Visitors from India, Ford Foundation sponsors study of accounting methods here;

              Ford Foundation sponsors
study of accounting
methods here
Visitors
from
India
Posing for the camera with Profitability Accounting and COMP flip
charts are Messrs. Chandrase Kharan, Heil, Krishnamurthi and
DiMario.
The Ford Foundation, in its continuing eleemosynary
efforts, decided not long ago to invite the Indian Govern­ment
to select key individuals to come to the United
States to learn as much as possible about modern methods
of accounting . . . including the creation of standard costs,
budgetary controls, and management reports. The Foun­dation
asked the TRB&S office in Pittsburgh to provide
three months of extensive training for two top financial
executives from Hindustan Steel in India. They were also
to survey the existing state of the art by visiting several
steel companies and other related manufacturing organi­zations.
When Messrs. Chandrasekharan and Krishnamurthi
arrived, everything was done to help effect a smooth
transition from the Indian way of life to ours. Jack Heil
from our Los Angeles office "lived-in" with the two gen­tlemen
and acted as house mother. In this capacity, he
also created a fictional steel company for India. A Chart
of Accounts was formulated, profit centers were defined,
allocation procedures were determined, and organiza­tional
lines were defined.
As a basis for designing the Indian Steel Company,
Joseph F. DiMario from Pittsburgh spent a month in a
tutoring capacity. All of the basic concepts encompassed
within Profitability Accounting and COMP were dis­cussed
in great detail and related to India where major
segments of the steel industry are government controlled.
Part of their stay was occupied with several sight-seeing
trips. Messrs. Chandrasekharan and Krishnamurthi were
most anxious to learn and to see as much of the United
States as possible. To satisfy this end, they were able to
visit the Worlds Fair, Niagara Falls, the TV A Authority,
Disneyland, and San Francisco. In Pittsburgh, Louis
Werbaneth, Leland Hazard from GSIA, his secretary,
Mrs. Couchman, and Joe DiMario hosted these gentle­men
in their homes and saw to it that all of the local
points of interest were on their itinerary.
A significant exchange of ideas and facts about the
two countries was constantly in evidence. Although our
primary purpose was to impart technical knowledge to
these friends — as happens in most teaching situations —
the teacher learns as much or more than the students.
MARCH, 1965 37