Strategic Finance articles from November 2006

Strategic Finance archives from November 2006

Fraud prevention education in the accounting curriculum.(Academic Corner)
November 1, 2006... In the last several years, the importance of preventing and detecting fraud has been brought home as never before. Articles on Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and other accounting-related scandals have recently appeared in the pages of many newspapers...

Benefits: gain a competitive edge with offerings employees want.
November 1, 2006... As competition for experienced accounting and finance professionals increases, organizations are looking for ways to give themselves an edge. An attractive benefits package can often make the difference in recruiting and retaining employees. As...

Twinkling motherboards.(Intel Corp., University of California)
November 1, 2006... The announcement in September from Intel and the University of California, Santa Barbara was seriously opaque: The chip maker and the university had "built the world's first electrically powered hybrid silicon laser using standard silicon...

The value of an ethical corporate culture.
November 1, 2006... An independent U.S. research study conducted by LRN, a provider of governance, ethics, and compliance management, shows additional evidence that a company's ability to maintain an ethical corporate culture is key to the attraction, retention,...

Open-heart surgery.(accountants )
November 1, 2006... There's an old saying that goes, "If you want to see how indispensable you are, put your hand in a bucket of water, and then pull it out. See how big a hole you leave." That sentiment may comfort all of us who have had to pore over...

Professional advocacy update.(Institute of Management Accountants)
November 1, 2006... Greetings from the world of professional advocacy. Many developments have materialized since my first article appeared in the August 2006 issue of Strategic Finance. When I began my career with the Institute on May 1, 2006, professional...

Turning personal adversity into a business opportunity: I help employees learn how to solve some of their financial problems.
November 1, 2006... Entrepreneurs start businesses for a variety of reasons. Last year I formed Financial Literacy Partners, LLC, to help employers solve a serious problem that at least 25% of their employees face. The problem usually isn't voiced in public, but...

Merging GPK and ABC on the Road to RCA: Toronto's hospital for sick children has successfully implemented the first part of a new accounting system that provides relevant information for its operations managers to use on the job.(grenzplankostenrechnung, activity-based costing)
November 1, 2006... When was the last time an operational manager had good things to say about the accounting system at your organization? The operational managers at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto are impressed with their system because it provides...

Which side of the line?(accountant's ethical standards)(Column)
November 1, 2006... It has never been more important for management accountants working in industry to maintain the highest ethical standards. I hope you have never had the occasion to have your choices be questioned as possible ethics issues or violations, but...

Shareholders pay for ROA then why are we still living in a margin-only world?(return on assets)(Cover story)
November 1, 2006... No one--particularly management accounting experts--would dispute the old saying, "You can't manage what you can't measure." Yet consider for a moment what is perhaps the most critical financial goal of manufacturing firms: return on assets...

Is Six Sigma beneficial for midsize companies?
November 1, 2006... Yes, if you consider the financial returns, and not really, if you consider quality issues, according to the results of a recent Aberdeen Group study. Titled Lean Six Sigma Benchmark Report, the research was released in September. Although...

IFAC issues proposed standard.(International Federation of Accountants)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has issued an exposure draft of a proposed International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) to help improve the...

SEC holds second XBRL roundtable.(Securities and Exchange Commission on Extensible Business Reporting Language)(Congress passes bill on credit rating agencies)(Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's Mark W. Olson on Sarbanes-Oxley )
November 1, 2006... The Securities & Exchange Commission awarded four contracts totaling $54 million in late September aimed at accelerating the development of an interactive data system for corporate filings based on the eXtensible Business Reporting Language...

Where are the CMAs?(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... After scanning the article on financial executives of the year nominees [October], something was bothering me. It took just a few seconds to realize that there was only one CMA/CFM in the group (and he is also a CPA) and one other CMA. Almost...

Mastering finance for high performance.(CFO Insights: Delivering High Performance)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... To help business executives understand the finance and performance management capabilities required to create and sustain high performance, Michael Sutcliff and Michael Donnellan have written CFO Insights: Delivering High Performance. The...

Too large-business oriented.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... I have been a member of our organization and its predecessors for more than 30 years and, as such, have been reading our monthly magazine very regularly. For a long time now I have been tempted to write to you and tell you that the content...

What kind of response?(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... It would be interesting to hear the response (future actions taken) of the FAF to Mr. Sharman's challenge for the FASB and FAF to "rebalance" the influence of their disproportionate representation in their decision-making councils and to bring...

Talk, record, and type.(Research in Motion Ltd.'s smart phone)(Intuit Inc.'s personal finance software)(Nuance Communications's speech recognition software )
November 1, 2006... The new BlackBerry Pearl from Research in Motion (RIM) is one of the smallest and lightest smartphones around, measuring 4.2 x 1.97 x .57 inches and weighing 3.1 ounces. It's built on the BlackBerry handset platform and is a quad-band GSM/GPRS...

Collective intelligence.(group problem solving)
November 1, 2006... HOW MANY TIMES have you been in this situation? The chairs are all in a circle, and the moderator smiles as he extends both hands, palms up, inviting all to enter a groupspeak for the next two or three hours. When you were back in school,...

From spreadsheet trash talking to data recycling Nirvana.
November 1, 2006... Companies are increasingly being evaluated by their commitment to the environment and society. While the bits and bytes associated with business data don't fill up landfills per se, both archived data made obsolete by updated and replaced...