The original business measurement model was developed for the industrial organization of the 19/20th century under a regime of limited to non-existent information technology. While business organizations have changed substantively towards an information organization whose main assets are not physical in nature, the measurement model has not evolved and so it is poorly equipped to deal with the emerging information organization.. Furthermore, a bad measurement environment and audit technologies consisting of pencil and paper do not help the assurance process. Consequently, new and improved accounting and reporting requirements and mechanisms are needed to meet our commitment to the user/public marketplace of the 21st century. This document is one of several models prepared to support the Public Company Task Force of the Special Committee on the Enhanced Business Reporting Model of the AICPA ( the Starr committee). Examining the feedback from members of the Jenkins committee on a new business reporting model combined with the very negative current view of the accounting profession by the public in general and by regulators clearly revealed to the committee that the accounting profession was in no condition to create a new business reporting model by itself. Consequently, the Starr Committee is evolving into a societal consortium (EBRC) that is embracing a much larger set of players and addressing a wider audience in order to respond to the above concerns.
The GDM (Galileo Disclosure Model) aims to take advantage of an entire new set of technology and their ensuing economics to measure organizations in the information economy.
These new technologies are the core of the new real-time economy and encompass four main elements: 1) an ubiquitous carrier layer, 2) an integrated corporate application software 3) pliable and accessible user interfaces and 4) a powerful database technology. With the above technologies a new method of business measurement can emerge which we call continuous reporting. It takes advantage of a continuous data flow to display corporate levels and flows at variable time frames that are contingent on the natural rhythm of the application and on the decision frame of the user.
Already exists internally in certain forms
It is paradigmatically different from traditional reporting
a. The Axioms
A series of axioms were presented to start the debate and development of the GDM. The state: 1) the proposed model is the basic “extreme” model used as a basis for discussion not a proposal for statutory rules, 2) when valuation is difficult, disclose basic facts that can lead to user judgmental valuation, 3) support any estimate with its calculation basis, 4) provide raw not massaged data with panoramic level of details, 5) standardize the states-of-the world to avoid financial / organizational engineering, 6) if a model is used to summarize / extrapolate information to provide more than one model or the basis for these computations, 7) statutes should be composed of digital standards that can immediately be impounded into software not vague principle –based standards, and 8) provide data level assurance in addition to other forms of statement / process based assurance and 9) Information provisioning is a continuum from internal to external information.
