Strategic Finance articles from June 2007

Strategic Finance archives from June 2007

Where is the passion?(Perspectives)
June 1, 2007... Do you remember the TV commercial that used the tag line "Where's the beef?" If you recall, it was often quoted to put a spotlight on all sorts of issues, including shortcomings in products and services. When it's time to renew your membership...

Drama on the 21st floor.(Best Practices)
June 1, 2007... The newly promoted general manager entered a meeting of her management team 90 minutes late and burst into tears. Why? Three hours earlier, Claire had been called to the executive level to debate, for the 88th time, the merits of a particular...

Work-life balance, superior's actions strongly influence ethical culture.(Ethics)(Survey)
June 1, 2007... Although it is well known that the quality of an employee's personal life strongly influences job satisfaction and related productivity, the 2007 Deloitte & Touche USA LLP Ethics & Workplace survey shows that work-life balance also promotes...

A bad first impression?(NEWS)
June 1, 2007... All of us want to make a good first impression, especially when we're interviewing for a new job or meeting a business prospect for the first time. But sometimes our plans go awry and we end up making a bad initial impression. Can we recover...

New GASB members.(streetwise)(Governmental Accounting Standards Board appoints Girard Miller and Jan Sylvis )(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Girard Miller and Jan Sylvis have been appointed to five-year terms as members of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) beginning July 1, 2007. Girard Miller was president of Janus Funds and chief operating officer of Janus...

PH.D. shortage.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2007... I write in response to the letter by Alfred M. King (May 2007 issue of Strategic Finance) in which he provided comment on the "shortage of Ph.D. candidates to meet future accounting education needs." I am not in the habit of participating in...

Senate fires a couple shots over SEC's bow on 404.(GOVERNMENT)(Securities & Exchange Commission)(Editorial)
June 1, 2007... One former and one current Democratic presidential candidate cautioned the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) not to go too far in accommodating small businesses--or big business, for...

Combining Lean and Six Sigma.(BOOKS)
June 1, 2007... Manufacturing firms in the United States and elsewhere are under tremendous pressure to compete in the increasingly global arena. While some may feel that competing in such an environment is a daunting task, Bill Carreira and Bill Trudell,...

IMA 2006 salary survey.(Survey)(Financial report)
June 1, 2007... For the second year in a row, the average salary for members of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA[R]) did not increase by a statistically significant amount. Members who responded to IMA's 18th Annual Salary Survey for 2006 reported...

Getting down to specifics on RCA.(RCA)(resource consumption accounting )
June 1, 2007... It's time to move the discussion of German cost accounting practices--an integral part of what is known in the U.S. as resource consumption accounting (RCA)--from concepts to specifics. To get down to specifics, we conducted a head-to-head...

Sustainable performance improvement through predictive technologies.(Technology)
June 1, 2007... IMAGINE A SURVEY of today's Fortune 100 CEOs that asks them to name the single most important driver of sustainable performance improvement within their company. While it's likely there would be 100 unique responses, you might expect a certain...

Tools of the trade.(briefs)(Corsair Inc.)(Solo Inc.)
June 1, 2007... SOLO[R] has been around for almost 100 years, and its laptop cases come in a wide variety of styles including metal attache cases and backpacks. The two pictured here are the 15.4" ladies tote and the 15.4" laptop portfolio. Both will...

Web Kaleidoscopes.(Tech Forum)
June 1, 2007... A KALEIDOSCOPE IS A WONDROUS DEVICE that creates its dazzling variety all within a single compact tube. In a similar way, there are kaleidoscopes on the Web where, through a portal or beneath a single button, there exist pathways to hundreds or...

Investing in bio/nano-tech yet?(End Note)
June 1, 2007... There are all kinds of systems, plenty of advisors, and even a small haunted army of artificial intelligence geeks who don't look like they sleep very much--all offering winning stock-market strategies. But the best advice usually boils down to...