Additional Information and Sources

Transactive Management articles and papers are listed below. Copies may be obtained by downloading as indicated or by contacting Ray Mischkot.

Should You Invest More In Your Hydro Assets?, Energy Pulse, on-line magazine, July 13, 2006, provides the approach used by Transactive Management, Inc. to project the depreciable life of hydro assets in a deregulated market and challenges the conventional wisdom that the cost and risk of addressing environmental and other issues are an economic barrier to investing in these assets. article_display

Power Plant Component Level Accounting - An Update, Energy Pulse, on-line magazine, April 24, 2006, discusses the implications of additional actions by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to establish new standards for plant, property, and equipment accounting. article_display

Are You Undervaluing Your Generating Assets?, Energy Pulse, on-line magazine, August 24, 2005, explains why most unregulated power companies are undervaluing their fossil-fired, hydro, and other generating assets by not depreciating them over a period of time comparable to what Transactive Management, Inc. studies have projected as plant economic life in a competitive market. article_display

Power Plant Component Level Accounting - Having Your Cake and Eating It Too, Energy Pulse, on-line magazine, June 16, 2004, explains why the decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to not impose component level accounting puts unregulated generating companies in a position to avoid the disadvantages of this approach while increasing plant depreciable life. article_display

New study on valuing plants, Power Magazine September 2003, provides an overview of an 18-month study of power plant and hydroelectric generating system economic and service life. Click here to download.

Transactive Management Study Concludes Unregulated Plants Will Operate Over 45 Years a July 11, 2003 press release provides additional details on this study. Click here to download.

Unregulated Generating Company Accounting Practices July 17, 2003, presents the results of a 2002 Transactive Management survey of unregulated generating company plant depreciation practices that was conducted as part this same study. It was sent to survey participants. Click here to download.

Catherine Leggett Nomination Summary provides the accomplishments of Catherine S. Leggett, Senior Vice President, Human Resource, Vertis, Inc., that won her the Greater Washington Area 2002 HR Leadership Award.  Mr. Mischkot provided consulting support for both areas summarized in this write-up. (Coauthored with Donald Roland, Vertis Chairman, President, and CEO who nominated Catherine). Click here to download.

Promoting a Plant-Level Competitive Culture, The Role of Value-Directed Management is a paper presented at the Power Gen 2000 conference. It outlines how the PG&E Generating Human Resources established guiding principles to promote a competitively oriented plant-level culture. (Coauthored with Catherine Leggett, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, PG&E Generating Company). Click here to download.

Plant Employees Generate Their Own Future, PG&E Generating Power Dispatch, November 1999 provides a summary of a series of meetings with power plant managers and other employees to the requirements for job families introduced as part of a new compensation program. Mr. Mischkot supported the HR Director of Compensation in this and other efforts to develop this program. Click here to download.

The Impact of Deregulation on Power Plant Depreciation Practices provides the results of a 1997 survey of electric utilities and independent power producers (IPPs) conducted by Transactive Management that was sent to survey participants. It was also used to support a series of depreciable life studies conducted from 1997 through 2001. Click here to download.

Competitive Asset Positioning is a 1996 paper that is based on supporting US Generating Company to establish plant-level positioning plans. It explains how six plant strategic parameters can be used to transition the company's IPP project development and capitalization approach to an ongoing plant-level planning and implementation process. Click here to download.

Some Guidelines for Organizational Downsizing and Restructuring is a revised version of a paper originally presented at an April 1996 American Public Transportation Association Meeting. It explains the Transactive Management models used to assess transit agency and recommend organizational changes. Click here to download.

USGen: Value Based and Performance Directed, TeamWorks November 1994 is an article that explains how performance and value-directed management are being integrated as part of the company's planning and performance management processes. Click here to download.

Fine Wine, Fine Consulting, MAC Analysis September 1991 provides the results of seven-month effort to improve the financial and operational performance of a major California wine producer through a series of consulting interventions that supported client-based teams in several areas. Click here to download.

References to books and articles used in developing and applying Transactive Management theory are listed below.

Grow or Die: The Unifying Principle of Transformation by George T. Lock Land, 1973

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael E. Porter, 1980

Overcoming Organizational Defenses by Chris Argyris, 1990

Managing at the Speed of Change by Daryl R. Conner, 1992

The New Society of Organizations by Peter F. Drucker, Harvard Business Review, September-October 1992

The Link between Individual and Organizational Learning by Daniel H. Kim, Sloan Management Review, Fall 1993

Organizational Behavior by David J. Cherrington, 1994

Sun-tzu The Art Of War by Ralph D. Sawyer, 1994

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge, 1994

Knowledge Work and Knowledge Society: The Social Transformation of this Century by Peter F. Drucker, May 4, 1994

The Age of Social Transformation by Peter F. Drucker, The Atlantic Monthly, November 1994

Changing the Role of Top Management: Beyond Strategy to Purpose by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1994

Changing the Role of Top Management: Beyond Structure to Processes by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, January-February 1995

Control in an Age of Empowerment by Robert Simons, Harvard Business Review, March-April 1995

Changing the Role of Top Management: Beyond Systems to People by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business, May-June 1995

The Right Mind: Making Sense of the Hemispheres by Robert Ornstein, 1997

Left: Brain Right Brain: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience (fifth edition) by Sally P. Springer and Georg Deutsch, 1998

Links to web sites that I often use in my work are listed below:

Management Sites:
Harvard Business Review
Sloan Management Review
The Conference Board

Energy Industry Sites:
Department of Energy
Electric Energy On-Line
Electric Light & Power
Energy Central
Energy Information Agency
EnergyPulse Electronic Magazine

Finance and Accounting Sites:

CFO Online

Financial Accounting Standards Board

Human Resources Sites:

About Human Resources

Society for HR Management