Lea Patterson
Emissions Reduction not just Reporting!
Last week I presented at the CAM-I quarterly meeting 11-13 September 2023 in Tyson’s Corner, VA. I was thrilled to be joined by Professor Robert Kaplan (Harvard University) and Mike Mahoney (CEO…
Blog
Articles from the Pilbara team on higher education costs, margins, benchmarks, budgeting and AI.
128 articles
Lea Patterson
Top Ten Lessons Learnt from Over Two Decades of Building Activity-Based Cost Models
Activity-Based Costing (ABC) can provide tremendous insight into the financial performance of your organization. However, it has had a checkered past due to factors including the complexity of models…
Lea Patterson
AI and Higher Ed Academic Program Management
There has been a remarkable surge in Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage, generating a significant amount of news and interest. The utilization of ChatGPT has skyrocketed, and new tools emerge…
Lea Patterson
A CIOs Guide to Higher Ed Strategic Cost Management
While reading EDUCAUSE’s latest article on the Top 10 IT issues for 2023, I came across the top-ranked issue – A Seat at the Table, which emphasizes the importance of ensuring that IT leadership is a…
Lea Patterson
Supporting the Green Transition with Activity-Based Costing!
According to a recent IFAC report, only 24% of companies with plans to reduce or offset Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions factor in past or future expenses for implementing those plans. This suggests…
Lea Patterson
Reducing Academic Workload
Last week, I read a blog post by Alex Usher titled “Reducing Work” where he suggests some ways universities can make teaching more efficient. These include: Driving down the real cost of wages by…
Lea Patterson
Top Podcasts and Blogs for 2022
OK, so I’m a little late with my “Best Of 2022” post, given it’s almost the end of January now, but I believe I’m still allowed to say “Happy New Year” as long as I post this in January it’s all…
Lea Patterson
The Annual Higher Ed Budgeting Process is Broken!
TLDR The annual budgeting process is broken but can be fixed using centuries old techniques. Using demand for products/services to create budgets, not last year’s budget as a baseline. The critical…
Lea Patterson
Top 5 Higher Ed Financial Reports
I was thrilled to be invited to present at the 2022 Australian University Senior Finance Officers Group (AUSFOG) conference last week alongside Thomas King from Microsoft. I was asked to present the…
Lea Patterson
Managing in a Period of Stagflation
Stagflation: An economic situation in which prices keep rising but economic activity does not increase (Cambridge Dictionary) TLDR High Inflation hasn’t been around since the 70’s and 80’s. During…