Financial Director articles from October 2006

Financial Director archives from October 2006

Would you credit it.(financial services)
October 19, 2006... Byline: Peter bartram would you credit it There isn't an FD in the country who wouldn't like to accelerate cashflow by reducing debtor days -- in other words, get customers to pay up faster. In Europe's top 1,000 quoted companies,...

Apathy rules.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Robert Bruce apathy rules The issue of auditor choice has become an intractable one. There is no reason why having only four big audit firms worldwide is a problem. In the UK, there is similar dominance in the supermarket...

time to decide.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Peter Williams time to decide Despite the tremendous amount of attention focused on the worldwide adoption of international accounting standards, the past few years have witnessed very little progress on the actual business of...

Surge in litigation puts UK companies on the defensive.
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Rae Surge in litigation puts UK companies on the defensive More than three-quarters of UK businesses claim to have faced court action over the past 12 months, with 84% saying they expect the number of legal disputes to...

Real cost of low-wage economies.
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Rae Real costs of low-wage economies While low-wage economies may seem attractive at first glance, a new report by The Conference Board suggests the advantages are not as stark as they first seem. Research from the...

Investors left dissatisfied with hedge funds.
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Rae Investors left dissatisfied with hedge funds Less than a quarter of pension schemes that invest in funds of hedge funds are satisfied with the returns on their investments, according to a global survey by Mercer...

Dispelling the myth of ageism.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Alex Blyth dispelling the myths of ageism The new laws prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of age, which came into force on 1 October, have prompted an outcry from the media. In fact, we have probably not seen a reaction...

Tide turns for cargo carriers.(Freight Transport Association)
October 26, 2006... Byline: Peter Bartram tide turns for cargo carriers A ship set sail from a British port, ran into a swell soon after it passed Land's End and 28 containers of cargo toppled over in one of the holds. Result: more than [pounds...

If Four become Three.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Sarah Perrin if four become three The danger of a Big Four firm collapsing as a result of a damages claim is very real, according to a report by London Economics for the European Commission. The impact of one, let alone two,...

Bearing the load.(financial managers )(Brief article)
October 26, 2006... Byline: Peter Bartram Bearing the load It is no wonder FDs feel an attack of narcolepsy creeping on when bills of lading are mentioned. It's one of those terms that conjures up visions of Victorian ship owners sitting on high...

Them and US.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Dennis Turner Them and us A booming housing market, high levels of consumer borrowing, a pick-up in consumer price inflation, a balance of payments that is heavily in the red and a large fiscal deficit all point to an economy...

Out of the backroom.(procurement)
October 26, 2006... Byline: Andrew Sawers out of the backroom It seems that, in many organisations, salesmen are the glory boys, while procurement managers are the backroom purchasing clerks. And yet, as the procurement industry likes to point out, a...

US growth ends hope of early Fed cuts.(Brief article)
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Kern US growth ends hopes of early Fed cuts The markets have been dominated during the summer by concerns that weakness in the US housing market would prompt sharp falls in consumer spending. Some analysts signalled fears...

Ringing change.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Michelle Perry ringing change "I don't think there was another public corporation whose accounting standards were as low as British Telecom's," Doug Perryman, its then finance director, said when we interviewed him in...

Pipe dream.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Robert Jaques pipe Dream It is inconceivable that any company could seriously contemplate operating without essential utilities such as electricity or water. Yet, despite the obvious need for such core services,...

I predict aReit.
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Rae I predict aReit It's a brave finance director who, with a tax liability of [pounds sterling]642.5m, says he has absolutely no intention of paying it. But this is exactly what Aidan Smith, FD of FTSE-100...

Pay should be linked to success.(shareholders)
October 26, 2006... Byline: Andrew Sawers pay should be linked to success While most quoted companies operate one or more share incentive schemes for senior managers or the wider workforce, institutional shareholders are keen to ensure that their...

Aim targets nominated advisers.(London Stock Exchange PLC sets rules for advisers )
October 26, 2006... Byline: Andrew Sawers Aim targets nominated advisers The London Stock Exchange is looking to increase confidence in the junior Alternative Investment Market (Aim) by introducing a new rulebook for corporate advisers and new disclosure...

Recuing a lost cause.
October 26, 2006... Byline: n/a When Doug Perryman (pictured) became BT's finance director in 1981 there were only 60 accountants in the entire company -- and BT was a company that employed around 250,000 people. So, one of his first actions after joining...

Brace turns the corner.(financial accounting )
October 26, 2006... Byline: n/a "It was run like government departments, on a cash basis," said Robert Brace (pictured), who was FD when we interviewed him in 1999. "Finance was focused on financial accounting. It was only in the early 1980s that BT recruited...

Front line view.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Brief article)
October 26, 2006... Byline: n/a Following Ofcom's investigation into the telecoms sector, BT reorganised itself into four distinct divisions: BT Retail, which sells to the consumer market; BT Wholesale, which rents the underlying network to other network...

Case Study: Merchant.(Merchants Consultant Group's Adrian Garton)
October 26, 2006... Byline: Alex Blyth Case study: Merchants Consulting Merchants Consulting runs contact centres in the UK, Europe and South Africa. Its clients include Unilever and Edexcel and has 200 staff in the UK. Adrian Garton, HR consultant, says...

Future of Aim.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Andrew Sawers Future of Aim As Nasdaq lifted its stake in London Stock Exchange plc to 25%, concerns have been raised relating to the outlook for Aim, with the Daily Telegraph recently suggesting that the junior market's future...

Calculating the cost of SaaS.(finance departments )(Brief article)
October 26, 2006... Byline: Robert Jaques To help prospective adoptors of SaaS, Forrester Research has developed a methodology dubbed TEI (total economic impact) to quantify the respective strengths and weaknesses of in-house versus hosted enterprise...

Making the rules on the waves.
October 26, 2006... Byline: Andrew Sawers making the rules on the waves Just a couple of months ago our cover story asked the question, are companies better managed than they used to be? The basic idea was that, while managers may, in many respects, be...

Spend IT.(information technology management )
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Rae spend it Three years ago almost to the day, Nicholas Carr rocked the technology world when he wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review which claimed that IT doesn't matter. His argument? That technology...

HSBC box.(HSBC Bank PLC threatens to leave United Kingdom)(Brief article)
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Rae HSBC, the UK's largest bank which relocated to London from Hong Kong, has threatened to leave Britain because of the tax burden and associated complexity. Speaking at a Chartered Institute of Taxation conference in...

Property company or an airline.
October 26, 2006... Byline: David Rae Every finance director of a listed company in the UK can grumble about the implementation of international financial reporting standards, but in Smith's case he seems to have a greater justification than most. Because the...