Premise: The objectives of our research were to (1) define and describe the characteristics of a worldclass finance organization, (2) identify the factors that are essential for finance organizations to improve their financial management and move towards worldclass standards, and (3) provide case studies which illustrate the efforts of leading finance organizations from private sector companies and state governments to improve their financial management and the overall performance of their organizations.

Hypothesis: The objectives were realistic.
Relation: neutral