Strategic Finance articles from October 2008

Strategic Finance archives from October 2008

Career risk management.(Perspectives)(Column)
October 1, 2008... Last month's column focused on the need for those just entering our profession to plan ahead, particularly in regard to their education and the certifications they pursue. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This month, I want to discuss an equally...

The CMA distinction for young professionals.(Young Professionals)(Certified Management Accountant)
October 1, 2008... In today's increasingly competitive and regulated finance and accounting profession, organizations have a growing desire to enhance the development of their young professionals and their corporate financial leaders. They have identified a need...

The other C-word.(Financial Reporting)(codification (Law))(Column)
October 1, 2008... Let's say you are working on one of Strategic Finance's challenging crossword puzzles and find yourself in need of a 12-letter word beginning with the letter "C." The clue is "Makeover for U.S. GAAP." Does the word Convergence spring to mind?...

How to survive a job loss.(NEWS)
October 1, 2008... Given the recent events in the financial industry and other areas of the economy, experts are predicting that layoffs will continue. To help those who might end up losing their jobs, the Five O'Clock Club career coaching network offers seven...

Staff enrollment program is available.(Institute of Management Accountants)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... One of the expected business outcomes of IMA's Strategic Plan during the fiscal years 2009-2012 is incremental increases in membership (see Streetwise, p. 21, in the August 2008 issue of Strategic Finance). As part of IMA's recent corporate...

IFRS proposal from SEC likely to hit headwinds.(GOVERNMENT)(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)(International Financial Reporting Standards)
October 1, 2008... The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a phase-in period for a select group of very large corporations who will be able to use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their filings starting in 2010. The move was...

China's competitive advantage.(BOOKS)
October 1, 2008... China's emergence as a manufacturing powerhouse has become a well-discussed topic. That its power to change the face of global competition is derived from the surge of dozens of companies few outside China have even heard of is less well known....

After the acquisition: here are seven steps to successfully integrating finance and accounting functions after a merger or acquisition.(Cover story)
October 1, 2008... While merger-and-acquisition activity has slowed dramatically over the past 18 months, strategic acquisitions continue, and many companies are now faced with the challenge of integrating businesses acquired earlier. After the acquisition...

How safe is your data? Compliance isn't enough when it comes to managing user-access risk.(Risk Management)
October 1, 2008... The demands of regulatory compliance are among the factors driving IT and security managers within large organizations to improve their user-access governance processes, but the issues are broader and deeper than any regulations--and more...

Implementing a Target Budget for Prattville, Alabama: developing and sticking to a budget is one of the biggest challenges any local government faces. The Alabama Productivity Center (APC), based at the University of Alabama, used Target Budgeting to help get one town back on track and ready for the future.(Budgeting)
October 1, 2008... PRATTVILLE IS A SMALL CITY just outside the state capital of Montgomery, Ala. It's fast-growing, with a population of about 25,000. The city plans to annex a neighboring area in the year 2010, which will increase Prattville's size by...

SBA helps small businesses think big.(Small Business)
October 1, 2008... Corporate icons such as Nike, FedEx, and Apple Computer all started small. The Small Business Administration (SBA) helped start and finance these well-known business leaders and others, such as A&W Brands Holding Co., Outback Steakhouse,...

Can we detect fraud earlier? A technique called content analysis raises the possibility.(IMA Research)(content analysis )
October 1, 2008... Wouldn't it be helpful to be able to detect fraud earlier? The ability to do so would probably reduce the impact of any particular incident of fraud considerably because history shows us that most fraudulent events tend to start out slowly and...

Referring to a variable range with OFFSET.(Excel)(Formula)
October 1, 2008... I received an interesting gadget as a birthday gift--a combination flashlight, tape measure, and cordless drill. It's rare for me to simultaneously need to measure distance while I'm drilling in the dark, so I rarely use all of the features at...

Tools of the trade.(conputer industry launched laptop computers)(La Cie Ltd. won a bronze design award )(Apple introduced the iPhone)
October 1, 2008... The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 joins the netbook-size subcompacts already offered by Asus, HP, Acer, and others. Although it looks like any other laptop, the Mini 9 is about 7" x 9" and a little more than one inch thick. The screen is just under nine...

The Kroll Global Fraud Report-part 2.(Tech Forum)
October 1, 2008... * LAST MONTH, WE LOOKED AT SOME OF THE GENERAL conclusions in the 41-page Kroll Global Fraud Report from Kroll Inc., the risk-consulting subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Four conclusions from the 892 senior executives interviewed...

Everything begins with a pencil.(End Note)(Henry David Thoreau )
October 1, 2008... Sketches, notes, plans, lists--so many ideas and images first appear in the world as graphite lines on paper. Maybe it's the impermanence that allows the free play and the experimentation, but little credit is ever given to the pencil for its...