Save The Blue Frog

management consulting and executive education by michael kraten, phd, cpa

the blue frog is a metaphor for volatile factors that cause significant variations in an entity’s long-term sustainable value

About The Blue Frog
The hydroelectric power production of Hoover Dam and the tourism wealth of its man-made Lake Mead generate immense regional economic benefits. However, the construction project led to the permanent degradation of the local environment, with four native species of fish now listed as endangered.

modeling the future as a portfolio of possibilities

in the original award-winning ‘Save The Blue Frog’ case and game, a hydroelectric construction project is threatened by a bribery scandal and the discovery of a threatened species on the proposed construction site

scenario gaming

character driven games, utilizing human and a.i. role players, identify behavioral factors that impact valuations

defining value

sustainable value encompasses a broad array of quantitative and qualitative factors

designing metrics

tracking key value indicators that represent hybrids of key performance indicators and key risk indicators

universal scaling

organizational tools can be “scaled up” for global projects or “scaled down” for family office and wealth management concerns

life cycle management

entrepreneurial assessments of “peak value” in rapid growth startup, maturing, and declining entities

communication strategies

employing technologies that create and optimize measurable synthetic social presence among stakeholder groups

behavioral accounting

traditional accountants concentrate on “getting the information right,” while behavioral accountants focus on impacting the behavior of the target audience by managing the communication of that information

value modeling

  • sustainability models and metrics
  • brand value asset and contingent liability calculations
  • financial and non-financial scorecards
Days before the stock market crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression, celebrity economist Irving Fisher publicly declared that equity values had “reached what looks like a permanently high plateau” and that “security values in most instances were not inflated.”
The A.I. platform Google Gemini presented this original image in response to the command “Create an image that illustrates how Edward Hopper would paint his interpretation of Sustainability Accounting.”

Note the lack of integration of the image of “Sustainability” (which is outside the window) with that of “Accounting” (which is inside). A.I. is known for its difficulties in consistently integrating distinct concepts into cohesive thoughts.

results based education

  • a CPA’s approach to practical, applied, case based learning
  • a PhD’s approach to the science driven mastery of knowledge
  • continuous updating to reflect a continually evolving world

“Bookkeeping is not Accounting. Bookkeeping is the clerical recording of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, and cash flows. Accounting, in contrast, is the conceptual definition, measurement and management of Value in all of its versions and configurations.”

Michael Kraten

PhD, CPA

Enjoy our idea-driven blog …

Become a subscriber

receive blog posts as email messages

About The Blogger