Strategic Finance articles from October 2003

Strategic Finance archives from October 2003

ERP merger mania: making sense of the market and what you can do to reduce your risk!(Enterprise Resource Planning)
October 1, 2003... Remember the nursery rhyme, "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly...."? She swallows a spider to catch the fly, then swallows a bird to catch the spider, but, in the end, we don't know why she swallowed the fly. It seems the same thing is...

Remembering Bob and Andrea Bell.(Institute of Management Accountants)(Obituary)(Biography)
October 1, 2003... IMA will miss former President Bob Bell, 61, and his wife Andrea, 58, for a long time. As most of you know, they died August 31 in a plane crash on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Devoted to each other, family, friends, IMA, and a variety of community...

The mobile professional: Palm or Pocket PC?(Technology)
October 1, 2003... At the airport, at meetings, on the street, you are likely to see folks tapping on the screens of their handheld PDAs (personal digital assistants). They're jotting down directions or fleeting thoughts, or they're looking up phone numbers,...

Achieving appropriate staffing levels.(Careers)
October 1, 2003... One of the greatest challenges for a manager is allocating the appropriate resources for accounting projects: You must assign enough people to meet business requirements, but you can't afford to overstaff and exceed budget. Developing a...

Bank transfers and Bonsai Kittens.(End Note)(10 Most Prevalent Hoaxes )
October 1, 2003... Received any e-mail requests lately to help some potentate's widow transfer her late husband's fortune? Did you get the warning about certain perfume samples--the poisoned ones--being mailed to people? SOPHOS, an international security company...

Confident listening.(Best Practices)
October 1, 2003... TECHNOLOGY FACILITATES CERTAIN KINDS OF connection. Let's say you are giving an important proposal to a customer. Before 1973, you mailed it and waited about two days for the customer to get it; then FedEx came on the scene, and your customer...

Are chapters important?(Perspectives: message from the chair)
October 1, 2003... Are chapters irrelevant? Are they obsolete? Some people in IMA think so. But I feel our local chapters have a lot to offer and are still an important part of our organization. They offer us three unique opportunities that we can't get...

Strategic finance: quiz 3 CPE credits.
October 1, 2003... Earn Continuing Professional Education Credit IMA is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of...

Stock options: still alive? Don't count them out yet. Many types are still viable.(Compensation)
October 1, 2003... In 2002, we witnessed the fall of corporate giants. WorldCom. Global Crossing. Even noted linguist William Safire couldn't resist the urge to coin a new word on the street: "Enronnish." The atmosphere reached a low point, forcing the federal...

The case for management accounting.(Accounting)
October 1, 2003... RECENT SURVEYS demonstrate the continuing frustration of senior managers in the United States with the lack of cost and resource management capability within their corporations. Now is the time to address this problem. A number of factors are...

Part 2: becoming a business partner: some advice on making the transition.(Careers)
October 1, 2003... There are many paths you can take to become a business partner. And it's up to you to select the path. Don't expect someone in your company to suddenly declare that you are a business partner; you're the only one who can make it happen. You...

Performance measures that drive the Goal Tenets of strategy.(Strategic Management)(Return Driven Strategy)
October 1, 2003... The laws of business strategy dictate that the pathway to superior financial performance is through the customer. But which performance measures truly guide your organization to strategize and execute on this path? Companies naturally say they...

Developing ethical financial leaders.(News)
October 1, 2003... WITH JAIL TERMS LOOMING FOR SOME CORPORATE FINANCIAL EXECUTIVES and fallout still occurring from the recent accounting scandals, the accounting profession and companies are struggling with corporate governance issues and trying to figure out...

FASB delays stock option ruling.(street wise)(Financial Accounting Standards Board)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The Financial Accounting Standards Board has postponed issuing a proposal to require companies to expense employee stock options. It plans to issue proposed rules in the first quarter of 2004 and final rules by the end of September. This timing...

Note from the authors.(Readers' Input)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... In the article "The Cash Factor" (September 2003), several references are made to the "partnership"-like aspects of factoring. Certainly, a factoring relationship creates a special business arrangement that has some of the features of a...

Corporate responsibility: high priority for CEOs.(Ethics)(Chief executive officers)
October 1, 2003... A SURVEY OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AROUND THE GLOBE BY PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS revealed that CEOs assign considerable priority to maintaining a high degree of corporate responsibility. (1) The study gathered this information from almost 1,200...

Congress not expected to add to Sarbanes-Oxley.(Government)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
October 1, 2003... THE SENATE BANKING AND HOUSE Financial Services Committees will begin hearings this fall on how well the Sarbanes-Oxley law is working. But the two lawmakers responsible for passage of that landmark law are signaling that the hearings won't...

Improving accounting efficiency.(Stephen M. Bragg)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... * THE TIME AND EFFORT ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTS spend in processing accounting transactions detracts from their ability to focus on activities that contribute to the growth and welfare of the company. That's why it's imperative to streamline...

Depreciation after the 2003 tax act--Part 1.(Taxes)
October 1, 2003... THE JOBS AND GROWTH TAX RELIEF RECONCILIATION Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) made significant changes to the rules affecting capitalization and depreciation of business assets. Code [section] 179 additional first-year expensing limits were increased from...

Writing tools.(tools of the trade)(Graphire3 pen tablets)(WordPerfect Family Pack 5)(PowerCartridge packs)(Instant Power)
October 1, 2003... The new Graphire3 pen tablets from Wacom come in two sizes (4" x 5" or 6" x 8" active areas) and three colors (Sapphire Blue, Pearl White, and Graphite Gray). The tablet, pen, and mouse give you a better way to work on digital photos, paint or...

McGraw-Hill's everything series.(tools of the trade)(How to Do Everything)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Generally, there are two kinds of user manuals--those provided by the manufacturer and those written by enthusiasts. The manufacturer's manuals are more likely to be loaded on the CD and are the combined effort of the techies, marketing people,...

Co-opting the hacker culture.(Tech Forum)
October 1, 2003... * WITHIN THE SPACE OF A MONTH, there have been arrests of computer programmers in London, Iasi, Romania, St. Paul, Minn., and Sacramento, Calif. The charges vary, from breaking into a New York Times database of social security numbers to...

Bankers' complicity in Enron's fraud.(Trends In Financial Management)
October 1, 2003... * ON JULY 28, 2003, REGULATORS announced that Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase settled charges that their bankers helped Enron commit fraud. But on that same day, a more damning and detailed report of six banks' complicity in Enron's fraud was...

The digital reporting evolution: IMA leads the way.(XBRL)(Digital Reporting Certificate Program)
October 1, 2003... IMA IS DEVELOPING A SERIES OF COURSES designed to upgrade your business reporting skills with the latest advances in technology and practice. Called the IMA Digital Reporting Certificate Program, these five IMA-sponsored courses will give our...

Financial Executive of the Year: Nicholas Malden: building a clear path to the future.(2003 National Winner)
October 1, 2003... Most promising executives would balk at the prospect of leaving a stable position with a large, well-established company to join a small manufacturer of automated diagnostic systems. But Nicholas Malden, who made the leap from The Gillette...