A news story reported the following anecdote: John Anderson, a veteran of Rockwell’s automotive operations, recalls that when he sat in on meetings at the company’s North American Aircraft Operations twenty years ago, “there’d be 60 or 70 guys talking technical problems, with never a word on profits.” Such inattention to financial management helped Rockwell lose the F-15 fighter to McDonnell Douglas, Pentagon sources say. Anderson brought in profit-oriented executives, and he has now transformed North American staff meetings to the point that “you seldom hear talk of technical problems any more,” he says. “It’s all financial.”

What is your reaction to Anderson’s comments? Are his comments related to management accounting?