Strategic Finance articles from January 2006

Strategic Finance archives from January 2006

Merlot--not just for wine connoisseurs.(Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
January 1, 2006... As educators continue to strive to make connections with their students to maximize the students' learning outcomes, they need to consider a number of issues, including learning styles, generational differences, and experiential learning...

Leadership strategies during mergers and acquisitions.(Careers)
January 1, 2006... Change is never easy, but it can be especially difficult for those affected by mergers and acquisitions. Emotions range from fear and confusion to acceptance and excitement. If you are a manager facing these circumstances, the manner in which...

AI today and tomorrow.(End Note)
January 1, 2006... Although some people think that artificial intelligence (AI) has just faded away, it's actually much more pervasive than you would suspect. Expert systems and robotics are everywhere--vacuuming our living rooms and recognizing faces in secure...

Strong ethics is a critical quality of leadership.(Ethics)
January 1, 2006... To determine important leadership qualities, Fast Company magazine conducted a Fast Track Leadership Survey along with IMD, the Switzerland-based business school, and Egon Zehnder International, the executive-recruiting firm. Of the 1,665...

Integrating global organizations through performance measurement systems: how systems of performance management helped GE and Nestle Waters achieve cultural alignment.
January 1, 2006... The last 20 years have witnessed a massive transformation in corporations, especially in global ones that have been forced to redefine their strategies, structures, and processes. Market globalization has caused company executives to turn their...

How to stop worrying.(Best Practices)
January 1, 2006... "I remember you saying that 'worry' was one of your primary emotions for a very long time," a colleague recently said to Bob. "Can you write me your pithy version of how you overcame the habit?" Worry is definitely something that a lot of...

Making a difference.(Perspectives: Message from the Chair)(Column)
January 1, 2006... I would like to begin this column by wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. I hope all of you had a good holiday season and are now ready for 2006. With the new year, IMA is beginning to roll out its new brand. By now, many of you may...

Globalization: turning threats into opportunities.(Strategic Management)
January 1, 2006... For an increasing number of U.S. companies, globalization is moving from a vague notion to an everyday reality. A threat may be the first hint. Finding a Chinese company marketing directly to your key customers--promising faster delivery than...

Professional accountants in business are valuable.(NEWS)(The Roles and Domain of the Professional Accountant in Business)
January 1, 2006... Most people outside the management accounting world associate accountants with tax preparation and auditing, not with ensuring that businesses run properly with the correct operational and fiduciary controls. But that perception might change...

Hiring outlook is stable.(streetwise)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... * In a new survey by Robert Half International, 8% of the CFOs polled said they plan to add full-time accounting staff during the first quarter of this year, 8% said they anticipate personnel reductions, and 79% said they expect to keep their...

Herbert Seiffert, 1929-2005.(IMA News)(Obituary)
January 1, 2006... Herbert Seiffert, 76, former president of the National Association of Accountants (now the Institute of Management Accountants), died December 3, 2005, at his home in Neshanic Station, N.J., after a long battle with cancer. He was born in...

Advisory tax commission recommendations.(GOVERNMENT)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The corporate tax recommendations made by President Bush's tax commission in November got lost amidst all the commotion stemming from its recommendations on individual rates, primarily its elimination of the alternative minimum tax. But the two...

Senate considers new restrictions on Foreign Investments in U.S. companies.(GOVERNMENT)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Congress may be getting ready to change the regulations that dictate how the U.S. government must assess the potential takeover of an American company by a foreign company. The Exxon-Florio rules passed in 1988 are meant to prevent a takeover...

House committee acts on pension funding.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Pension funding reform took another step forward when the House Ways & Means Committee bill (H.R. 2830) passed the full House last month. A somewhat different Senate bill (S. 1783) passed the full Senate. Business groups were pressing Congress...

Financial management and marketing.("High Performance Marketing: Bringing Method to the Madness of Marketing")(Book Review)
January 1, 2006... In the final analysis, every company is dependent on its customers and its ability to sell profitable products or services to those customers. It is estimated that companies in the United States spend upward of $250 billion annually in carrying...

Natural disasters and tax issues for business victims.(Taxes)
January 1, 2006... While national attention was properly focused on efforts to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, these disasters weren't unique in affecting communities and businesses across the country. In 2004 alone, catastrophes in 25 states and four...

Driving financial process improvement: continuous monitoring can catch common transaction errors and control violations that a manual review might miss.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX))
January 1, 2006... Today's business environment challenges many finance organizations to simultaneously strengthen their internal controls and sustain compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). But financial executives must not lose focus of their true...

Are employee model option plans for you? This new approach can make incentive compensation transparent, objective, more justifiable, and more consistent from period to period.(Financial Management)
January 1, 2006... There has been significant controversy in recent years over the use of incentive stock options, which are granted to corporate managers and employees as a means of motivating them to achieve certain financial and operational objectives. While...

New ways to save.(tools of the trade)
January 1, 2006... New Ways to Save First it was the CD burner and thumb drive replacing the standard floppy drives in desktops and laptops, and now it's the DVD pushing out the CD player/burner. It's just a matter of capacity--the DVD can store about five...

Evolutionary code.(Tech Forum)
January 1, 2006... * ORIGINALLY, SOFTWARE WASN'T DELIVERED, it was created at the home of the code's patriarchal partner--the mainframe. If an institution or business owned the hardware or leased time, they usually had their own programmers writing the...

Mending SOX.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
January 1, 2006... Now into year two of compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, where are we? While large public companies should see costs dropping, small-capitalized public companies get another year of reprieve and could ultimately become...

Want to be a more effective CFO? Ask the Audience.(Horvath & Partners CFO-Panel)
January 1, 2006... A, B, C, or D? On a frosty December morning in a Frankfurt hotel, 80 men and women reached for their tiny black answering devices in a scene reminiscent of the "ask the audience" option for contestants on the hit show, "Who Wants to Be a...

Why the SEC is bullish on XBRL.(XBRL (Document markup language))
January 1, 2006... Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), is a strong advocate of interactive data and XBRL. On three recent occasions, Cox has voiced support for modernizing SEC-reported data. Within a span of one month, the SEC...