CMA Management articles from September 2002

CMA Management archives from September 2002

Plus ca change. (From the Editor).
September 1, 2002... Gordon Cummings, CMA, FCMA and past-president of CMA Canada (1988-89) recently sent me a very interesting article that examines the foundation of today's market scandals. It appears in this issue on page 20. This got me thinking about my...

Driving leadership and innovation: Performance Driven CRM. (Media Bites).(customer relationship management)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Customer relationship management (CRM) doesn't just happen. To be successful, an organization must have an appropriate CRM vision, strategy, action plan and implementation. Even with these pieces in place, success may still be fleeting. An...

201 Great Ideas. (Media Bites).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Small- to medium-sized businesses make up a substantial part of the Canadian business community and drive our economy. How to achieve and maintain success as a small business owner is no mean feat, however. 201 Great Ideas For Your Small...

The Road to Global Best. (Media Bites).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... In May, the Conference Board of Canada challenged corporations and entrepreneurs to help shape a 10-year national innovation vision, grounded in Canada's technological and market strengths. The challenge came in the form of a new report, The...

Global investment in Canada continues slump. (News and Views).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flow should continue to weaken this year, holding back Canada's inbound and outbound investment, according to a semi-annual report on FDI released by Export Development Canada (EDC). "Global...

Business at the speed of Lifebook. (High Tech).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2002... Fujitsu Canada recently released its new LifeBook C2110 model, featuring Intel's new Mobile Pentium 4 processor-M running at 1.6GHz and the Intel 845MP chipset. The new LifeBook C Series is Fujitsu's all-in-one advanced multimedia notebook,...

Corporate sustainability a hot commodity. (News and Views).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... According to a new KPMG survey, 45% of the Fortune global top 250 companies (GFT250) are now issuing environmental, social or sustainability reports in addition to their financial reports. This is a global tend, and an increasing number of the...

Appreciation from Afghanistan. (News and Views).
September 1, 2002... I was just reading through an edition of the Management magazine here in Kandahar, Afghanistan and I thought I would drop a line to let you know that CMAs are popping up everywhere. I am currently a candidate in the SLP in Edmonton, Alberta. I...

New software. (News and Views).
September 1, 2002... Visit www.managementmag.com for more information on the following software packages: * SGP International's new data reconciliation solution, DataCheck * SMS' QuickSell and Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft's integrated retail...

European business leaders clamour for international standards. (News and Views).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... Business leaders across the European Union (EU) are demanding the right to use international accounting standards (IAS) as soon as possible. They hope this will pave the way towards greater comparability and transparency in corporate reporting,...

How to manage problem employees: an appreciation of workplace issues can help diffuse a volatile situation. (Career Intelligence).
September 1, 2002... When good employees become problem employees, they are often responding to problems at work or at home. They misinterpret situations at work or feel apprehensive, frightened, misjudged, cornered, inadequate or unprepared. The role of a good...

Strength in numbers: ABC integrated with activity-based planning and budgeting can create major benefits for a whole organization. (Management Trends).(activity-based costing)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... Activity-based costing (ABC) has been around for a long time. Originally conceived in the 1980s as a better way to allocate indirect costs in manufacturing companies, it has evolved in a variety of ways. Today, plain vanilla ABC still has a lot...

Restructuring for a new start: debtor in possession financing -- the Canadian spin on an American concept. (Business Strategies).
September 1, 2002... Debtor in possession (DIP) financing is financing obtained by an insolvent debtor while restructuring its business. The term originated in the U.S. practice in Chapter 11 proceedings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. During a Chapter 11...

Stopping the precipitous decline of professional standards: the recent spate of scandals involving Enron, WorldCom and other high-profile companies is the legacy of 20 years of decaying business practices.
September 1, 2002... In the last several months much has been written about the business practices that led to the collapse of Enron, WorldCom and other high-profile companies. The article in the June 2002 issue of Management by R.W. Dye, CMA, FCMA, President and...

Function vs. Form: taking control of the corporate governance quandary.
September 1, 2002... Corporate governance has received a substantial amount of press coverage in the past year, but with surprisingly little success at changing the status quo. The proposals promoting effective corporate governance have, for the most part, gone...

Crossing the cultural divides.
September 1, 2002... Obstacles to the integration of multicultural teams are beginning to surface in Canadian companies. It's best to deal with these potential conflicts before they develop and, impossible, use cultural synergies as a business advantage....

Transforming SMEs: how networked virtual businesses are changing the way companies work together.
September 1, 2002... In an environment marked by the market's increasing control of production, a fundamental change is taking place. Organizations are being forced to adopt new business models, replacing the traditional vertical approach of silo operations with...

Flip the switch: OPG turns on to new ways of managing employees and resources.(Ontario Power Generation)
September 1, 2002... As of May 1, 2002, Ontario's electricity industry was deregulated to allow competition among suppliers and producers of electricity in the province. The lumbering monolith that was Ontario Hydra was divided into four separate companies: Hydro...

Mining Mars: CMA Norm Lavalle helps directs bright ideas at Northern Ontario's high tech business incubator. (Profile).
September 1, 2002... As the final frontier, space holds a lot of possibilities for Canadians -- and Canadian firms. Canadian companies have made a dramatic impact on space exploration, in large and small ways: astronaut training on Devin Island in the Arctic,...

Ringing in the business: knowledge management helps call centres provide high quality service, giving customers the right information in a timely fashion. (Knowledge Management).
September 1, 2002... Call centres are a growing business, with many large organizations looking to them as the primary way of interacting with their customers. They are the front line in the increasingly heated battle for customer satisfaction and market share....

Seconds away: the top five myths of Web application acceleration. (Information Technology).
September 1, 2002... Increased competitiveness is driving corporate strategies that make companies' Web-based applications' performance a key to success. Faster performance provides a competitive advantage in the eyes of customers and helps companies unlock the...

How to get there from here: new options may change the relationship between corporations and travel agents. (Business Travel).(in-house expertise, external support)
September 1, 2002... Although 95% of financial executives oversee corporate travel expenditures, few are involved in creating a strategy to maximize the value of their companies' travel spending. This is one of the many conclusions from a March 2002 survey...

California dreaming: New Alberta-California Venture Channel opens doors for western high tech. (Government Issues).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Alberta-based high tech companies were given a significant boost earlier this year by the creation of a new province-wide venture linking Alberta and California. The Alberta-California Venture Channel gives high tech firms access to specialized...

A Euro-cash world: making a dollar in the new zone is full of possibilities, but still saddled with traditional deficiencies. (Global View).(promoting the Euro to Canadian business)
September 1, 2002... On April 22, in Toronto, the Delegation of the European Commission in Canada launched a series of conferences and seminars entitled Euro-Canada 2002. Designed to increase the visibility of the EU's new currency across the county, Euro-Canada...