MBA Guest Speaker: Jeremy Nicholls, Chief Executive Social Value
Jeremy Nicholls, the Chief Executive of Social Value UK and Social Value International, spoke as part of the University of Liverpool Management School Guest Speaker Series with his presentation, ‘Accountancy will change the world”. The talk emphasised the importance of measuring the social, economic and environmental impact of an organisation’s work.
Social Value UK and Social Value International are membership organisation for individuals, organisations and companies supporting principles and standards in accounting for social and environmental value.
Jeremy’s talk explored the future of accountancy is business and emphasised the need to account for added value. He explained that there are changes within business that call for accounts which prepare for a theoretical average investor who wants to maximise financial return subject to no material social or environmental costs. He suggested that Business with higher negative social and environmental impacts become less profitable as they attract less investment.
Jeremy is a qualified chartered accountant, having worked as Finance Director for Tanzania Railways, in Liberia for the national Water company and in Nicaragua for Cafenic. In 2004 he set up Urban Strategy associates, an economic development consultancy. He also set up the BETA Model, an online database of trends in UK business stock and the Cat's Pyjamas which ran events to promote the value of social enterprise.
Jeremy advised students that “the way in which accounting is applied to organisations isn’t fixed. You will be expected to make judgements.”
The session was followed by a networking session which gave students the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the topic further with the speaker.