Incredibly it's a year and 3 days since my last blog entry! What have I been doing all that time? Well, mostly the book which went off to OUP in January. Co-author finally delivered, I had to rewrite parts of some of my chapters to fit it all together and then I insisted on taking over the final tidying up of the manuscript. That took a concentrated week of editing but I was surprised when Emma, the very patient editor, complimented me on the state of the final version - all I did was follow the instructions but it makes me wonder what some authors submit. The copy editor's queries were minimal and we're now waiting for the proofs. Publication date is in September. Can't quite believe we've got this far after the long dragging, frustrating process and I'm still sad that we didn't get it out last year. I've been invited to two events in recent months where it would have been wonderful to have copies or at least publicity material.
It's been a tough year at work and I seem to have spent a lot of time being an ear and a shoulder dealing with the fallout from the stupid restructuring. But we finally have a new head of department and I no longer feel I need to play a big support role. I've finally negotiated a retirement deal, another strangely bizarre process with some irrational behaviour by my employers but I should be used to that after all these years... From September, I only have to do research until I finish in April 2014. Giving up the admin will be a great relief. No teaching either! This semester's teaching has not been much fun but it's over now, with just the marking to deal with in a few week's time.
Best thing has been working with my post doc. His politics background gives an interesting perspective to accountability issues and we've finally got a pilot study off the ground, looking at the role of NEDs in public/third sector organisations. We're in the middle of interviewing and some fascinating insights are emerging. I have lots of stuff collected for other papers which I hope I'll find time to organise over the summer.
Our trip to Vancouver was lovely but we didn't get as far as Seattle as Mother-in-law died. An October cruise to the Canaries as compensation was rather disappointing although I got lots of work done on the book. This summer we're going to Iceland and hopefully Chicago later.
Next month I'll be off to the BAFA conference in Newcastle to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award which is rather nice. The Brussels workshop has been postponed until October which suits me well.
Last week I was invited to sit on a panel at the ICSA conference entitled "Cadbury Reunited". It was great fun talking to two former members of the Committee, both of whom we had interviewed for the book and the chair, Sara Coburn, was very good, very well briefed and a charming person. Good feedback afterwards and quite a few LinkedIn requests from people who were in the audience. No preparation required which made it even better! In contrast, being invited to address the Management Accounting Research Group conference on management accounting and corporate governance at LSE next month is demanding a great deal of work. I have been struggling with the slides (required today!) for weeks and finally realised why: my argument didn't work! Turning it round made much more sense although I now find myself disagreeing with Sir Adrian as to whether governance and management should be kept clearly separate.
