MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Management Accounting in Business

Management Accounting in Business

Introduction

This assignment is based on assessing the role of management accounting within organizations, as opposed to financial accounting. For the sake of this purpose, we have selected SAB (South African Breweries) Miller Plc as our chosen company, for assessing the applications of modern management accounting. SAB (South African Breweries) Miller is one of the world's leading brewers, with more than 200 beer brands and some 70,000 employees in over 75 countries. Beer is a local business and that beer brands are rooted in local U.S. communities and often have their own rich histories and heritage (Schwalbe, 2001, p. 66-69). SAB Miller respects and nurtures these qualities and allows their businesses a high degree of autonomy in meeting the local beer needs.

Activities and Structure of Company

SAB Miller is one of the world's principal brewers, pioneering more than 200 beer brands in over 75 countries. The activities of the company include manufacturing beers and giving bottling services to Coca-Cola's products. The portfolio of company brands includes premium international beers such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch, as well as leading local brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite and Tyskie.

The structure of the company lies in its operations across the six major continents:

Africa

Asia

Europe

Latin America

North America

South Africa

Some of the key operational highlights, having strong implications and influences on modern management practices, include the following mile4stones that SAB Miller has achieved:

218 hectolitres of lager have been sold last year, indicating a major competitive advantage for the company and gaining of market shares.

Reported EBITA grew 15%, with organic, constant currency EBITA increasing 12%

Disciplined revenue management in the company has been possible, synergies and cost savings increased North America EBITA by 20%

Strong volume growth, firm pricing and capacity expansion drove Africa's EBITA growth of 20%.

Export to significant volumes to a further eight European markets, of which the largest are the UK and Germany.

The primary brewing and beverage operations cover six countries across South and Central America (Colombia, Ecuador, Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Peru).

In each of these countries, we are the number one brewer by market share.

At the end of 2010 SAB Miller Plc. acquired the third largest brewer in Argentina. We produce and distribute the Warsteiner brand under a long-term licence agreement.

Understanding the Role of Management Accounting Within Organisations

These days a management accountant has a dual role in an organization in terms of dual reporting relationships. As a provider of decision based operational information and strategic partner, it's their responsibility to manage business teams and are required to report responsibilities to the corporations of finance division. The activities provided by the management accountants are inclusive of planning and forecasting, performance variance analysis; monitoring and reviewing costs associated with the business are the ones that have double accountability to both finance and the business team (Schwalbe, 2001, p. 66-69). For instance the examples of tasks in which accountability is more important to the business management team against the corporate ...