Modelos armonizados: El capital humano en los informes de capital intelectual

The chairperson, being aware of the quality and professionalism of the staff was keen to retain them within the process of planning for the future. She knew that the Finance Manager was a Chartered Management Accountant with vast experience in re-organising and restructuring failing companies. It was therefore in the company’s interest to retain his services for the foreseeable future to effect change to achieve development. After consultation with the Board, the chairperson prepared to make a case to the funders for future funding. The Finance Manager was tasked with preparing the Financial Report from Carnival 1989 and a Proposed Budget for Carnival 1990.

Developing the budget was undertaken as the most important task. It was aimed at securing the continued support of the statutory funders to meet the core activities of the event and to act as leverage to attract other sources of financial support. Financial plans were presented to the funders and their commitment to funding Carnival for the next year was secured, but with the caveat that it was their intention to phase out their funding support for the event, as Carnival should aim to achieve self-sufficiency.

One of the objectives of the organisation was to capitalise on fund-raising opportunities to contribute to the goal of self-sufficiency. The report by Coopers and Lybrand had made several recommendations about how income could be generated. One recommendation was the production of 4 million “carnival

161. buttons”, each button to be sold for 30p or 50p. Even if 50% of the buttons was to be sold, the Carnival still stood to gain £250,000. The report also suggested that if everyone attending the Carnival was made to pay a pound (£1), this could potentially generate £2,000,000. However, there were legal constraints about this type of fund-raising activity on the streets. One permissible activity was the sale of raffle tickets for which Carnival would have to apply to the Gaming Board of England and Wales. The NCEL decided to undertake the raffle of a car.

It was calculated that if at least 30% of the million attendees were to purchase a ticket at £1 each, then there would be sufficient income to put towards the development of Carnival. In trying to obtain the car the organisation encountered many difficulties with one car manufacturer even refusing to allow its corporate name to be associated with the event, because it was “nothing but trouble”. The organisation did eventually buy a car from Ford Motors at a deep discount. The car, a Ford Sierra LX 2000, was raffled. There were pre-Carnival sales of tickets and sales on the two days of Carnival. The car was placed on a float for display and driven through the streets. Only £18,000 was realised from this initiative. This represented the cost-price of the car and the cost of organising its raffle. Another initiative for fund-raising was the “£1 in the Ground” scheme. This was an initiative supported and administered by the RBK&C. It involved placing collection drums designed as steelpans, at key entry points to the carnival area. People were then encouraged to donate by throwing £1 coins and any loose change into the drums. After Carnival, Local Authority officers collected the receptacles. The scheme ran at a loss and cost over five times more to set up than the money collected.

162. 6.3.2. The Impacts of Recent Organisational History

Lessons were learned from the failure of the above well-advertised and executed schemes about public perceptions and the credibility of the Carnival process. The Carnival lacked credibility due in part to its recent organisational history and the association of its image with mismanagement. Other factors that were identified as having contributed to Carnival’s lack of credibility included its apparent instability, manifested in the rapid turnover and number of changes in its leadership over the years. Between 1970 and 1989, thirteen such changes had taken place. The fact that the Carnival had evolved without a vision was a major contributing factor to its lack of stability. Without a vision, the Carnival lacked direction, definition and structure. It had developed into an event that was made up of many disparate elements that needed to be coordinated and harmonised. Its organisational capacity and management capabilities had been overtaken by its rapid growth which brought new responsibilities. There was inadequate financial planning, the lack of controls and ineffective management.

Given its lack of focus and structure, it became impossible to shield Carnival from the impacts of occurrences in its immediate and wider social environments, such as the politics and misfortunes of the Mangrove Association; the tensions of the relationship between the police and Black communities; criticisms and actions stemming from residents’ groups; and the omni-present, opportunistic crime which took on more heightened significance in Carnival. These factors affected Carnival’s image, reputation, respectability, acceptance and ultimately its credibility. It was also recognised that there was a gap in public awareness and understanding of the Carnival’s ethos of “celebration and commemoration”.

163. The Finance Director advised that a more strategic approach was needed that would require a holistic review and analysis of the organisation and its many parts, and determination of its strategic orientation. This would enable the organisation to see how its different parts and concerns fit together, with a view to coordinating and harmonising the process and contributing to the achievement of its long-term goals. Ultimately, a strategic approach would assist in analysing Carnival’s relationship with the social and economic environments within which it was operating, with a view to understanding their impacts and enable planning for the long-term.