Strategic Finance articles from April 2008

Strategic Finance archives from April 2008

Take a bow, volunteers.(Perspectives)(Viewpoint essay)
April 1, 2008... I've always believed in giving back to the organizations that have given so much to me. Apart from my alma mater, the organization I've devoted the most time to is the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA [R]), where I've spent the past 30...

Applying professional judgment.(Top Line)
April 1, 2008... This election season the U.S. Presidential candidates' every move is being scrutinized with a magnifying glass. Every decision each candidate has made throughout his or her career is being dissected and analyzed by the media, by political...

Resiliency.(Best Practices)
April 1, 2008... "How cute," we thought, encountering a flock of chickens at a beachfront park on our first morning in Kauai. During the next few days, we drove all over the island and saw them everywhere. Roosters. Hens. Baby chicks. "That's because of...

How useful are financial reports?([NEWS])
April 1, 2008... Efforts to improve the financial reporting process in the last few years have resulted in advancements in three key areas: corporate governance, the process of preparing financial reports, and the audit of financial reports. But the...

IRS ruling on parachutes lands softly on accounting concerns.([GOVERNMENT])
April 1, 2008... The Internal Revenue Service has changed its rules on the deductibility for executive compensation over $1 million a year. But the revenue ruling that the IRS dropped on the business community on February 21 won't create the accounting havoc...

Focus on the Customer.
April 1, 2008... In Chief Customer Officer, Jeanne Bliss provides a valuable reminder that the purpose of business is to satisfy the need or want of another. The approach Bliss uses for getting to this point is based on first identifying that the primary focus...

Learning from global world-class eProcurement practices.(Cover Story)
April 1, 2008... Given today's recession concerns, procurement--a perennial priority--is moving front and center. Now more than ever it's important for organizations of all types and sizes to understand where they are spending their money and uncover...

Financial leadership: what's It all about?(Career Skills)
April 1, 2008... Leading CFOs around the world say they need "it" to bring their teams to the next level in driving business performance within their organizations. Members of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA[R]) say they need "it" to advance their...

Business & IT alignment: then & now, a striking improvement.(Technology)
April 1, 2008... Business and IT have developed a much more productive working relationship over the past seven years. The December 2001 issue of Strategic Finance let readers in on the big secret--Unrealized Business Value (UNBV)--in its cover story, "Is your...

Ethics the Framework for success: while some ethical decisions are simply a matter of right vs. wrong, the tough ethical decisions are right vs. right.(ANNUAL CONFERENCE TOPIC Ethics)
April 1, 2008... The widespread attention given to the fall of companies such as Tyco,WorldCom, and Enron has led to an increased focus on ethics in the business world. Because of the enormous pressure to produce higher and better returns, some individuals at...

Fill handle tricks.(Excel)(computer tricks)
April 1, 2008... The Fill Handle is a tiny square dot in the lower right corner of a selected cell (or range of selected cells) in Excel. Drag the Fill Handle in combination with various keys to quickly fill a range with a series, such as numbers, dates, or a...

Tools of the trade.(GPS receiver/navigators)
April 1, 2008... The Garmin Nuvi 660 is one of the more expensive GPS receiver/navigators, but the unit's efficiency and number of features justify the price. The latest version has a larger touch screen with very sharp 480 5 272 resolution. The onscreen icons...

Crossing over to the right brain.(Tech Forum)
April 1, 2008... * AFTER LONG HOURS OF ANALYZING and arriving at reasonable conclusions, there's the next step--wrapping it up in a presentation. The data, the patterns, the generalizations--all to be summarized in a white paper, a PowerPoint show, or a...

The distinctiveness of XBRL GL.(XBRL)
April 1, 2008... The great thing about standards is that there are so many of them. As somebody who makes a living from implementing standards-based architectures, I frequently have to make choices in terms of what standardized format is more appropriate for...

There is a free lunch.(END NOTE)
April 1, 2008... Arguably, Google is the most powerful commercial force on the Internet with its stock trading at $443.39 as of this writing. The aging giant from Redmond is trying to club Yahoo into submission so that it has a chance to compete against Google...