Strategic Finance articles from May 2002

Strategic Finance archives from May 2002

IMA's new direction for 2003. (Letter from the President-Perspectives).(Institute of Management Accountants)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... IMA's Board of Directors recently approved an updated and clear Strategic Plan. This plan has five parts/goals: (1) To increase IMA's membership; (2) To increase participation in IMA certification programs; (3) To increase professional...

Strategy, business execution, and performance measures. (Strategic Management).
May 1, 2002... In our first column, we described two pillars of strategic management--business strategy and business execution--as parallel and interrelated processes that are both necessary for an organization to achieve superior financial performance. This...

Into the unknown. (Best Practices).(leading in uncertain times)
May 1, 2002... We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. T. S. Eliot Little Gidding EVERYONE THINKS THAT MAKING GOOD decisions depends on analyzing...

Interviewing for a senior management position. (Careers).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Most job seekers have a general idea of what to expect during a job interview. You'll be ready to discuss your work history and respond to a series of standard questions, such as "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Depending on the...

Dealing with unemployment. (News).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... ALTHOUGH LAYOFFS SEEM TO BE SLOWING DOWN, ACCORDING TO SEVERAL industry reports, they aren't over yet. If you are let go, your immediate priority is to deal with the aftershock, advises John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas,...

Equity Stake Study. (News).(equity incentives to management)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... America's Top 200 companies set aside a record 16.4% of shares outstanding for equity incentives to management and other employees, according to the 13th annual "Equity Stake Study" by Pearl Meyer & Partners executive compensation consultants....

Ethical sanctions. (Readers' Input).
May 1, 2002... I'm replying to the three questions posed in the Ethics column published in the March issue, "Corporate Critic Activist Calls for Ethical Sanctions." 1. Yes, I'm defining "large public corporations" as the executive management of the...

Ethics of Enron "whistle-blower" questioned. (Ethics).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... SOME OBSERVERS HAVE PRAISED THE COURAGE AND ETHICAL DETERMINATION of Sherron Watkins. Others have criticized her failure to do more in view of the fact she is a CPA and a professional. Watkins is the Enron vice president who sent an anonymous...

SEC proposes new corporate disclosure rules. (Government).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... SEC CHAIRMAN HARVEY PITT, anxious to prove that he can be as tough on corporate accounting irregularities as the post-Enron environment dictates, announced what he emphasized are "first-step" changes in corporate disclosure rules. "These steps...

Business intelligence: how accountants bring value to the marketing function.(Cover Story)
May 1, 2002... Technology has ushered in a new marketing era. Thanks to tools like affordable data storage, real-time capture devices, satellite communications, and multidimensional databases, traditional mass marketing is giving way to newer strategies that...

Pitney bowes calls for new metrics: the company used a balanced scorecard to manage performance and increase the bottom line. (Performance Measurement).(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... The importance of measuring strategy and action plans is here to stay. Too often, mission statements are designed to sound good but are not linked to operational strategies and are seldom re-examined to see if they are working effectively....

Capturing elusive value in M&A: the few acquirers who do realize financial value from acquisitions have a fine-tuned process in place. (Financial Management).(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Mergers and acquisitions are down but not out. The record wave of U.S. merger and acquisition activity, which began in the early 1990s, continues. Last year's 8,309 U.S. deals announced may be off from 2000's 10,883, but they're well above...

Gaining effective organizational control with RCA. (Cost Management).(resource consumption accounting)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Resource consumption accounting can provide accurate, equitable performance measures and highlight deviations for you to investigate and correct. This is the second in a series of two articles on the application of resource consumption...

Is there an ESOP in your company's future? An employee stock ownership plan could enhance your company's bottom line. (Cash Management).(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Although ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans) have been providing significant corporate tax benefits since 1974, many finance professionals are unaware of the tremendous tax benefits provided by employee ownership. At most recent count, there...

New accountability for corporate audit committees: regulators put the burden of improved external audits on corporate directors.
May 1, 2002... The responsibilities of corporate audit committees are increasing in both number and complexity. This trend was well under way prior to the Enron debacle and will likely continue because of it. Today's audit committees must meet strict...

Spring cleanup online. (Tools of the Trade).(web site quality)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Sprucing up your website should be done in three steps. First, find and discard dead links, and then do the same for stale content--just like thatching your lawn. Replace what you have removed with recent information. Finally, add elements...

Adding elements. (Tools of the Trade).(Atomz Corporation search engine; advertisement)
May 1, 2002... An essential tool for any site with more than a few pages is a local search engine. The Atomz Corporation offers a customizable search engine that helps users find information while reporting the searches to the site owner, ranking and graphing...

More content. (Tools of the Trade).(AccuWeather service; advertisement)
May 1, 2002... When you run out of new content, you might consider adding information from other services. The AccuWeather service, for instance, is a natural for travel agencies, farm suppliers, highway commissions. AccuWeather has a catalog of services:...

A new look. (Tools of the Trade).(Web graphics; advertisement)
May 1, 2002... As part of its recent airing of "Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance," Nova Online posted eight 360[degrees] panoramic photographs of South Georgia Island and an ice floe in the Weddell Sea (www.pbs.org). The QuickTime VRs are viewable with a free...

Managing chaos. (Tech Forum).(electronic labelling)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... WE NAME EVERYTHING--kids, cats, cars, careers. We even prefer products with familiar (brand) names-- with Sony, it's "no baloney." We do this because names can answer so many questions from "What is that?" to "Where does it go?" (It's a...

A scramble to self-regulate. (Trends).(financial management)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS racing to reform itself post-Enron before Congress, the President, and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) enact new regulations governing financial reporting, accounting rule making, auditor oversight, insider...

Brian L. McGuire nominated IMA President-elect. (IMA).(Institute of Management Accountants)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... BRIAN L. MCGUIRE, CMA, CPA, PH.D., HAS BEEN nominated President-elect of IMA, which means he will become IMA President in 2003-04. Margaret D. Butler, CMA, CPA, is IMA President for 2002-03. The election will take place at IMA's Annual...

In simpler times. (End Note).(bookkeeping history)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... General Directions to keep a Ledger regularly. 1ft, Choofe a Place remote from Nife and Eyes of Strangers; 2d, write the Titles in a large Text Hand; 3d, write fair, without great Heads or Tails to your Letters, and leifurely, to prevent...