Strategic Finance articles from September 2005

Strategic Finance archives from September 2005

Accounting educators, take note.(Strategic Finance )
September 1, 2005... September marks the beginning of a new school year, the start of classes, and an influx of university students. It's the season for new ideas, plans, and expectations. In the spirit of these fresh starts, Strategic Finance is introducing a...

Creating a lean enterprise: the case of the Lebanon Gasket Company.(2006 Student Case Competition)
September 1, 2005... The Student Case Competition is sponsored annually by IMA to promote sound financial/ accounting analysis and presentation skills. The Lebanon Gasket Company (LGC) hired Tom Walsh as the plant manager of its Topeka, Kans., facility in...

Targeting today's entry-level candidates.(Careers)
September 1, 2005... Many companies and public accounting firms are adding recent graduates to help them address business growth as well as corporate governance requirements such as those mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Hiring demand continues to outpace the...

Infospheres.(End Note)
September 1, 2005... According to Edward Tufte (the man who wrote the basic text on the visual display of quantitative information), "the use of nonrepresentational pictures to show numbers is a surprisingly recent invention." The Yale professor explains that "it...

AIG remediation emphasizes compliance, but not ethics.(Ethics)
September 1, 2005... Just when we thought that all of the accounting scandals in major corporations had surfaced, along came the announcement by American International Group (AIG) that the SEC and New York State Attorney General (NYSAG) were investigating how AIG...

Mind-set.(Best Practices)
September 1, 2005... Got to have that skinny double latte before work? Can you spot the Starbucks' logo at 500 meters? Do your feet veer across the street to your favorite barista, no matter how inclement the weather, how urgent the phone call, or how late the...

Measure twice, cut once: creating and measuring value in the private firm.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2005... "Measure twice, cut once," the wise carpenter says to ensure the best decision involving precious resources. So, too, as business leaders grapple with allocating capital, developing talent, and nurturing ideas to ensure the firm's future. ...

Financial restatements: causes, consequences, and corrections.(Financial Reporting)
September 1, 2005... In a case of real life imitating television reality shows, restatements have become the extreme makeovers of financial reporting. For a company living through the financial and operational pain, not to mention the damage to its reputation, the...

IMA--an advocate for the profession.(Message from the Chair)(Institute of Management Accountants)
September 1, 2005... IMA has been a positive force in the management accounting profession for many years. We have commented on Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) pronouncements, have been a member of the Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB)...

How is your company managing risk?(NEWS)
September 1, 2005... Although enterprise risk management is one of the hot strategic business tools that companies are employing right now, many firms still have a long way to go toward proper execution, two recent surveys found. In an Oversight Systems Inc....

Is your small business healthy?(10 key questions for small business owners)
September 1, 2005... > Robert Half Management Resources has come up with 10 key questions for small business owners to answer if they want to maximize productivity and ensure efficiency. 1. Is it time to update your financial systems? If you have postponed...

Errata.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2005... Errata There's a typo on p. 45 of the August issue in the "Suzie's Sweater" article. The "$200" of revenue the FASB wants the store to recognize should read $20. We apologize for the error.

Corporate credit ratings at issue.(GOVERNMENT)
September 1, 2005... The failure of Moody's and Standard & Poor's, the two ratings giants, to predict the corporate financial disasters at Enron and WorldCom is the rationale Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R.-Pa.) is citing for his Credit Rating Agencies Relief Act of 2005...

Activity-based Life-Cycle Costing.(Life-Cycle Costing: Using Activity-Based Costing and Monte Carlo Methods to Manage Future Costs and Risks)(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Long associated with manufacturing, engineering, and weapons systems, Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) is now being applied in a broader range of businesses. According to Jan Emblemsvag, author of Life-Cycle Costing: Using Activity-Based Costing and...

FASB issues three exposure drafts.(Financial Accounting Standards Board)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued three Exposure Drafts on which it is seeking comments. The first is "Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets." The Board says the proposed Statement of Financial Accounting Standards...

A cautionary tale of corporate crime: by the time Bernie Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison two months ago, Walter Pavlo had finished his time behind bars for wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice while working for MCI.(Financial Trends)
September 1, 2005... Fresh out of graduate business school in 1992, Pavlo, 29 years old at the time, joined MCI as manager of its carrier finance department in Atlanta. Over the course of four years, Pavlo manipulated the company's accounting records to hide...

XBRL GL: the general ledger gets its groove.(XBRL)
September 1, 2005... Each year, Accounting Today publishes a list of the top 100 technology products for accounting. Although the list contains several broad categories of software that helps businesses get their work done, the fact that so many different choices...