Symbiosis between passion and rigour

Is it a coincidence? As if he had to pay homage to his Latin and Germanic name, Eduardo Schiehll is a brilliant model of passion and rigour, intensity and rationality. All of these traits are enhanced by his very sharp sense of diplomacy, which ought to serve him well in his attempts to draw connections between the world of research and the “field.”

Brazilian Eduardo Schiehll, CMA, Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting Studies of HEC Montréal, did not give it a second thought when it came time to enrol at university. “I have always loved hard sciences. Accounting seemed to be a good choice for me because it offered a lot of possibilities and I wanted to enter the job market quickly.” His wish was granted, since PriceWaterhouse, the largest accounting firm in Brazil, hired him after he earned his bachelor’s degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in 1990.

He worked for the firm for a few years, auditing the financial statements of large companies. But he then had an experience that set him on a different path. “I was invited to participate in training the firm’s recruits. The groups were highly motivated — after all, they knew there was a possibility of promotion — and it entailed an actual transfer of knowledge, which really inspired me.” Basically, it was this gratifying experience that gave him a taste for teaching.

Even though he was fully aware that the dynamic in the academic world was different from the dynamic in corporate training, “the subject must still be interesting and effectively presented in order to capture the attention of students. But in order for the learning process to be successful, a form of identification must also develop between the professor and the students.” Yet, Eduardo Schiehll’s conception of his role is even more advanced in that he tries to prepare young people for the job market and exert a positive influence on their attitudes toward the demands of the professional world. “Even if it is not our first duty, professors can help students learn how to present themselves in an organization and understand how to behave on a team.” This is suggestive of Eduardo Schiehll’s general approach. This man does not limit himself to the required curriculum.

Driven by achievement
“I was on a competitive swim team when I was young, and I believe that those two hours of training every day for four years forged my character,” he tells me, as if to apologize for demanding a lot from himself. Clearly, he has not lost the habit of giving his all. Nowadays, he does not settle for teaching at HEC Montréal, publishing regularly and supervising a master’s student. He also assumes a number of other duties: assistant editor of the prestigious Corporate Governance: An International Review, member of the Chair in Governance and Forensic Accounting and member of the Research Board of HEC Montréal.

His thirst for achievement was exactly what brought him back to university in the mid-1990s. “I wanted to diversify my expertise, so I took a sabbatical year from PriceWaterhouse to get my master’s of finance.” Since he was already interested in governance issues, it was natural that he chose the thesis topic of how information disclosed at a precise moment by a company influences the market and the value of the company in the stock markets.

After his master’s degree, things happened fast. He soon won a scholarship from the Brazilian government to do a doctorate abroad. His preferred destinations were London, where he had already studied for a year after his bachelor’s degree, and Montreal, because he had met professors from HEC Montréal at university during his master’s program. Once accepted by HEC Montréal, he left for Montreal and never regretted the decision.

Seamless integration
How does a Brazilian come to choose to live in snowy Quebec? “I love winter sports, especially skiing,” admits Professor Schiehll with a beaming smile. “I say it often to my friends: if you want to love snow, you have to enjoy winter sports, so that you are always anxious for winter to arrive!” And then, there is also the social network… “What struck me when I arrived was the receptiveness of the people here.”

He set up home in Quebec at the age of 26, built a solid social network and never thought of leaving after earning his doctorate in 2002. “I could not imagine living anywhere else. Now I am married, we have adopted a child who arrived in August 2009 and changed our lives. He is a healthy little 3-year-old boy who is fearless,” Eduardo Schiehll happily explains. While his son has become the centre of his life and takes up a lot of his time, his professional activities have not slowed down!

His current research focuses on governance and corporate executive remuneration, with a particular interest in performance measurement. Always careful to clearly describe the whole picture, Eduardo Schiehll explains that in the current context of globalization, the executives of multinationals assume huge responsibilities and their decisions can have very broad impacts. That is why it is difficult to find indicators that can measure the scale and effectiveness of their efforts.

“Before, only financial aspects, in addition to a few non-financial aspects, were taken into account,” he continues. “With the development of performance assessment systems, a great deal of subjectivity was introduced — criteria such as communication skills, leadership, personnel management, reactions to emergency situations, etc.” These subjective criteria are not really measurable and their evaluation boils down to good judgment. However, “these are extremely important aspects when it comes to evaluating the competencies of executives,” says Eduardo Schiehll.

While current research is closely linked to the disclosure of financial information, Professor Schiehll feels it is important to also consider internal governance in companies. In his opinion, there is not enough discussion about internal control mechanisms, which must be integrated to make disclosure possible and ensure well-informed decision making. “Aside from the disclosed information, we have to ask ourselves how personnel, systems and controls interact, if they are effective or not, if they are adapted to the organization’s governance methods and its value system. And that is at the very heart of CMA expertise.”

In pursuit of communication channels
When you ask him about the relevance of his research for professional accountants who work in companies, he pauses for a moment and carefully chooses his words. “Research is often perceived by professionals in the field as a philosophical discussion that is out of context,” he admits. He feels that researchers must make efforts to speak the same language as practitioners. “We have to explain that we are working within a conceptual framework and not dealing with the specific problem of a given company. However, the basic questions of our research come from practice and our conclusions are much more relevant when we can observe what is being done in the field.”

In his opinion, the first challenge for researchers is to find communication channels between the two worlds, which are rather closed to one another. Second, it is up to researchers to prove the relevancy of their work by showing that it can have practical applications. “After all, the ultimate goal of research is to advance knowledge so that our ways of doing things evolve. In the medium or long term, directly or indirectly, the advancement of knowledge always results in subtle or radical changes in processes and practices,” he explains.

As part of his research on performance assessment and remuneration systems, Professor Schiehll has collected invaluable primary data from companies, which provide a snapshot of what is actually happening in it. “We are beginning to release the results, which are very interesting and have been well received. This is the kind of thing that I want, and my fellow researchers are concerned about it too. I would like for my research to become more and more field research and for there to be more openness in the field…”

Is there a connection between his desire to base his research in reality and the accounting profession he has chosen? Well, after earning his doctorate, Eduardo Schiehll did feel the need to acquire an accounting designation in Quebec. Although he had acquired all of his professional experience in a firm in Brazil, the CMA designation became the object of his heart’s desire in 2004, and he has worked actively ever since to contribute to the vitality of the profession. With what he has just told us about himself and his motivations, how can we be surprised?