Happy New Year and some reflections on 2013

Happy 2014 to my readers!

2013 was quite a good year, professorially speaking. Finally submitting the book manuscript at the beginning of the year felt like a great achievement and the process of getting it into print was relatively trouble free. The book launch in October at ICAEW was great fun. Unfortunately my co-author had to miss it through illness so she didn't hear the very positive comments from the four speakers (Martyn Jones, ICAEW President; Robert Hodgkinson, ICAEW Executive Director, Technical; Sir Adrian Cadbury; Sir Christopher Hogg)

The incomprehensible royalty statement I've just received suggests that 90 copies have been sold so far which isn't bad, given that the OUP marketing department seems oddly unconcerned about trying to sell the book. Review copies have yet to go out but there have been various mentions on line:

Two mentions by Robert Bruce:

http://www.iasplus.com/en-gb/news/2013/10/bruce-column-audit-committees

http://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/member/accounting-business/domestic-dilution.html

Comments from James McRitchie on his excellent corporate governance blog:

http://corpgov.net/2013/11/review-reflections-the-cadbury-committee/#more-18240

Mentions of book launch:

http://uk.standardlifeinvestments.com/institutional/governance_and_stewardship/news/index.html

(scroll down to October 2013)

http://www.seechangeconsulting.co.uk/news.html

Another highlight was receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at BAFA in April:

I had hoped to get some substantial writing done before the end of the year but I seem to have spent far too much time reading ill-informed media, LinkedIn and Twitter comment, firing off corrections and engaging in fairly fruitless arguments. But perhaps this is more useful activity than writing papers that will take a long time to get published and may only be read by a handful of people?

So it's about 17 weeks until I officially retire in April, at which point the university will award me the title of emeritus professor (or an emerita professor as some female professors seem to prefer, can't decide what I think about that). Not yet sure exactly what that will mean but I certainly won't stop doing professorial things, although I should have a bit more freedom to choose exactly what I want to do.

My friend Cath Gowthorpe has the right idea about New Year resolutions: call them intentions instead.

Here is a link to her very creative blog.

So my intention is firstly to move forward the various projects that have been stumbling along in the wake of the book, especially the work on NEDs in the public/third sector with Thom, the third Arthur Andersen paper with my Canadian colleague and the overview of the board diversity literature. There may also be a paper to be written out of the book. That's more than can be accomplished in 17 weeks but I hope I can make a good start.