." The CFO's words hung in the air during that audit committee meeting at a maquiladora spanning El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez. The silence that followed spoke volumes. Here was a company focused on growth, celebrating revenue milestones, while profitability quietly bled out through uncontrolled discounts, opaque cost structures, and a culture that prioritized volume over margin. ...

Cost as a Mirror of Strategy

By Pedro San Martin posted 05-16-2025
A CFO’s Guide to Aligning Cost Structure with Strategic Priorities ( Audio : https://on.soundcloud.com/GmdhUe36WBty9Px76 ) by Pedro San Martin, Principal Asher PwC Strategic Finance Center of Excellence Interamericas Senior finance leaders often proclaim bold strategies for growth and innovation, yet many struggle to translate those ambitions into sustainable profitability. The culprit is frequently a misaligned cost structure – in other words, your budget is not backing up your strategy . As the saying goes, “ Strategy isn’t what ...

Exploring AI for Small-Medium Businesses: From How? to Wow! By: Ilya Ilienko, MBA, CMA, CPA, CFO

By Ilya Ilienko posted 05-08-2025
Exploring AI for Small-Medium Businesses: From How? to Wow! By Ilya Ilienko, MBA, CMA, CPA, CFO You don’t have to visit your nearest Blockbuster to rent a movie anymore – or even wait for a DVD to arrive in the mail. Redbox kiosks? Practically obsolete. We’ve come a long way, with on-demand streaming from Netflix, Hulu, and countless other platforms. But mainstream adoption of new technology always takes time. People resist change, sticking with what’s familiar and comfortable. Yet familiar doesn’t always mean better . The same reluctance applies to AI. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2024 study found that 98% of small businesses are already ...

From Activity-Based Costing to AI-Based Costing: The Evolution of Cost Transparency from Manual Models to Machine-Driven Insight

By Pedro San Martin posted 05-03-2025
Abstract This article explores the evolution of cost transparency from traditional Activity-Based Costing (ABC) to AI-Based Costing, highlighting the limitations of manual models and the opportunities that artificial intelligence can enable. Focusing on practical applications within Oracle Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management (EPCM) Cloud, it compares these approaches across key dimensions such as transparency, precision, scalability, and operational complexity. The objective is to equip financial professionals and strategic cost leaders with insights for modernizing their cost systems in the era of data-driven decision-making. 1. The Foundations ...

From Growth to Margin: How Oracle EPCM and Generative AI Are Powering the Retail Profitability Revolution

By Pedro San Martin posted 04-30-2025
By Pedro San Martín, Principal at Asher Executive Summary Post-pandemic retail exposed a brutal truth: many stores were still generating revenue, but failing silently. According to BCG and Strategy&, 38% of closures had positive sales but were unprofitable due to poor cost visibility. Retail leaders are facing a confidence crisis, with only 35% feeling assured in their current growth strategies (Asher & PwC). Traditional metrics, such as average traffic or sales, can hide the accurate picture of profitability, leading to misguided decisions. Enter Store Economics 2.0: a precision-driven approach enabled by Oracle EPCM and Activity-Based ...

Banking on Intelligence: Leveraging Spend Analytics and APQC Frameworks to Drive Cost Efficiency and Strategic Transformation

By Pedro San Martin posted 04-29-2025
Unlocking Operational Agility and Administrative Cost Control through Data-Driven Decision-Making in Financial Institutions by Pedro San Martin, Strategig Finance Principal Asher | PwC Interaméricas psanmartin@asher.company Abstract Spend Analytics has emerged as a critical strategic tool for cost control, efficiency enhancement, and compliance management within the banking sector. Utilizing the American Productivity & Quality Center's (APQC) Process Classification Framework (PCF), this paper examines the practical and strategic implications of Spend Analytics, specifically targeting administrative and value chain-related expenses in banking ...