Focus on IFRS

AT BOMBARDIER, the task of converting to IFRS was compli-
cated by the fact the company had grown through multiple
acquisitions over the years with staff in 25 countries, so there
was a lack of consistency. The challenge was to get everyone
in the company on the same page.
Paré said the company took a four-pronged approach to IFRS.
First, it created a culture of awareness that the process
would be changing and pushed for a buy-in.
“When you have a very large organization like Bombardier
it’s a bit of a challenge to make everybody understand this is
big and this is the way to go, so the initial awareness was to
get the organization in general to understand the project, the
challenges, and get co-operation.”
Second, the company set up technical teams to do a
detailed assessment of the differences between Canadian
GAPP and IFRS and how the changes would affect its finan-
cial statement.
The company threw in a twist when it decided to go beyond
the minimum required changes and also assess opportunities
for improvement.
Third, the company designed the software and tools neces-
sary to make a successful conversion by ensuring its system
could compute data under both Canadian GAAP and IFRS.
“For the current year we’re in now, virtually all Canadian
companies will continue to report Canadian GAAP because
the transition date is next year, but at the same time you need
to figure out what the IFRS numbers are, so for that period