CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from April 2008

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from April 2008

The kids are alright.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... The problem with today's newest generation of accounting/finance professionals isn't with their upbringing, it's with management's perception of them ("What's Wrong with the Kids?" February). Young professionals today embody the spirit of...

Health care and the marketplace.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... I believe the answer to the question you pose in "Rethinking Health Care" (February)--Can more employee choice actually lower costs?--is a resounding yes. I worked in a drugstore as a boy in 1963. I remember in 1965 when Medicare took over some...

A fool's errand?(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... I have no idea what the Financial Accounting Standards Board is thinking ("A New Vision for Accounting," February). It should give more direction on what should be in the lines, not totally change the statements. What does FASB want as its...

Outsourcing anger.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... Having been laid off from my technology job in 2001 and having struggled for the past few years to find a replacement job that pays a living wage and makes use of my degrees in biology, physics, and finance, I have become somewhat doubtful that...

Successful recipes.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... Thanks for the article "Missing Pieces" (March), including all the ingredients of successful and less-successful recipes: capital-allocation principles, individual-compensation principles, regulations, structure and process of risk management,...

Ensuring honest credit.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2008... "Carbon Trading" (January) rightly points out that no national system has previously existed for tracking renewable energy certificates (RECs), and that a national approach to tracking and registering of certificates would increase the...

For shareholders, it's subprime time.(PROXY SEASON)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ALREADY REELING FROM THE SUBPRIME-MORTGAGE MELTDOWN, big banks, mortgage lenders, credit-rating agencies, and home builders are now the prime targets of shareholder activism as the 2008 proxy season begins. "The...

What's hot this spring?(topline)
April 1, 2008... What's Hot This Spring? Among the most common issues to be put to a vote this proxy season are exec comp and social responsibility initiatives. Proposals Proposals Tracked...

Keeping it to themselves.(CD & A)
April 1, 2008... WHEN THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION sent 350 comment letters to companies last year regarding the requirements for compensation disclosure and analysis, it made it fairly clear that it expects to see better disclosure---including...

As fair value Simmers.(ACCOUNTING)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA'S bid to acquire a portion of celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse's empire may offer a first taste of life under FAS 141(R)--although both parties would no doubt like to avoid that. The new...

Crunching the words.(AUDITING)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... WHEN AUDITORS SEEK EVIDENCE OF FRAUD, they take a careful look at a company's financial statements. Maybe they should examine other statements, such as those uttered by company executives. That's the theory behind new fraud-detection...

Readin', writin', and ROI.(BENEFITS)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TUITION-REIMBURSEMENT PLANS are often justified by their value in enhancing employee retention and recruitment, but few companies have put that hypothesis to the test. A recent survey of 180 companies conducted by...

An ill-suited move.(INVESTOR RELATIONS)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHILE MANY SMALL COMPANIES DREAM OF LISTING on the New York Stock Exchange, off-price retailer Syms Corp. recently decided that living that dream was just too expensive. A small chain with only 33 stores, low trading...

Ticker shock: a timeline for Syms's delist/relist saga.(topline)(Chronology)(Calendar)
April 1, 2008... 12/21/07 Syms announces plan to delist from NYSE (stock trading at approx. $17) and trade on Pink Sheets, citing cost of Sarbox as rationale. 1/14/08 Begins trading on Pink Sheets; stock at approx. $11 1/28/08 Letter to...

The Shaq attack on fair value.(Best of the Web: A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM CFO.COM)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How would an accountant practicing the fair-value approach assess, say, the performance of basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal? The scoreboard may give him credit for just 15 points actually scored on a given...

Why is CFO turnover so high?(Best of the Web: A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM CFO.COM)
April 1, 2008... More work, more risk, fewer rewards: What's not to like? CFO tenure at companies large and small continues to decline, with finance chiefs at large companies now holding the job for, on average, less than three years. On the plus side, many of...

Crunch numbers.(Best of the Web: A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM CFO.COM)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... To date, most analyses of the current economic spiral seem to be based on numbers of dubious origin and quality. Enter the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum, which has put plenty of rigor behind its assessment of the current mortgage crisis. Using...

Auction-rate securities: hold that gavel.(Best of the Web: A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM CFO.COM)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Much has been written about the surprising role of ARSs in the current subprime mess, but alarms were being sounded as early as 2005. Then, as we reported, a handful of companies had begun to reclassify their ARS...

What you don't know about importing.(Best of the Web: A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM CFO.COM)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... Here's a form of compliance you may not be paying much attention to: customs laws. They change frequently, are being more rigorously enforced, and can trigger hefty fines when violated. JPMorgan Global Trade Services says that companies trip up...

Still no pay parity.(Best of the Web: A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM CFO.COM)(Survey)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... What a difference a decade doesn't make: when 259 members of the Financial Women's Association were surveyed regarding compensation levels, fully 96 percent said they believe women are paid less for comparable work. The same number expressed...

Common auditing screwups.(Best of the Web: A SNAPSHOT OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM CFO.COM)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... One way to make audits go faster and cost tess is to listen to your auditors. When 172 partners at Big Four firms in Europe were asked for their candid assessments of typical cLient shortcomings, they didn't hold back. Their comments felt into...

Business outlook survey: CFOs are retrenching as the United States enters what could be a lengthy recession.(by the numbers)(Survey)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AFTER MONTHS of steady decline, the economic outlook can now only be described as bleak. Speaking at CFO'S annual CFO Rising conference last month, veteran finance chief Jerry York said, "It's going to be a very bad...

View from China: China Inc. has shown sophistication in outbound acquisition.(topline)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ALUMINUM CORP. OF China (Chinalco), Chinas biggest aluminum maker and a diversified metallic and mining company, won instant fame when it orchestrated a successful dawn raid on February 1, acquiring 12 percent of...

Firewall of silence: data security breaches are rampant, and costly. So why don't C-level executives talk about them?(in tech)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHEN SOCIETE Generale revealed in January that it had lost more than $7 billion due to fraudulent trading activity, most of the headlines focused on "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel, framing him either as a criminal or...

Picking up the pieces: in the wake of a broken deal, how do companies move on?(deals)
April 1, 2008... WHEN UNITED Rentals Inc. agreed to be acquired by Cerberus Capital Management last summer, the deal seemed secure and members of the management team were happily calculating their share of the $6.2 billion windfall. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]...

One standard, many laws: accounting convergence could be derailed by countries making too many modifications.(insight)
April 1, 2008... WHEN HE WANTED TO RE print U.S. accounting standards in a textbook he was writing, Lawrence Cunningham, a professor of accounting and law at George Washington University, was told he would have to pay. That's because the Financial Accounting...

The GAO's: David Walker.(ON THE RECORD)(Government Accountability Office)(Interview)
April 1, 2008... DAVID M. WALKER IS A MAN ON A MISSION. Or, more accurately, at our: the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour. As Comptroller General of the United States, Walker has been a vocal critic of the state of America's balance sheet. Now, as part of a road show bent...

Goodbye GAAP: it's time to start preparing for the arrival of international accounting standards.
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ONE of the densest thickets of generally accepted accounting principles is revenue recognition. By one tally, more than 160 pieces of authoritative literature relate to how and when companies record revenue. Now,...

Trials & errors: as two recent securities lawsuits illustrate, there are no guarantees when you go to court.
April 1, 2008... When it comes to class-action securities lawsuits, the operative question is usually when, not whether, to settle. Last fall, however, two companies and their executives ignored that dictum and chose a different path: they called their...

Sucking it up: with prices gushing past $100 per barrel, companies are trying to consumes less oil.
April 1, 2008... Here's a consequence of escalating oil prices that many businesses have yet to contemplate, or don't want to; The supply chain management strategies spawned during the last 20 years--quick transport, lean inventories, and a growing reliance on...

Retired but not forgotten: how much D&O coverage do former officers and directors need?(spotlight)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RANK BORELLI IS CONcerned about his directors' and officers' liability coverage--and that's saying something, since Borelli is a former CFO of insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos. Why the worry? "I'm on three...

The loan danger: borrowing from 401(k) accounts can be a bad deal all around.(buyer's guide)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE CREDIT CRUNCH has come home to roost in many unlikely places, from the student-loan market to the municipal-bond arena. Here's another improbable victim: your human-resources department. The subprime crisis and...

Back to school: a stint teaching college can ease the transition from corporate life.(your move)
April 1, 2008... IN HIS FIRST TWO WEEKS teaching an introduction to international business class at the University of San Diego, recently retired McDonald's Corp. CFO Matthew Paull had little trouble explaining how global businesses adapt to local culture, or...

Nutripure Beverages.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... Bottled-water company Nutripure Beverages has named Sherry M. Tapp to the new position of CFO. She was previously chief budget analyst for Hovnanian Enterprises.

Sony/ATV Music.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... Joseph Puzio has joined Sony/ATV Music Publishing as the CFO for worldwide operations. The former SVP of worldwide finance at IMG, he replaces Steven Storch, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities.

Motorola.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... Paul J. Liska takes the reins as CFO of Motorola, replacing Tom Meredith, who had been acting CFO for the past year. Liska previously served as an industrial partner for various private-equity firms, including MidOcean Partners, CVC Capital...

Warner Music.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... Warner Music Group has selected Brian Roberts as the CFO of subsidiary Warner/Chappell Music. He was SVP, finance and administration, North and South America, at BMG Music Publishing. Roberts succeeds Nick Thomas, who is returning home to the...

Natural Alternatives International.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... Kenneth Wolf is the new CFO at nutritional-supplement company Natural Alternatives International, succeeding Randell L. Weaver, who will continue as president. Wolf was previously finance chief for Phoenix Footwear Group.

WellGen.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... Biotech firm WellGen has selected Robert M. Hellauer as its new CFO. He takes over from acting CFO Bob Bertoldi, who is finance chief for Amphion Innovations U.S. Hellauer joins from Hypercube, where he was EVP of finance and administration and...

Claire's Stores.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... J. Per Brodin was named the CFO at specialty retailer Claire's Stores, stepping in for Ira Kaplan, who left to spend more time with his family. Brodin was SVP, chief accounting officer, and CFO at health-care provider Centene.

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... Ruth's Chris Steakhouse has appointed Robert M. Vincent to be its new CFO. He succeeds Thomas J. Pennison Jr., who is moving to Louisiana pursue other interests. Vincent was EVP-finance, CFO, and treasurer of Uno Restaurant Holdings.

KCM Holdings.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
April 1, 2008... John F. Steen has been chosen to fill the new position of CFO at business-development conglomerate KCM Holdings. Acting in a consultant capacity, he has been the company's financial adviser since its inception.

Form 1040-SOS.(grapevine)
April 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TO SAY THAT 2007 WAS TAXING for Jackson Hewitt Inc. and H&R Block is an understatement. Both tax-preparation companies have new CFOs in place after scandals tarnished their results. In January, Daniel P. O'Brien,...

But he did not violate sarbox.(grapevine)(Brief article)
April 1, 2008... While a CFO fraud conviction doesn't stop the presses these days, former Accent Magazine finance chief Gary Dodds has added a new twist. After a 15-day trial in February, Dodds was convicted of falsifying evidence, causing false punic...