Strategic Finance articles from July 2006

Strategic Finance archives from July 2006

A nontraditional approach to undergraduate accounting.(Academic Corner)(Metropolitan State University)
July 1, 2006... When people think about undergraduate accounting degrees, they usually envision traditional, four-year undergraduate institutions that are long-established universities. Some even picture previous generations of their family who may have...

Making the cost of quality practical.(Management Accounting)
July 1, 2006... Companies will often declare that quality or customer satisfaction is now their top priority while still obviously needing to deliver financial returns. These quality goals seem to conflict with the financial goals and are frequently met with...

Myth busters: breaking through workplace misconceptions.(managers)
July 1, 2006... False assumptions may be a fact of life, but they can pose particular challenges in the workplace. Some misconceptions can be narrowly focused on our own careers--for example, certainty that a promotion is out of our reach or that an employer...

Fix the process, not the people: Medtronic, Inc. successfully applied its unique Lean Sigma formula to global finance.
July 1, 2006... Just a few years ago, most finance professionals would have been skeptical if someone had told them that two process-improvement methodologies originating in manufacturing could be applied to core financial processes. Medtronic, Inc., the...

Stat hacking.(Statistics Hacks by Bruce Frey)
July 1, 2006... Most of the O'Reilly books in the Hacks Series[TM] are about computer programs and systems. But there are others like Statistics Hacks by Bruce Frey that are as much fun as they are clever. The subtitle, Tips and Tools for Measuring the World...

Five levees for improving ethical performance.(Ethics)
July 1, 2006... When was the last time you faced an ethical dilemma? Think hard. The correct answer should be... "a few minutes ago." Every decision that impacts human beings or the natural environment has an ethical component. Did you treat your staff with...

Lucky mud.(financial services)
July 1, 2006... Basking in the afterglow of an awards banquet, a Southern California financial services firm has seen high employee morale for nearly a year. What made that particular program memorable wasn't the size of the bonus checks or a high heaping of...

When knowledge isn't power: why CFOS and controllers complain about their jobs.(Career Skills)
July 1, 2006... As part of my consulting practice I have interviewed hundreds of finance professionals for placement as CFOs or controllers in closely held companies. My task in these interviews is to determine two broad areas of "fit": candidates' technical...

Strengthening our voice for management accountants.
July 1, 2006... I am extremely honored to be IMA's Chair, and I look enthusiastically to continuing the path established by Larry White and Carl Smith in partnership with Paul Sharman that is increasing IMA's contribution to the important regulatory issues...

COSO at a crossroad: the folks who helped you weather SOX 404 now face their own moment of truth: is COSO ERM just what the doctor ordered?(enterprise risk management)(Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission)
July 1, 2006... Is COSO ERM being written off as the framework to be used in building an enterprise risk management initiative? Maybe not--at least not yet. But more than 20 months after the model was introduced, it's limping along in its effort to gain...

IFAC publishes business plan guide.(International Federation of Accountants's "Business Planning Guide: Practical Application for SMEs")
July 1, 2006... The Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has just published a booklet to help small and medium-sized organizations develop a business plan. Titled Business Planning Guide:...

View SEC reports via the web.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Now you can read online the full text of all company documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for the last two years. In June, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced that, for the first time, the SEC's information...

MERLOT: to blend or not to blend.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... The title of Janet McKnight's article (January 2006) caught my eye, but not for the reason you might expect from a reader of this magazine. I am a retired professor of accounting, and I am also a Merlot wine grape grower. Her point in the...

Sarbanes-Oxley reform bill.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
July 1, 2006... The two congressional titans behind the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are retiring at the end of this congressional session, which may explain why the first SOX reform bills are being introduced. Both Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D.-Md.) and Rep. Michael Oxley...

Managing innovation.(management process)
July 1, 2006... In Making Innovation Work, Tony Davila, Marc J. Epstein, and Robert Shelton introduce innovation as a management process that must become an integral part of any successful firm. There is a good reason why firms must innovate: The business...

Traveling tunes and data.(tools of the trade)("Supervisor's Guide to Human Resources" written by J.J. Keller)(La-Cie's SAFE Mobile Hard Drive)(RoadTrip from Griffin Technology Inc.)
July 1, 2006... Apple's iPod has spawned a small universe of accessories including the RoadTrip from Griffin Technology. The device is both a charger and an FM transmitter so you can broadcast what's on your iPod through your car radio while it's refilling via...

A moment to last three centuries.(Tech Forum)
July 1, 2006... THE WORLD'S OLDEST PHOTOGRAPH is a four-by-six image taken by Joseph Niepce in 1825. So, how are the photos from your digital printer holding up? With all the advanced technology, do you think your prints will still be recognizable in 181...