Financial Management (UK) articles from September 2003

Financial Management (UK) archives from September 2003

Editorial comment.(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... September is the end of the holiday season and the start of a busy autumn for most businesses. People reappear at their desks, city roads fill up again and a rapidly fading tan is all you have to remind you of August's dog days. On the other...

Budgetary health warning issued.(News Round-Up)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Using budgets is "a habit that harms", delegates were told at the first annual "Beyond budgeting" summit, hosted by CIMA Mastercourses. Steve Player, North American programme director of the Beyond Budgeting Round Table (BBRT), said that, while...

BBC accused of concealing costs: comparisons to Enron have been made in Parliament.(Financial Reporting)
September 1, 2003... The BBC has come under fire for altering its accounting practices in this year's annual report. Instead of including costs such as news-gathering, marketing and publicity in individual channel budgets, as in previous years, the corporation has...

Financial managers head field for FTSE's top jobs.(Financial Reporting)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Accountancy is the best route to the boardroom, according to research by executive headhunters Hanover Fox. The chief executives of Britain's largest companies are more likely to have experience in finance than in any other field. And the...

Combined code wins plaudits: key proposals of the Higgs report have been amended.(Corporate Governance)
September 1, 2003... Derek Higgs, author of the controversial report into the role and effectiveness of non-executive directors (Neds), has welcomed the Financial Reporting Council's publication of the revised Combined Code. "I think it's come out fine," he...

Oil firm premieres CSR audit.(News Round-Up)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Premier Oil has published its first sustainability performance report. It follows a social audit of the firm's operations and stakeholder relationships, which started in 2000. The document stresses that corporate social responsibility at the...

Big investors fail to quit tobacco.(News Round-Up)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The call for socially responsible investment clearly hasn't reached fund managers. The UK's biggest cigarette manufacturers--British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Gallahe--top the league as the institutional investors' favourite...

Hotels plan sector-wide ABC model: FDs throughout Europe are supporting a major study.(Activity-based Costing)
September 1, 2003... Improving the way the finance function measures customer profitability is the major challenge facing the hotel industry, according to speakers at the fifth annual forum of FDs in the industry, organized by American Express and Deloitte &...

CIMA puts crisis plan to the test.(News Round-Up)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Four key changes to CIMA's crisis management plan will be made following the results of the first test of its strategy in July. The roles of building manager and incident-response team leader will be split; the IT recovery plan will be given...

CBI denounces 'confusing' data code.(IT News Round-Up)
September 1, 2003... The publication of the third part of the employment practices data protection code has failed to end the legal confusion concerning surveillance in the workplace, writes Terry Corbitt. The Monitoring at Work code of practice has been...

The Financial Management team will have a stand at the softworld Accounting & Finance Exhibition this month.(Technology News In Brief)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Financial Management team will have a stand at the Softworld Accounting & Finance exhibition this month. Come and tell us your views on the magazine and share your experiences of the show. Speakers from Basda, PA Consulting and PwC will...

Have you implemented an IT system in the past year that has generated significant cost savings or a new revenue stream?(Technology News In Brief)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Have you implemented an IT system in the past year that has generated significant cost savings or a new revenue stream? Why not enter the CIMA/ Financial Management award for software implementation of the year? Other award categories...

Presidential engagements.(Institute News)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
September 1, 2003... Presidential engagements 4-5 Sept FEE presidents' meeting, Barcelona 8 Sept New members' celebration, Birmingham 16-18 Sept CIMA South Africa conference and ...

Malaysia gains toastmaster skills.(Insitute News)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... More than 100 CIMA members and students crowded into Malaysia's CIMA divisional office to join the CIMA Malaysia Toastmasters Club. Michele Ng, Shereen Teng, Rodney Gob and G Sivalingam explained the concepts of the club. According to...

SEC Sri Lanka appointment.(Institute News)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Palitha Silva Gunawardene FCMA has been appointed director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Sri Lanka, the regulatory body for the country's securities markets. He was previously director of economic affairs of the Telecom...

Council debates regulatory changes.(Institute News)
September 1, 2003... At its meeting on 4 July, council heard that two partnerships agreed at earlier meetings had been signed. These were a reciprocity agreement with the Certified Management Accountants (CMA Canada) and a partnership with the Association of...

Council member required: casual vacancy Area 3.(Institute News)
September 1, 2003... Notice is given that, as the council member in electoral Area 3 (Last Midlands and East Anglia), Ian Christison, was elected vice-president at the June 2003 AGM, a new candidate is sought to represent Area 3 on council. The casual vacancy will...

Clean sweep.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... We note David Cafferty's concern that members might misinterpret comments about the effect that the new money-laundering regulations will have on them (Letters, July/ August). While it is true that members in practice will be affected, many of...

No such thing as a free kick.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... The cash crisis affecting football teams from Leeds to Ipswich and Bournemouth is increasingly in the news. There are great expectations that the Football Association's new chief executive, accountant and insolvency expert, Mark Patios, will...

Offensive action.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Since June, all accountants are supposed to shop their clients if they suspect, or should suspect, any fiddling by them. It is a criminal offence not to do so. Of course, this does not apply to Revenue staff who turn a blind eye to people on...

Third parties, fire and theft.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Accountants are supposed to report suspicions of fiddling, not only by clients, but by third parties as well. Even worse, if the client is in breach of a regulatory requirement, such as health and safety, accountants are supposed to report this...

Overseas understood.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... "The state they're in" (June) is a great explanation of the problems of accounting in developing countries. Most of these countries have fine accountants, so there is no shortage of talent. The problem lies in problem is policy, difficult...

Spent forces? Is it right to pay vast sums to CEOs who exit under a cloud? Shareholders think not, and it seems that they are willing to do something about it. Cathy Hayward delves into conflict at the AGM.(City)
September 1, 2003... The issue of executive remuneration has dominated the 2003 AGM season. Shareholders have voted against executive pay deals or at least abstained from voting, often on the recommendation of the National Association of Pension Funds. ...

Cartesis[R]: the group reporting process is coming under increasing scrutiny. Jonny Cheetham answers your questions with the help of recent research into key data issues for CFOs in Europe and the US.(Questions & Answers)
September 1, 2003... I keep hearing that corporate governance is a key reason to improve reporting processes, but is it really changing anything? The broad perception is that groups have improved their reporting processes in recent years. According to our...

Out of site (not out of mind): most SMEs face a problem: how do you minimize staff risks and keep up with legal changes with a tiny HR team? Barry Chambers explains why Annington Homes took the out sourcing option.(People Management)
September 1, 2003... How much should an HR service cost? This is the kind of question that usually brings financial managers out in a sweat. HR is an area founded on principle, rather than on a rational analysis of investment and return. For this reason it can seem...

A cautionary tale: any firm that thinks it can give final warnings to staff who have committed minor transgressions should think again, writes Sue Nickson. Disciplinary sanctions should be used with great care.(Legal)
September 1, 2003... The case of Stanley Cole (Wainfleet) Ltd v Sheridan serves as a warning to employers to avoid the under-considered or over-enthusiastic imposition of disciplinary sanctions. Sheridan had been employed by Stanley Cole for five years and had...

A grown-up solution: when Save the Children decided that its creaking financial system was in need of modernisation, it turned to PS Financials for aid. Angela Connolly reports on a copybook IT implementation.(Technology)
September 1, 2003... Charities must adhere to financial reporting requirements that are as stringent as those imposed on businesses. For a high-profile organisation such as Save the Children, it's essential for the finance function to be transparent about where its...

Getaway drivers.(Cover feature: outsourcing)
September 1, 2003... Despite the risks involved, the tendency for companies to farm out non-core processes such as HR and IT to external providers shows no sign of fading. Cathy Hayward charts the latest outsourcing trends and, as more and more firms realise that...

Missing link.(Business Performance Management)
September 1, 2003... Thanks to the latest IT systems, managers now have vast amounts of operational data at their fingertips, but it's still hard for boardroom decision-makers to incorporate this information into strategy. Business performance management systems...

Get with the programme.(How To Programme Management)
September 1, 2003... There's evidence to suggest that many major change initiatives never achieve all their significant objectives. Such failures can seriously damage an organisation's health, warn Stephen Lee and Bob Snell, who offer their guide to optimising...

Knight school.(Interview Sir Brian Pitman)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... At 71, Sir Brian Pitman has vast experience of the workings of British boardrooms and has plenty to offer those who still seek his wisdom. He tells Cathy Hayward why shareholder value is the ideal measure of management performance, why investor...

Alas, poor auric.(Finance: corporate governance)
September 1, 2003... Governments often use golden shares as a method of retaining control in a privatised company of strategic importance, but is there a better way to protect national interests? Nasser Al-Shafi, Harry Churchill and John Pointon believe the...

Locks, stock and apparel.(Business: procurement)
September 1, 2003... There are 128 prisons in England and Wales of varying ages, sizes and security levels, each of which has to buy food, clothing and equipment for its inmates. Philip Gibby reports on NAO findings that reveal how much HM Prison Service could save...

Field work: a firm's database intelligence and capabilities can serve as an important barometer of its growth potential. Andy Wood explains the value of customer and prospect databases as a corporate asset.(Finance: customer databases)
September 1, 2003... Stung by dramatic falls in capital values, investors of all types are finding it increasingly hard to decide where to put their money. So how can companies present themselves more convincingly to them? The answer lies in the marketing...