Strategic Finance articles from September 2007

Strategic Finance archives from September 2007

Our biggest challenge.(Perspectives)(Institute of Management Accountants)(Viewpoint essay)
September 1, 2007... Message from the Chair I recently met with our Board of Directors in Dallas, Texas, for two days of Board training, and I am very impressed with the quality of our Board members. These individuals hold important positions in their...

Dropping eggs.(Best Practices)(knowledge through trial and error)
September 1, 2007... How do you drop an egg from the roof without breaking it? Each spring, that question is posed to the first graders of the San Anselmo, Calif., public school. This year, one of the students grappling with that assignment was Jinsung. His mother,...

Is BP and acronym for "big polluter"?(Ethics)(strategic plan)
September 1, 2007... One of the key elements of oil giant BP's strategic plan is a focus on sustainability. Known in the United States for its takeovers of Amoco and ARCO, Londonbased BP changed the former blue and red colors of those companies' retail station...

Employees turn to "informal organization".(NEWS)(Survey)
September 1, 2007... Informal relationships rather than formal management structures are where work really gets done, problems are solved, and companies gain competitive advantage, particularly at large companies. These are some of the results of a new survey of...

Reorganizing is key.(streetwise)(Designing Organizations That Execute New Strategies and Create Capabilities for Change )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Companies must constantly reorganize to stay competitive, a new report from The Conference Board shows. This means that they need to build an internal design capability that allows this continuous reorganization. Among the key warning...

Comments are on target.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Paul Sharman's comments in "When Worlds Collide" [July 2007] were right on target. It is hard to believe that the IMA doesn't have the lead role in the PCFRC. Are any of the members of the committee IMA members? Is it too late to do anything...

SEC discounts concerns about AS5.(GOVERNMENT)
September 1, 2007... When the SEC finally blessed the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS5), "An Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting that Is Integrated with an Audit of Financial Statements," on July 25, it...

The emerging ethics & compliance field.(BOOKS)
September 1, 2007... Enron. WorldCom. Tyco. Arthur Andersen. Reciting the list of companies caught up in some form of corporate malfeasance or corruption scandal is now second nature for many of us. Years after the actual events occurred, the names and events still...

Linking governance to strategy: the role of the finance organization.(Cover story)
September 1, 2007... The capabilities, skills, and responsibilities required of finance professionals have changed significantly over the last decade. No longer limited to tracking financial results and rigorous financial reporting, finance experts are increasingly...

The road to IFRS: does the SEC's roadmap mean that U.S. companies may soon report under International Financial Reporting Standards?(Accounting Standards)
September 1, 2007... Ten years ago, harmonization of worldwide accounting standards was considered a worthwhile, yet likely unachievable, goal. Today, the term "convergence" is in vogue, and much more than terminology has changed. In 2002, the Financial Accounting...

Creating a BPM center of excellence.(Performance Management.)(business performance management )
September 1, 2007... Implementing business performance management (BPM) isn't a one-time project--it's an ongoing business process. As organizations refine and improve this process, they will realize significant benefits. Acting on information provided by the BPM...

Flirting with SOX 404: are private companies interested in a relationship?(SOX)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002)
September 1, 2007... It has been five years since Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Many publicly traded companies have gone through at least one year of compliance for one of the most costly parts of the Act, Section 404, which requires...

Producing a summary report using subtotals.(Excel)
September 1, 2007... You asked. We listened. Here, by popular demand, is Strategic Finance's new column that offers tips and techniques on using Excel. You have a typical data set in Excel with columns labeled Region, Territory, Date, Inv #, Customer, Revenue,...

Tools of the trade.(2007 International CES Design and Engineering Innovation Award)
September 1, 2007... The Emtrace Widget-Station looks like a desk clock with two screens, and that's what it is. It's also the winner of the 2007 International CES Design and Engineering Innovation Award. That's because it can run widgets fed to it via Wi-Fi or...

Atomic and Wi-Fi time.(Tech Forum)
September 1, 2007... SOME PHILOSOPHERS DEFINE TIME as a measure of motion, and, in the past, the idea has inspired timepieces that move water or sand from one receptacle to another or track the course of a shadow on a circle. Now, when we finally have the whole...

XBRL GL by industry: construction and job costing.(XBRL)
September 1, 2007... There are certain industries in which each company's products are unique and often made for a target market of one. Companies that are job or project oriented, such as those in construction-related fields, need to track costs by project, and...

Translating accounting.(End Note)
September 1, 2007... The accounting profession is characterized by an exclusive language composed of technical terminology that often confounds nonaccountants. Some of that confusion is due to the use of common words and phrases that take on wholly different...