CMA Management articles from June 2006

CMA Management archives from June 2006

Process-based management.(Editorial)
June 1, 2006... All organizations have one thing in common--to operate, they must have effective processes in place. The challenge most organizations face is how to improve and integrate their processes, and link those integrated processes to the...

Eyes on the prize; A Guide to Forensic Accounting Investigation.(T. Golden, S. Skalak and M. Clayton)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Today's demanding marketplace expects corporate directors and executives to take responsibility for fraud detection; this expectation is buoyed by such legislation as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Canada's most recently conceived Multilateral...

Eyes on the prize; Peripheral Vision.(George S. Day and Paul J.H. Schoemaker)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Communications networks today offer up many threats and many opportunities. Newspaper articles, blogs and online forums can tell you much about competitors, and the marketplace at large, and how your business might be affected by them. However,...

Eyes on the prize; The Workforce Scorecard.
June 1, 2006... Firms are most successful when they focus on the critical elements that drive their business performance. In The Workforce Scorecard--Managing Human Capital to Execute Strategy, the authors enhance our understanding of the factors that affect...

IFAC releases 2006 handbook.(International Federation of Accountants)
June 1, 2006... The International Federation of Accountants' (IFAC's) 2006 Handbook of International Auditing, Assurance, and Ethics Pronouncements is now available in print and in several electronic formats. It includes all pronouncements issued by the...

Profiting the Crown: National Business Book Award winner.(Matthew J. Bellamy)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... This year's National Business Book Award winner is Matthew J. Bellamy for his book Profiting the Crown: Canada's Polymer Corporation, 1942-1990 published by McGill-Queen's University Press. The announcement was made in late April at an award...

Fortune 500 boards encourage three- to five-year CEO succession.(News and views)
June 1, 2006... Directors on boards of Fortune 500 companies with successful CEO succession records have reportedly increased the rigor of the succession process and agree on 10 steps essential to long-term corporate success, according to The Role of the Board...

Canada's pension crisis deepens.(News and views)
June 1, 2006... Sixty-one per cent of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) say the pension crisis in Canada is widespread and likely to persist beyond the next few years, a dramatic increase compared to just two years ago, according to survey findings recently...

Managing the labour shortage: where to start?
June 1, 2006... While most of Canada's C-suite is well aware of escalating labour shortage implications, many are still struggling with where to start managing the issues amidst a number of misconceptions and myths, according to a recent Deloitte study. ...

New software.(News and views)
June 1, 2006... Visit www.managementmag.com for more information on the following software and applications packages: * Oracle Secure Backup * SAP and Microsoft's Duet software

Forces reshaping capital markets: middlemen will feel the squeeze.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Insiders are forecasting a fully connected and transformed financial markets industry by 2015, as three rapidly emerging forces combine to create a rate of change unseen since the 1970s. And, in a notable new twist, it's the individual investor...

Storage portability.(HIGH TECH)
June 1, 2006... If you've been working with the same computer system for any length of time, finding enough backup storage inevitably becomes a challenge. Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition is an attempt to better manage that challenge in a portable format. It...

Impact of Basel II sinking in.(News and views)
June 1, 2006... Data management issues are creating unique and unexpected challenges for Canadian banks, as national and global financial institutions alike focus on meeting the requirements of Basel II, an international accord created to promote greater...

Show me your talent: evaluating candidates through role-playing.
June 1, 2006... Most people treat an interview as a reality game, in which the employer asks questions and the candidate gives answers. Seasoned candidates hide behind their interview game face and revise or interpret their past employment history to suit the...

Beyond process improvement: the pathway to process-based management: the quality movement, which gained much momentum in the mid-1980s, ushered in many positive advancements in process improvement. Now, organizations have to step up with more change--integrated improvement. Management accountants should be leading the way.(Company overview)
June 1, 2006... Every organization, whether it is large, medium or small, public or private, profit-driven or not-for-profit all have one thing in common--their operation requires processes. The ability of an enterprise to improve and integrate their processes...

Alignment: do your processes really line up? When a Toronto-based manufacturer wanted to implement a new ERP system, it turned out that to get true value from it, they'd need to retool their processes. Companies can gain a significant strategic advantage by reexamining their processes and taking integration deep into their organization. This is one example of how to do it right.
June 1, 2006... The implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system creates an opportunity to re-engineer an organization's key business processes. The concept of implementing ERP systems to create value-oriented supply chain processes isn't...

Risk and the Balanced Scorecard: organizations around the globe need to step up their risk management initiatives. The Balanced Scorecard can help.
June 1, 2006... An effective risk management program can no longer be seen as a 'nice-to-have' for an organization. There are simply too many threats today. Yet it has only been in the past couple of years that companies have started ramping up their...

Reaping a good harvest: CMA Kevin Blucke has taken one of Canada's largest organic vineyards and given it a big management overhaul. And after just two years as president, he's getting results. His secret? The right people in the right place--and the strategic insight to support them.(Summerhill Pyramid Winery)(Cover story)
June 1, 2006... The British Columbia wine industry has come into its own in the last few years. Wines from the Okanagan Valley, and elsewhere in the province, have been garnering awards internationally, and North American heavyweights like New York-based...

Taking the scorecard deeper: The newest book by Kaplan and Norton demonstrates how organizations can cascade the Balanced Scorecard through all of their operations--and beyond.
June 1, 2006... A review of Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies, by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton. Published by Harvard Business School Press, 2006. Since its introduction back in 1992, Robert Kaplan and David...

Worldwide inroads: Canadian companies generate business and promote their expertise, technology and goodwill in the world's trouble spots. Continued support for such initiatives by the federal government makes the opportunities greater.(government issues)
June 1, 2006... Tim Horton's may be Canada's most high-profile export to Afghanistan. But outside of the coffee and Timbits served at the Canadian military's Kandahar Airfield, the country is strictly off limits to most Canadian companies. Due to security...