Strategic Finance articles from February 2008

Strategic Finance archives from February 2008

Come to the conference.(Perspectives)(Conference news)
February 1, 2008... If you're like many of your fellow finance and accounting professionals these days, your budget is probably tight for conferences or other networking and educational opportunities. So if you plan to attend just one conference this year, I...

Addiction.(Best Practices)
February 1, 2008... We started our careers during the heyday of the three-martini lunch. The women managers just ahead of us were proud that they could drink their male colleagues under the table and still show up for work the next day. A dozen years later, more...

Citizenship Survey shows gaps between Rhetoric and Reality.(Ethics)
February 1, 2008... The actions of consumer and investment activists in recent years have led to a greater focus of public opinion on the social and environmental outcomes of business. Reflecting this trend, the leaders of many companies have publicly embraced the...

FASB wants feedback on codification.(NEWS)(Financial Accounting Standards Board)
February 1, 2008... Last month the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) launched the one-year verification phase of its FASB Accounting Standards Codification[TM] (Codification). It is asking constituents to use the online Codification Research System for...

Risk trends for 2008.(streetwise)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Companies are moving away from reactive risk management programs toward proactive programs that assess risk on an enterprise-wide basis, says BDO Consulting. Integrated Worldwide Risk Management Plans. Companies with overseas operations...

Reporting on business in terrorism-linked countries redux.(GOVERNMENT)
February 1, 2008... The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) is going back to the drawing board to determine how it should require companies to report their dealings in countries designated by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism. That designation...

Managing strategy.(BOOKS)(Column)
February 1, 2008... While the title of Bob Paladino's Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) was intriguing, I opened the book and began reading with a bit of skepticism. I was searching for the real story in the book. I wanted to see how...

IMA begins Finance GRC practice.(ADVOCACY)(Institute of Management Accountants)(Finance Governance, Risk, and Compliance)
February 1, 2008... Finance Governance, Risk, and Compliance (FGRC[TM]) was one of the strategic initiatives the IMA[R] Board of Directors approved at its June 2007 Board meeting. Finance Governance, Risk, and Compliance is a unique complement to the growing and...

IMA forms new Small Business Committee.(ADVOCACY)(Institute of Management Accountants)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, accounting for 60% to 80% of net new job growth each year. To address the needs of this important market segment, IMA has formed a new Small Business Financial and Regulatory Affairs...

The business of making movies: the U.S. motion picture industry generates close to $100 billion in revenues, is one of the country's largest exporters, and exerts enormous cultural influence worldwide. But today it also faces enormous pressures.(Cover Story)
February 1, 2008... Going to the movies has always been one of society's most pleasurable pastimes. Over the past few years, though, enormous changes have occurred in the movie-making business: escalating production and marketing costs, the significant impact of...

Measuring and Managing social and political risk.(Risk Management)
February 1, 2008... Sustainability and corporate social responsibility are increasingly becoming mainstream business practices. For many companies, the discussion is no longer whether to be more sensitive to stakeholder impacts and needs, but how to do that in a...

Reaching Big Hairy Audacious Goals: creating a management control system through target mapping.(Performance Measures)
February 1, 2008... BHAGS, HEDGEHOGS, AND FLYING PIGS may sound like characters from the latest Hollywood fantasy epic or perhaps a hot new video game. In reality, they can help an organization reach for and achieve excellence. In the book Built to Last, Jim...

Replacing nested IF functions with a lookup.(Excel)
February 1, 2008... In Excel 2007, Microsoft increased the limit of nested IF functions from seven to 32. While I guess we can applaud any improvement that Microsoft offers, this is one feature improvement that I hope you will never use. Allowing 32 nested IF...

Tools of the trade.(briefs)(Logitech Inc.)(TurboTax Inc.)
February 1, 2008... There are five versions of the ATX Tax Preparation Software from CCH designed for professionals in small-sized firms and those with solo practices. All are based on the same powerful, easy-to-use program. The basic 1040 program includes all...

Web 2.0 (part two).(Tech Forum)
February 1, 2008... LAST MONTH, WE LOOKED AT wikis, one of the hallmark technologies for Web 2.0. These community-managed databases fit the definition of Web 2.0 sites because, unlike the kind of push publishing that built Web 1.0, these demand interactive users...

A little XBRL GL today ...(XBRL)
February 1, 2008... How do you build a big snowball? You start with a small snowball and get it rolling. In companies everywhere, working with a single snowball today--XBRL Global Ledger (XBRL GL)--can mean forestalling a blizzard of formats tomorrow. The...

Cars, trains, and computers.(End Note)
February 1, 2008... "Since the computer is limited to handling only so much experience as can be abstracted in symbolic or numerical form, it is incapable of dealing directly, as organisms must, with the steady influx of concrete, unprogrammable experience."...