Strategic Finance articles from July 2005

Strategic Finance archives from July 2005

Counting the benefits of association involvement.(Careers)
July 1, 2005... Most individuals join professional associations with the intention of taking full advantage of all that these groups have to offer. Over time, however, it's easy to forget this goal as daily work demands begin to take precedence. Yet...

Unraveling the marketing mystique: try a portfolio approach to managing marketing spending.
July 1, 2005... Perhaps no other major area of corporate spending and investment is as hard to measure and to hold accountable as marketing (although sales and IT can provide some stiff competition!). The reason? Marketing can have so many different objectives...

Two systems--one ancient, one in beta.(a comparison between Moleskine Journal and EverNote)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... If it's important, what are you supposed to do? Write it down, of course. We've been taking notes our entire adult lives-on paper, walls, our hands, and even touch screens. Memory is fleeting, but our script, fragments of it at least, if left...

Is there financial value in corporate values?
July 1, 2005... In spite of the ongoing commentary from critics who continue to insist that any corporate attention given to the needs of stakeholders who aren't shareowners is detrimental to financial performance, I remain convinced that good corporate...

Courage.(tips for human resource managers)
July 1, 2005... "Do you have the courage," a pundit asked an HR team discussing a restructure of the staffing function, "to prove the business value of what you do to nonbelievers? To take on a troubled division and turn it around? Or to offer a side-by-side...

Overcome the dangers of commoditization.
July 1, 2005... There is something paradoxical going on with strategy in most organizations--at least the ones that I have run into. On one hand, the need for strategy is real and intense. Companies are facing adverse conditions aggravated by increased...

Improve your corporate governance practices.(The Conference Board's report)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Last month The Conference Board issued what it calls its most comprehensive report ever on what companies need to know and do to improve their corporate governance practices. Titled Corporate Governance Handbook 2005: Developments in Best...

Who's happy with the budgeting process?(NEWS)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Over the years, many American companies have reported being less than thrilled with their budgeting process and have tried many ways to streamline it. Now it looks like some European companies are having the same problems. A new Hackett Group...

"I should've been a cowboy".(best and worst jobs)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... * So Toby Keith says, but not the CareerJournal.com's new report on the best and worst jobs in the nation. According to a recent press release, the editors talked with Les Krantz, a nonfiction publisher and researcher who defines good and bad...

The CMA is relevant.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I have been an accountant for 23 years now and am currently the finance director and CFO of an Indian Tribe in Alaska. It took me 20 years to reach what I consider the top of the profession and thoroughly enjoy it and the challenges involved....

FEI fights CEO certification.(Financial Executives International)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The issue of a separate CEO attestation to the accuracy of the corporate tax return is back. There was an amendment requiring it in the Senate version of the 2004 corporate tax bill, but it was ejected from the bill by the House-Senate...

McDonough tells auditors to be reasonable on 404 attestation.(William McDonough of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Every time you turn around in Washington, someone else seems to be talking about "attestation" of one kind or another. Amidst the ferment over Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 reports to the SEC, William McDonough, chairman of the Public Company...

Examining the "new" audit committee.(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The high-profile corporate scandals and independent accounting and audit failures that continue to dominate the business news brought about a flurry of legislative changes, accounting pronouncements, and other guidance focused on ensuring the...

House Social Security bill may include corporate tax increases.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... It now looks like any Social Security reform bill emerging from Congress this session will have a substantially bushy tail consisting of all sorts of nonsocial security proposals, and the tail may well end up wagging the dog. A number of...

Rebalancing the profession.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I am a long-time member of IMA and also a CPA and institutional investor. The apparent intent behind [IMA's] press release is welcome, but I wonder if IMA will continue to follow the crowd or, under [Paul Sharman's] leadership, begin to...

Management accountants are in demand.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The hiring outlook is promising for management accountants and financial managers, particularly in the areas of banking/finance, consulting, distribution, healthcare, and high-tech software companies, the Lucas Group, an executive search firm,...

Enterprise Risk Management at UnitedHealth Group.(Cover Story)
July 1, 2005... The stakes are high. The rules of the game have changed, and doing business will never be the same again. Companies must achieve great business results and exceed their stakeholders' expectations, but how a company actually achieves those...

Social Security: the topic du jour, Part 1.
July 1, 2005... In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act during Franklin Roosevelt's administration, providing a welcome relief from the Depression. The first deductions from employees' paychecks, matched equally by employers (each contributing 1% of...

Carol Tome: "no winking, no blinking" at The Home Depot.(Carol B. Tome)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... CAROL B. TOME IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN BUSINESS TODAY. She is both executive vice president and chief financial officer for The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, and chair of the audit committee for UPS....

Combating everyday data problems with XBRL.(Extensible Business Reporting Language)
July 1, 2005... In conjunction with XBRL International's 11th conference, held in Boston this past April, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) issued a press release supporting XBRL (see www.imanet.org/ima/docs/ 3100/3052.pdf). Several members have...

ERP lockup: planning successful data jailbreaks.(Enterprise resource planning)
July 1, 2005... TO PREVENT SOFTWARE FROM BECOMING A "DATA JAIL," you have to understand modules, screens, and relational databases as well as business processes and activities. Imagine a room full of workshop participants gathered to learn how to retrieve...

The importance of IMA's certification programs.(Institute of Management Accountants)(Column)
July 1, 2005... As I begin my term as IMA Chair, I would like everyone to know that I am truly honored to have been selected for this position. For those of you who don't know me, I am an accounting professor and the Associate Dean of the Barney School of...

Mobile manager.(LifeDrive from palmOne Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The LifeDrive[TM] is described by its maker, palmOneT, as a mobile manager, and it's one step away from the ultimate pocket computer. It has a large (480 x 320 pixels), bright screen and an impressive 4GB hard drive, enough memory to take some...

Sleek and chic.(Flash memory cards and drives in demand )
July 1, 2005... Flash memory cards and drives have just about guaranteed the extinction of the floppy disk. The drives are connected via USB ports, which have moved to the front of PCs and multiplied to allow numerous connections. Called flash drives, thumb...

Creating databases.(AskSam Systems releases askSam version 6)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The askSam[TM] program from askSam Systems is now in version 6. A free-form database application, askSam lets you organize, search, and analyze both structured and unstructured information as you create a searchable database. Information such...

An Apple for the Prof--an iPod for the Frosh.(Duke University experiment proviides students with iPods)
July 1, 2005... * MOST RECENT NEWS ABOUT iPODS ON CAMPUS has been about peer-to-peer music downloads that strain university networks and bring legal threats from the recorded music industry. But not at Duke University in Durham, N.C. There the pocket-size...