About the Author

About Derek

I must have the business instinct in my blood, because whilst still at school I started up a tuck shop, which complemented the school funds from the very word go! After school I went to Nottingham University and now I am a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, with a degree in Economics and Mathematics under my belt.

After working for 'Price Waterhouse' I joined a Management Consulting group (P.E.)and worked on assignments in the UK, Italy, Cyprus and Nigeria. Then I joined the newly formed 'Manchester Business School', and taught Financial and Management Accounting. Whilst doing so I became convinced that control through figures often led to bad decisions, so when I had the chance I went as ‘Foundation for Management Education Fellow’ to the Stanford Business School to learn how such control did affect the actions of managers, often in unintended ways. When I returned to the UK, in 1971, I taught at the London Business School for twenty five years. I am still writing and also producing videos on you tube. My channel is 'Derekstone Pacioli'.

About Pacioli

In 1494, Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan Friar and eminent mathematician, wrote a treatise on the double entry system in use in Venice. He was the first person to record it and that is why he is called ‘The Father of Accounting’, though he wasn’t even an accountant at all!

The system he described was (and is) based on these three premises:

• A business has to be thought of as if it were a person, separate from its owners; it is their robot, working tirelessly on their behalf!
• The records of the business have to be kept from the point of view of the business, not that of its owners. 
• From the business’s point of view the owners’ capital is a liability, as is any profit that it makes for them.