Strategic Finance articles from July 2007

Strategic Finance archives from July 2007

Where is the value?(Perspectives)(Column)
July 1, 2007... I would like to start my first "Perspectives" column by saying I am proud and honored to represent IMA as Chair for the 2007-08 year. IMA is a big part of my life--in fact, it has been so for many years--and I am thrilled to take on this new...

When worlds collide--how public interests affect private companies.(Top Line)
July 1, 2007... Recently, a collaborative effort by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) was put forth to improve the financial reporting process for private companies. As a result,...

The pursuit of unhappiness.(Best Practices)(Editorial)
July 1, 2007... Karen got a raise, and she's mad enough to quit. "I really hit my stride last summer," she told a friend. "I coordinated several new business pitches and was instrumental in winning important contracts. You know that I don't like to be a...

Who is responsible for college students cheating?(Ethics)
July 1, 2007... Ever since details emerged regarding how much the ethical climate at Enron contributed to the frauds that its employees perpetrated, business schools and their accreditation agency, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business...

FASB and ASBJ discuss global convergence.(NEWS)(Financial Accounting Standards Board)(Accounting Standards Board of Japan )
July 1, 2007... Board and staff members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently met in Tokyo with representatives of the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) to continue their discussions about global convergence of accounting...

SEC issues compliancealert.(streetwise)(Compliance-Alert letter)(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... The staff of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) issued its first Compliance-Alert letter last month to help chief compliance officers of SEC-registered firms learn more about common deficiencies and weaknesses that SEC examiners are...

The ethical issues.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... I read Curt Verschoor's article in the May issue with extreme interest. While he has done a good job at taking the pharmaceutical firms to task, he could have easily included the medical device manufacturers. I attended an HFMA Supply Chain...

SEC/PCAOB finalize 404 guidance.(GOVERNMENT)(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act )
July 1, 2007... The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) published their final Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 changes in late May. Actually, the SEC only published a press release. The actual management...

Effective valuation.
July 1, 2007... Future and current managers and investors who want to help their companies create value may be interested in Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies by Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart, and David Wessels, which was originally...

IMA issues Statements on Management Accounting.(RESEARCH)(Institute of Management Accountants)
July 1, 2007... In its efforts to further develop the management accounting body of knowledge, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA[R]) develops and publishes Statements on Management Accounting (SMAs). SMAs provide practice- based guidance to the...

ICMA offers Chinese-language version of CMA exam.(CERTIFICATION)(Certified Management Accountants)(Institute of Certified Management Accountants)
July 1, 2007... The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA[R]), the certification division of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA[R]), began offering the CMA[R] exam in Simplified Chinese this month. The translation marks the first time...

Measuring to improve performance.(MORE BOOKS)(In Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success)
July 1, 2007... In Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, Dean Spitzer describes how the key to organizational success is measurement. When it is done properly, measurement can transform an...

Balance sheet management at Olympic Steel: how the company survived volatility in the steel service industry and came out ahead using good management accounting practices.(Cover Story)(Company overview)
July 1, 2007... Consider a business that traditionally buys steel for $200 to $300 per ton, cuts and processes it, and then sells the steel for roughly $300 to $400 per ton. This relatively calm scenario describes the long-term business environment that most...

The top 10 reasons to fix the FASB's conceptual framework.(Opinion)(Financial Accounting Standards Board)
July 1, 2007... The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) produced most of its Conceptual Framework (CFW) more than 20 years ago in a project that began in the 1970s. It achieved notable positive results, yet it isn't without flaws. These blemishes...

Virtues in Conflict.(Carl Menconi Case Writing Competition)(Elizabeth Dunn)(Case study)
July 1, 2007... The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA[R]) Committee on Ethics and IMA Professor-in-Residence Sandra B. Richtermeyer, CMA, CPA, are proud to announce that Elizabeth Dunn, CPA, has won the Best Case Award of the first annual Carl Menconi...

Tools of the trade.
July 1, 2007... The Foleo[TM] from Palm[R], Inc., is a companion device for your smart phone that uses a 10-inch screen and full-size keyboard to make some of your phone's functions much more comfortable. It's not a scaled-down laptop. That's obvious as soon...

Who needs rules?(Tech Forum)(www.woot.com)(Editorial)
July 1, 2007... * SURE, THE WEB IS A GREAT PLACE TO EXPERIMENT, maybe even do some rubber-band exercises with the conventional rules, but there have to be limits, right? Common sense dictates that stuff just doesn't work when there are no controls. ...

Integrating detail with end reporting.(XBRL)(XBRL International)
July 1, 2007... Do you ever get to the end of the day and have no idea where the time has gone? Many businesses are like that: You have some results, but you have no clue how you got there. When creating financial reports and tax returns, it can particularly...

The antediluvian KVM.(End Note)(Kernel-based Virtual Machine)
July 1, 2007... Along with the arrival of the first computer came the pursuit of the best way for humans to interface with the machine's logic. A monitor provided a view of what the device was doing, and a keyboard gave us a voice that could reach deep into...