One of the four levels of organizational control described in this module was pr

imarily addressed in the video is the financial control area.Financial control i

s the cornerstone of the whole effective control procedure for Harrah's.The best
analogy is to compare the gaming company to a bank,this comparison put you in a
big picture to show how cash and other financial transactions are very importan
t to the core business and daily operations for the casino company.Tony McDuffie
,V.P.,Controller is a qualified and smart accountant and he is in control for th
e whole financial situation'flows( cash flows,Income statement,balance sheet) wi
thin his organization.Since Harrah's has an international business presence (mai
nly Asia),he came to conclude that GAAP(generally accepted accounting principles
),are more advanced and transparent standards than most accounting systems in ot
her countries.A coherent and efficient GAAP will offer international business an
d corporations a great incentive to invest in U.S.companies listed on the finan
cial markets.He mentioned Enron scandal and he concluded that the fault is not w
ithin the rules but the people without integretity that know very well when and
how to manipulates these rules.He emphasized the huge role of the external audit
ors to prepare a reliable financial statements especially the company prepare to
merge with the giant company Caesar's.
The remaining three levels (Operations ,structural and strategic controls) were
not the primary focus because operations control is involved with the transforma
tion of inputs to outputs as a structure for industrial companies ( Ford,Procter
&Gamble).The structural control aspect is not vital for the company because its
structure does not follow a conglomerate company or news media organization(News
Corporation). Strategic control focuses on the extent to which implemented star
tegy achieves the organization's strategic goal.(Biotech,pharmaceutical industry
).
one of the four characteristics of effective control identified in this module i
s Timeliness. Tony McDuffie, V.P., Controller and Chief Accounting Officer agree
d with the selected characteristic.He mentioned that financial statements identi
fy the company cash flows and current assets and libilities in a period of time.
In accounting terms,when refering to the term current assets and current liabili
ties ,you know that timeliness is a very critical issue to reckon with.Timelines
s is recognized as an important characteristic of accounting information by the
accounting profession, the users of accounting information, and the regulatory a
gencies. Accounting reports with shorter delay have a higher informational conte
nt than those with longer delay.