Strategic Finance articles from March 2004

Strategic Finance archives from March 2004

Value and opportunity for members.(2002-2003 Annual Report Summary)
March 1, 2004... Throughout IMA's 2002-2003 Fiscal Year, we dedicated significant resources to improving and expanding our offerings, recognizing that innovative tools and resources attract the highest caliber of membership. IMA Website Re-launch and...

Developing effective performance reviews.(Careers)
March 1, 2004... Few people look forward to the annual performance review. Employees typically are anxious at the prospect of receiving negative comments on their work, and managers may be uncomfortable offering that criticism. When done correctly, however,...

The Web through dragonfly eyes.(End Note)(CubicEye[TM])(www.2ce.com.)
March 1, 2004... The inventor, Mike Rosen, calls it CubicEye[TM], but with its six facets his browser is a lot like the compound eye of the dragonfly looking out on the world's reflection in the Web. When you open the CubicEye browser, you see five panels...

Will Sarbanes-Oxley improve ethics?(Ethics)
March 1, 2004... A LOT OF ATTENTION HAS BEEN PAID TO SECTION 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and its requirements for management certification and external auditor attestation of internal controls. But it's the ethics aspects of SOX that may be more...

Capability vs. capacity.(Best Practices)(Human resource management)
March 1, 2004... MANAGERS WHO KNOW HOW TO ACHIEVE standout results don't rely on just their capabilities--they also rely on their capacity for inspiring and motivating others. Capability represents knowledge honed by experience. The value of capability includes...

Breathing new life into old systems with XBRL-GL.(Technology annual conference topic: the Wacoal story)(eXtensible Business Reporting Language for General Ledger)
March 1, 2004... THE WACOAL CORPORATION (Wacoal), an apparel manufacturer and marketer located in Kyoto, Japan, recently faced a classic problem--the need to significantly improve the quality of financial data available to key decision makers. They had little...

Using customer relationship management to increase profits.(Annual conference topic: CRM)
March 1, 2004... In today's challenging economic environment, both customers and company profitability are more elusive than ever. Many companies are having difficulty stabilizing their business model and have been forced to downsize, more than once. Companies...

Help IMA lead the profession.(Perspectives: message from the chair)(Institute of Management Accountants)
March 1, 2004... The Institute of Management Accountants has a rare opportunity within its reach. Recent business scandals have caused faith in Corporate America--and the accounting profession in particular--to be badly shaken. This crisis is T our opportunity...

Building a strong corporate physique: why Sarbanes-Oxley is good for business.(SOX)
March 1, 2004... Parents and nutritionists agree spinach is good for you. A plateful packs a healthy dose of vitamins A, C, and E. Plus it's loaded with antioxidants believed to guard against cancer, cataracts, and other ills. So why can't you grab a quick...

Attmore named GASB chair.(News)(various articles)(Governmental Accounting Standards Board)
March 1, 2004... ROBERT H. ATTMORE, PRESIDENT OF ATTMORE & ASSOCIATES IN ALBANY, N.Y., and a former deputy state comptroller of New York, has been appointed chairman of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), effective July 1, 2004. He succeeds Tom...

DO CFOS feel safe?(streetwise)(Chief financial officers)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Disaster recovery and information systems security are their companies' most vulnerable areas, CFOs said in responding to a recent Robert Half Management Resources survey. Of the 1,400 CFOs surveyed, 37% said their companies are most vulnerable...

IMA research.(Readers' Input)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2004... Two recent articles in Strategic Finance, both written by Paul Sharman, have been "allocated" permanent residence on my work desk--those of October and December 2003. In my reading of these articles I sense challenge and change for IMA...

IMA launches new research program.(IMA News)(Institute of Management Accountants)
March 1, 2004... IN A RECENT SURVEY, MEMBERS INDICATED THAT ONE OF THE REASONS THEY join IMA is to keep up with new developments in management accounting that focus on the best tools and methods for planning, control, support, and decision making. As a result...

Enzi tries to redirect FASB on stock options.(Government)(Senator Michael Enzi and the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and various articles)
March 1, 2004... THE ONLY ACCOUNTANT IN THE Senate is trying to divert the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) from its intention to publish a new rule requiring companies to expense stock options. This has been a controversial issue, inside Congress...

The value of strategy maps.(Books)(Strategy maps: Converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes)(Book Review)
March 1, 2004... * IN THEIR NEW BOOK, STRATEGY MAPS, ROBERT Kaplan and David Norton contribute the next step in the continuing evolution of the balanced scorecard framework. Based on their work with more than 300 organizations over the past dozen years,...

International trade & title: security & tax concerns--part 2.(Taxes)
March 1, 2004... LAST MONTH WE COVERED THE SIGNIFICANCE of the passing of title in international sales and its impact on security liability. Now we will examine how the country where title transfer occurs can affect a domestic company's tax liability--adversely...

Tools of the trade.(Hewlett Packard scanners, Symantec's Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional, McAfee VirusScan Professional 8.0, TaxACT Standard from 2nd Story Software)(Computer industry)
March 1, 2004... Hewlett-Packard has introduced two new scanners that have redesigned the flatbed scanner. Both the HP Scanjet 4600 and 4670 have a see-through window, and it's through this window that you make your scans. The light-bar is sandwiched between...

Spyware! Who put that on my machine?(Tech Forum)
March 1, 2004... AS IF WORMS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, COOKIES, and spam weren't enough, now we have to deal with spyware slinking around in our computers' circuitry, taking notes on where we browse and buy and collecting information for people who don't have...

Great graphics: how to illustrate financial information the right way.(Career Skills)
March 1, 2004... Graphs and charts have always provided support for sound business decision making. Yet in today's environment of rapid product innovations, transformations of business cycles through e-commerce, growing business complexity through mergers and...