Strategic Finance articles from January 2008

Strategic Finance archives from January 2008

The welcome burden of Ethics.(Perspectives)(ethics in financial professionals)
January 1, 2008... Message from the Chair It's a pretty big burden being an accounting and finance professional. Because everything an entity does eventually flows through its financial statements, we stand as the first line of defense against egregious...

Moving forward, echoes of 2007.(Top Line)(impact of laws and regulations on accounting and finance)
January 1, 2008... This January brings with it a time for changes in the world of finance and accounting--a time for renewal and to move forward. Again. Yes, I said something similar in a "Top Line" article last January. Since then, we have experienced some...

He said, she said.(Best Practices)(impact of communication on working of departments)(Editorial)
January 1, 2008... Striving to understand why results have been significantly below plan, a mid-sized company zeroed in on two key departments that need to collaborate effectively and found all sorts of problems being caused by a breakdown in communication....

ERC says ethics risk landscape still treacherous.(Ethics)
January 1, 2008... The prominent not-for-profit Ethics Resource Center (ERC) has released the 2007 version of the National Business Ethics Survey[R] (NBES), the fifth biennial study of ethical behavior in the U.S. workplace. Based on interviews with almost 2,000...

What are your budget headaches?(NEWS)
January 1, 2008... As finance and accounting executives and managers are well aware, the budget has become more than a financial planning and measurement tool. It's now a strategic business planning tool used to help manage cash flow, monitor progress toward key...

What about the mature workforce?(streetwise)(new Employer-Practices Locator launched)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Last month The Conference Board launched its new Employer-Practices Locator, a Web-based database that enables employers, researchers, and reporters to locate examples of specific actions companies have taken to address challenges presented by...

Greenhouse gas bill and corporate reporting.(GOVERNMENT)(Editorial)
January 1, 2008... Look for a major fight to break out in the Senate over the issue of corporate reporting to the SEC on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee was expected to clear a bipartisan bill (S. 2191) in December...

Implementing effective change.(BOOKS)(Rapid Transformation: A 90-day Plan for Fast and Effective Change)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... To stay competitive, a company must be dynamic in the marketplace, constantly revising its strategy in response to its competitors and aligning with the changing demands of its customers. The organizations that make it to the top are the ones...

SEC's Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404 guide for small businesses.(ADVOCACY)
January 1, 2008... The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) recently developed a brochure as a follow-up to guidance it issued in June 2007 to help small businesses assess their internal controls over financial reporting in order to be in compliance with SOX...

The "secret sauce" that maximizes ROI for ERP: how to jumpstart software updates or installations with strategic business process improvement and self-fund improvements.(Technology)
January 1, 2008... What if every finance executive understood the company's "secret sauce"? In other words, what are the special process ingredients that differentiate a company from its competitors for providing formidable marketplace advantage while bringing...

When formal controls undermine trust and cooperation.(Controls)
January 1, 2008... IN TODAY'S BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, control systems are de rigueur for safeguarding a corporation's assets. With regulatory requirements at a fever pitch, corporate leaders must assess the effectiveness of various controls, and they need to...

The project professional: flexible human capital to enable growth.(HR Issues)(impact of flexible human capital on growth of business enterprises)
January 1, 2008... IN THE RECESSION OF THE EARLY 1990s, companies learned a lot about resilience. They adopted Just-in-Time (JIT) techniques to reduce the fixed cost of inventory, and they used emerging technology to gain more control over production. They also...

New features in excel 2007.(Excel)(Microsoft Excel)
January 1, 2008... During my Power Excel seminars, I always poll the audience to see how many have upgraded to Excel 2007. As of the beginning of 2008, about 12% of the typical audience has the new version. With the December 2007 release of Service Pack 1 and...

Tools of the trade.
January 1, 2008... Novatel's Wireless Ovation U727 combines two functions in a single USB-connected drive. It offers high-speed wireless data access, and it has flash storage with an integrated microSD slot that will accommodate cards up to 4GB. The card slot is...

A new year, a new internet.(Tech Forum)
January 1, 2008... The transition to a new Internet has been going on for a while. Web 2.0 has its foundations solidly planted in several weighty footings, including blogs, wikis, mashups, and social networks. The difference between the original 1.0 and 2.0 is...

Opportunity knocks.(End Note)(Michael Mace nudges for design sketch and business plan for a handheld data device)
January 1, 2008... It could be the chance of a lifetime. The former chief competitive officer and VP of product planning at Palm Computing nudges you and hands over the design sketch and business plan for a device that he claims is "an opportunity not just to...