1. Creating a new “standard” for organizations can be triumph or failure. Was XBRL a total failure throughout its development and use?
2. Why is the hierarchy of the organization a contributor to the problem that XBRL brought to the SEC?
3. A well-known example of an innovator leaving the company is Steve Jobs. Like the SEC, when the innovator leaves (the commissioner), losing the motivation for that innovation is a challenge. What can we learn from these cases?
APA Style, 800 words, please
WHEN INNOVATORS LEAVE: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FAILURE by Anne L. Washington, PhD Six years after leading a worldwide transparency initiative in the financial services industry, the originating government agency has failed to leverage the innovation for themselves. What happens when innovators leave? Context The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent government agency that is responsible for regulating the securities industry. Regulations mandate information disclosure. The regulating agency subsequently publishes information necessary to confirm compliance. For instance, publicly traded companies must submit quarterly financial statements that are widely used to analyze the stock market. While essential for financial analysts, stockholders and investors, SEC reports are valuable for internal analysis and enforcement. According to one Senate Report (S. Rep 94-75 p79), institutional disclosure was intended to be used by the SEC to investigate how individual organizations impact the industry as a whole. The SEC regulatory process largely involves company disclosure of information through the submission of forms. The Internet has transformed the mechanisms and the speed of this exchange. Since 1996, forms must be submitted electronically using the system called EDGAR, Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system. Because both stock markets and regulation are exchanges of information, data is an essential aspect of the SEC’s work. Leadership Given the independent and political nature of commissions, SEC has more autonomy than other government organizations and is wellplaced to test innovations. The Commissioner and the four-person commission are political appointees chosen to represent both sides of partisan interests. In 2005, a new Commissioner recognized that reports would be more useful as electronic data for efficient oversight. The Commissioner actively engaged legal, technology and accounting professionals in addition to issuing requests for comments on the new rules. The results were a series of innovations geared towards efficiently gathering and understanding electronic financial statements. The Commissioner was able to fund the data innovations before leaving in 2009. The next Commissioner, representing a different political party, took office during th