The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Transformation Economy by THRESHOLD

Hourly billing and timesheets are inextricably linked: you cannot discuss one without the other. The reason is because both use a common measuring device: Time. There are four primary defenses of timesheets: 1. They are a pricing tool: 2. They are a cost accounting tool: 3. They are a project management tool: and 4. They measure the productivity of our professionals. Logic teaches us that if time is the incorrect measure of external value, then timesheets are the wrong measuring device for internal knowledge workers, similar to plunging a ruler into the oven to determine its temperature. After all, he who says A must also say B. Join Ed and Ron as they falsify all of these defenses.

What qualifies as a 'profession'? What does it mean to be a "professional." The term profession comes from the Latin noun professio, which is derived from the past participle professus, or the verb profiteri, denoting "to declare publicly, own freely, acknowledge, avow." Professionals are said to "profess" something, they stand for something. The noun professional didn't appear in American dictionaries until 1861. In the 18th and 19th centuries 'professions' referred to theology, law, medicine, and education. From the early 17th till the mid-18th century, theology was considered the preeminent profession. It's interesting to note that a trip to the doctor didn't do much good until the 1920s or 1930s with the introduction of antibiotics. Before then, most visits were ineffective and a large number were downright harmful. The Hippocratic principle of primum non nocere -'first, do no harm'- continues to be an essential guideline for all professional conduct.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do "Free-Rider Friday." Most of our shows are "topic" driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be "event" driven, whatever issues are in the news that we -or you- find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up. If you'd like to call-in during the live show, the listener line is: 866-472-5790.

This week Ron and Ed are thrilled to have Steven E. Landsburg, professor of Economics at the University of Rochester, where students recently elected him Professor of the Year. He is the author of The Armchair Economist, Fair Play, More Sex is Safer Sex, The Big Questions, two textbooks in economics, a forthcoming textbook on general relativity and cosmology, and over 30 journal articles in mathematics, economics and philosophy. His current research is in the area of quantum game theory. He writes the monthly 'Everyday Economics' column in Slate magazine, and has written regularly for Forbes and occasionally for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He appeared as a commentator on the PBS-Turner Broadcasting series 'Damn Right', and has made over 200 appearances on radio and television broadcasts over the past few years.

Ed and Ron will discuss the eight myths of capitalism as explained in Jay Richard's 2009 book, Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem. Richard's book is in the pantheon of literature that offers a moral argument for capitalism, along with the work of George Gilder, Michael Novak, Father Robert Sirico, Deirdre McCloskey, and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and others. Join Ed and Ron as they shatter the idea of Utopia, Greed, Zero-sum thinking.

Ed and Ron will interview Greg LaFollette, CPA. Greg will give us his take on the future of the accounting profession, as well as the Richard and Daniel Susskind book, The Future of the Professions -see our show from January 8, 2016, interview with Daniel Susskind-, cloud accounting, transitioning to higher value advisory services, among other topics.

The last Friday of every month Ed and Ron will do 'Free-Rider Friday': Most of our shows are 'topic' driven, where we dive deep into one subject. Free-Rider Fridays are designed to be 'event' driven, whatever issues are in the news that we -or you- find worthy of commentary. In economics, free riding means reaping the benefits from the actions of others and consequently refusing to bear the full costs of those actions. This means Ed and Ron will free ride off of the news, and each other, with no advanced knowledge of the events either will bring up. If you'd like to call-in during the live show, the listener line is: 866-472-5790.

Expensify does expense reports that don't suck! by importing expenses and receipts from your credit cards and mobile phones, submitting expense reports through email, and reimbursing everything online. It has raised over $6M in venture funding, has hundreds of thousands of users, has won awards aplenty, and is basically taking the small-business expense reporting space by storm. Ed and Ron will discuss the state of the accounting profession, cloud and app technology, what it's like to found a company and deal with rapid growth, increasing government regulations, innovation, creating a company culture, and probably wine.

Accounting statements are like bikinis: "What they show is interesting, but what they conceal is significant." According to Baruch Lev and Feng Gu, in their new book, The End of Accounting, "Today's financial reports provide a trifling 5-6 percent of the information relevant to, and used by, investors." Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and traditional financial statements are suffering from what philosophers call a deteriorating paradigm: the theory gets more and more complex to account for its lack of explanatory power. Baruch Lev and Feng Gu want to change this sorry state. Their seminal book is divided into four parts: 1) Relevance Lost; 2) Why Is the Relevance Lost?; 3) So, What's to Be Done?; and 4) Implementation. The End of Accounting is the most important book that has been written on the irrelevance of the accounting reporting model in recent times. If you are an investor, or accountant, you don't want to miss this show.

Welcome to the 100th Episode of The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy, which first aired on July 4, 2014. Thanks to everyone who makes this show possible: Our listeners, our sponsors, callers, and the entire Team at VoiceAmerica who run a professional organization. Ron and Ed will look back on some of our 30 guests, our memorable show topics, and a discussion on the Brexit vote and more on blockchain technology.