CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from April 2002

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from April 2002

Survey Says.(accounting firms offering nonaudit services)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SURVEY SAYS... Should accounting firms be barred from offering nonaudit services to audit clients? Yes 59% No 30% Only on large contracts 11% THIS MONTH'S QUESTION... Have you...

The truth may set you free.(restoring confidence in financial reporting)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
April 1, 2002... Enron has moved off the front pages, and television news shows have moved on from the spectacle of executive greed run amok and watchdogs failing to bark. But as the scandal subsides, the policy debates are just heating up. More than who...

Cutting or Growing?(cost cutting)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... YOUR ARTICLE "Bend and Stretch" (February) indicated that the best companies remain focused on cost cutting. How much can, or should, a company cut costs? To cut costs by 100 percent would mean no longer being in business. To cut by 50 percent...

Hidden costs.(of technology)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... Many companies have realized significant savings by outsourcing E-mail, fax, and voice broadcasting ("Should It Stay or Should It Go?" February). There are those who purchase technology to provide those services in-house, thinking they will...

Beware of complexity.(financial-reporting disasters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... Your February cover story, "Beyond Enron," wonderfully highlights the role of "complexity" in financial-reporting disasters. When executives create overly complex financial structures (special-purpose entities, and so on), investors should...

Beyond Enron.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... "BEYOND ENRON" raises a number of challenging issues, but does not address what I consider to be fundamental and insidious to the current state of business and the professions: a serious deterioration in personal and professional ethics. ...

Turnarounds that ring true.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... I found "Meet the New Boss" (January) to ring true with my 10 years' experience as a turnaround CEO. First, it's true that successful turnarounds require heavy lifting and teamwork from groups drawn from existing employees who have in-depth...

Safety net at risk.(health care)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... ANDREW OSTERLAND's article on hospital costs ("Operating Room," January) was right on the mark. I trust that his insights into the differences between the financial health of the for-profit hospital companies and the not-for-profit hospitals...

Focus on Accounting.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2002... "Coming into Focus" (Accounting, January) was an excellent article. Like most M&A houses, we are waiting for the impact of the new rules to "come into focus." However, we see the impact already in our negotiations with business-development...

Heading off the feds: 401(k) plan backlash. (Newswatch).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Just as companies get ready to overhaul their 401(k) plans in the wake of the 2001 tax-cut legislation, further changes may soon be in order. At least eight different legislative proposals are ready for debate--all aimed at giving employees...

Bad sign. (Newswatch).(disappearing ink used in fraud)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Fraud comes in all sizes. In late February, a former Bear, Stearns & Co. secretary pleaded guilty to using disappearing ink to make more than $800,000 fade from her boss's bank accounts, according to an Associated Press report. Anamarie...

Get real: Counterfeiting. (Newswatch).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... What true fan wouldn't pay a king's ransom to own the football that decided the New England Patriots's 2002 Super Bowl victory? More than 130 million television viewers watched that ball sail through the uprights for the historic field goal,...

A beautiful find. (Asset Valuation).('Quantitative Business Valuation: A Mathematical Approach for Today's Professionals' by Jay B. Abrams)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... With bankruptcies and restructurings soaring, billions of dollars' worth of distressed corporate assets are up for sale. But establishing their net present value (NPV) is tricky, as precise valuations hinge on complex calculations--which...

Can't give it away: Audit committee recruiting. (Newswatch).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The accounting Snafus of Enron and other corporations have turned up the pressure on corporate audit committees. As a result, one of the biggest challenges corporate officers will face this year is convincing qualified executives to accept...

The Enron difference. (Corporate Culture).(survey on Enron failure)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Remember Gordon Gekko's "Greed is good" speech in the movie Wall Street? It would have fallen mostly on deaf ears at a recent executive conference sponsored by CFO magazine. More than half of the finance leaders in attendance attributed Enron's...

Crank it down: A return to discipline. (Newswatch).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... With inhospitable capital markets and weak demand hurting finances, corporate pruning efforts to free up cash are in full swing. Witness energy giant Mirant Corps pledge to slash its already slashed capital spending budget for this year and...

Suing auditors after bum deals. (Southern Discomfort).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... If a recent court case in Georgia serves as precedent elsewhere, it could lower the bar on seeking damages based on what company insiders are expected to know and, as a result, pull more third-party auditors into lawsuits. In January, the...

All hail the ROI: Technology sales now hinge less on features and functions than on finance. (Techwatch).(return on investment)
April 1, 2002... When Jeff Stewart, CFO at Clarkston, an IT consulting firm in Durham, N.C., went shopping for a big-ticket software package last year, he had no intention of being swayed by technological gimcrackery. His focus was on payback. "Times are...

Contract, expand. (Software).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Most CFOs know only too well how arduous it can be to negotiate contracts. But far fewer may realize that the pain doesn't end once the ink has dried on the dotted line. Common features of contracts, such as contingent discounts, rebates, and...

Power to the People: By tailoring sale terms, a New England yogurt maker protects its corporate culture. (New Deals).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... When CEO Gary Hirshberg began seeking a buyer for Stonyfield Farm several years ago, the welfare of its 150 employees weighed heavily on him. After all, he had helped establish the 19-year-old Londonderry, New Hampshire, yogurt producer on an...

Less for more: Coping with the bear market in Directors' and Officers' Liability Insurance. (Spotlight: Insurance).
April 1, 2002... You know the one about the guy who went to a local diner and then complained, "The food was terrible, and there was so little OF it"? The same could be said of directors' and officers' liability insurance. "It's a whole different animal right...

What must be done?: The experts weigh in on how to prevent future Enrons. (Cover Story: A CFO Roundable).
April 1, 2002... any observers complain that the financial reforms proposed so far by Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other government bodies in the wake of Enron Corps collapse are a case of too little, too late. That's clearly so...

Diamonds in the rough: Minor League Baseball is afraid of becoming a victim of its own success.
April 1, 2002... Matt White, CFO of the Pawtucket Red Sox, began his career in baseball as college student, flipping burgers all summer at McCoy Stadium. "I just loved the place," says White, who returned to work in the ticket office after graduation. What's...

Show me the savings: After a slow start, banks are taking another look at electronic presentment and payment. (Special Report: Banking).
April 1, 2002... Of all the ways that e-commerce was supposed to change how consumers and businesses manage their affairs, electronic billing and payment was considered among the most bankable. After all, who'd miss the paper cuts, the check writing, the...

Best-Laid plans: As 401(k) plans come under scrutiny, buyers need to choose more wisely than ever before. (CFO Buyer's Guide: 401(k) Providers Part 1).
April 1, 2002... In case you missed it, September 4 was "National 401(k) Day," sponsored by the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America to celebrate the anniversary of the 1978 legislation that ushered in the do-it-yourself approach to retirement riches. The...

Can we talk?: Web services are getting plenty of buzz, but if they do provide a simple way for applications to talk to each other, the hype may be justified. (Web Services).
April 1, 2002... Hollly burgess is happy with her web-based software; just don't ask her how it works. The attorney and assistant vice president of advanced sales at CGU Life Insurance Co. of America, in Quincy, Massachusetts, says that in the year she's been...

In a supportive mood: Nasdaq has given new hope to companies threatened with delisting. (Capital Markets).
April 1, 2002... Aposh Washington, D.C., Hotel Conference room, two businessmen, and a congenial lawyer were hardly what Tickets.com CFO Eric Bauer had been expecting for his hearing--or interrogation, as he'd conceived of it--before the Nasdaq Hearing Panel...

Stripes.(prison term for white collar crimes)
April 1, 2002... Paul Polishan finally got his numbers. The former Leslie Fay Cos. CFO was sentenced in January to a nine-year prison term with three subsequent years of probation by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Polishan was...

Straight-Talking guy. (Grapevine).
April 1, 2002... Finally, a CEO who tells it like it is. When CFO Chuck Chokel left Carmel, Ind.-based financial services firm Conseco Inc. in March to "pursue other interests," CEO Gary Wendt wished him well. When the stock tanked after the announcement, Wendt...

It's Miller time. (Grapevine).(executives)
April 1, 2002... In a Kraft-y move, New York-based Philip Morris Cos. has announced its plans to elect CFO Louis Camilleri as president and CEO, effective after the company's annual stockholders' meeting this month. Camilleri, who has served as Philip Morris's...

In the market. (Grapevine).(chief financial officer resigns form Nortel Networks Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... We wonder if Terry Hungle phoned in his resignation from Ontario-based Nortel Networks Corp. Named CFO of the telecommunications-equipment provider in October 2001, he resigned in February amid allegations that he broke Nortel's rules on stock...

Solected out. (Executive Shuffle).(Solectron Corp.'s chief financial officer resigns)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... In 1998, Solectron Corp.'s Susan Wang said the secret of being a female Fortune 1,000 CFO was "to surround yourself with good support, including a good baby-sitter and a good assistant." Wang no longer requires either. She retired from...