CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from December 2004

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from December 2004

Fashioning a turnaround.(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT HARD TIMES, AT LEAST THE corporate prescription for dealing with them is straightforward: a few layoffs here, a little debt restructuring there; throw in some supply-chain optimization, maybe a bit of offshore...

On the defense.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... YOUR ARTICLE "LOSING BATTLES" (October), about the Department of Defense, is one of your best. I hope this national security, economic, and financial-management challenge receives such broad coverage in all the financial and management...

Rebutting PCAOB critics.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... THE RECENT LETTERS TO THE editor under the heading "Strong Words for the PCAOB" (October) both inappropriately criticize Public Company Accounting Oversight Board chairman William J. MeDonough and argue for more of what contributed to the...

Unsettling.(newswatch)
December 1, 2004... In the past few years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched hundreds of cases against executives in the financial-services industry, but few of them have resulted in courtroom battles. Instead, the accused usually agrees to pay a...

Getting dumped.(auditing firms leave accounts)
December 1, 2004... SOME COMPANIES ARE FEELING LIKE THEY'VE JUST BEEN through a difficult divorce. That's because Big Four auditors have dropped them--in some cases after years of service. [paragraph] In the first nine months of 2004, Big Four accounting firms...

Who's got it made?(Tax)
December 1, 2004... THE CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORS OF the American Job Creation Act of 2004 wanted to give a tax break to the struggling manufacturing sector in the United States. But by the time the bill was signed by the President on October 22, the definition of...

Credit ratings get poor ratings.(Debt)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Finance executives have always had a love-hate relationship with credit-rating agencies (CRAs). But according to a recent survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), it's more hate than love these days. The study, released...

Make some noise.(Securities and Exchange Commission to lift restrictions on company initial public offerings)
December 1, 2004... THE SO-CALLED QUIET PERIOD PRIOR to the public sale of securities could get a little louder. The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing to lift some restrictions on companies' pre-IPO communications. Under a 1933 law, during the...

FASB's last stand.(Financial Accounting Standards Board)
December 1, 2004... Risking sudden death in overtime for its most controversial issue, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has agreed to delay by six months the implementation of a rule that would require companies to expense stock options. Public firms...

Happy holidays or bah humbug?(Global Confidence Survey)
December 1, 2004... WHEN THIS QUARTER'S CFO GLOBal Confidence Survey was conducted, just before the November elections, respondents' optimism about the U.S. and global economies had dampened somewhat. Their jitters most likely reflected uncertainty about the...

Programmer, reprogrammed.(seminer for corporate officers on information technology skills)
December 1, 2004... THIS PAST SEPTEMBER AT A HOTEL IN ATLANTA, SOME 20 senior IT managers in industries ranging from agriculture to retail to high tech attended the first in a series of invitation-only "MBA for IT" seminars sponsored by Blazent Inc., a San Mateo,...

Asset disposal die hard (drive).(techwatch)
December 1, 2004... IN GENERAL, THE DEVELOPMENT OF faster computers just barely keeps pace with the need for faster computers. Back in 2000, for instance, a PC equipped with a Pentium III chip processing instructions at 500 megahertz per second could easily handle...

Is fair value flawed? some say FASB's reform proposals for M&A expense-reporting could stifle corporate merger planning.(mergers and acquisitions)(FInancial Accounting Standards Board)
December 1, 2004... THROUGH A SERIES OF TENTATIVE DECISIONS, THE FInancial Accounting Standards Board recently showed that it wants to require even more fair-value accounting in the merger-and-acquisition process. The proposed changes--which would extend elements...

Busting the brokers: Eliot Spitzer's latest investigation has companies taking a hard look at their insurance programs.(Spotlight: insurance)
December 1, 2004... New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has already changed the way insurance brokers and companies conduct business with each other. Chances are, his burgeoning investigation of the insurance industry will change the way you do business...

Following the money.(Spotlight: insurance)
December 1, 2004... Apart from individual instances of bid-rigging, it may never be possible to know just how much the insurance shenanigans alleged by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer might have cost corporate policyholders. In part, that's because...

A Penney saved: a deft turnaround buys time, but what's in store long-term for the venerable retailer?(J.C. Penney Company Inc.)(Cover Story)
December 1, 2004... THE JOURNEY FROM ADOLEScence to middle age takes about 15 steps for shoppers at the Stonebriar Mall's J.C. Penney--the distance between the pile of Beavis and Butthead T-shirts and a luxurious, overplumped bed decked out in matching shades of...

Capital choices: a new study shows which companies are getting the most bang for their capital--investment buck.(The 2004 Capital Spending Scorecard)
December 1, 2004... It's no secret that the economy's anemic recovery from the recent recession reflects weak spending on the part of corporations. While the Federal Reserve Board has kept interest rates low to keep borrowing costs down, the confidence of...

In the fast lane: companies are trading in their spreadsheets for swifter, more powerful applications.(Tech report: budgeting & planning)
December 1, 2004... In two short decades, Hendrick Motorsports has zoomed to the top of one of the world's most competitive businesses: the NASCAR racing circuit. Hendrick drivers like JeffGordon, Terry Labonte, and Jimmie Johnson have racked up victory after...

The cost of loyalty: even now, employees still invest their 401(k)s in company shares. And they still sue if the stock goes South.(Special report: 401 (k)s)
December 1, 2004... FOR MERCK & CO., ONE TRIGGER WAS THE withdrawal of Vioxx from the market. For Marsh & McLennan Cos., it was news that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had launched an investigation into alleged bid-rigging. And for Delta Air Lines...

Buyer beware: more companies than ever have experience with outsourcing. So why are deals still failing?(Outsourcing)
December 1, 2004... BY MANY MEASURES, OUTSOURCING is a great success story. Service providers may have taken a severe beating from politicians and the press this election season, but they seem to have won the battle that counts most--persuading executives that...

CFO internet address directory.(chief financial officer)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Ace Group www.acelimited.com American Dental Association www.ada.org/DR PLAN Ariba www.ariba.com/service Bank of America www.bofa.com/businesscapita1125 Canon www.imagerunner.com Charles...

Laying down the law: there's a new seat at the management table these days, much to the relief of many CFOs. Largely in response to Sarbanes-Oxley, companies have begun to formalize the compliance role, creating a function dedicated to the watchdog tasks that have previously fallen to finance.(chief financial officer)
December 1, 2004... In fact, according to Maria Schafer, senior program director at Meta Group Inc., some 35 percent of Global 2,000 companies surveyed have someone other than the CFO heading up compliance today. And they're not just mutual-fund companies, which...

Joseph Bronson has resigned as CFO at semiconductor-equipment maker Applied Materials.(Chief financial officers, Nancy Handel appointed)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Joseph Bronson has resigned as CFO at semiconductor-equipment maker Applied Materials. He will be replaced by Nancy Handel, a 19-year company veteran....

Cendant.(CFOs On The Move)(Ronald Nelson appointed)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Cendant finance chief Ronald Nelson has added the title of president....

US Airways Group.(CFOs On The Move)(Ronald Stanley appointed)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... US Airways Group has named Ronald Stanley to the top finance post....

Caterpillar.(F. Lynn McPheeters leaves, David Burritt appointed)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Caterpillar CFO F. Lynn McPheeters is stepping down. He will be replaced by corporate controller David Burritt....

Maxtor Corp.(Michael Bless resigns)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Michael Bless has resigned as finance chief at data-storage company Maxtor Corp. after less than two months on the job....

Volkswagen of America.(Frank Witter promoted)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Volkswagen of America has promoted CFO Frank Witter to replace Gerd Klauss, who is retiring as CEO. For more on CFO careers, visit www.cfo.com.

What will Judy do?(Judy Lewent)
December 1, 2004... LONG CONSIDERED A strong candidate to be the next CEO of Merck & Co., CFO Judy Lewent now finds herself in a tenuous position. Like Merck's stock price, Lewent's stock with the company's investors has plummeted since September 30, when the...

CFO to the rescue.(Happy Worker Inc. brings MoneyMan for chief financial officer)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Faster than a speeding invoice and able to jump through loopholes in a single bound, CFOs have saved the day on countless occasions. So it's about time they had their own action figure. Just in time for the gift-giving season comes...

Fast lane. Slow lane. Whatever happened to investing the speed limit?
December 1, 2004... Traditional "cord' fund management is under siege, and the prospects for the middling mainstream look far from appealing. Quantitative specialists offering cheap and effective ways to track market indices are increasingly encroaching on active...

CFO.com: tools and resources for financial executives.(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... * TODAY IN FINANCE Our roundup of accounting practices, government initiatives and investigations, capital-raisings, credit ratings, investor relations, personnel shuffles, and more. New on our home page every business day. www.cfo.com ...

Bribes and the balance sheet.(Featured in November)(corrupt practices)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... The risks for corporations of not having a handle on possible foreign corrupt practices, either in their overseas units or companies they might acquire, are growing fast--and need to be managed, reports CFO.com deputy editor David M. Katz....

The other governance problem.(editor's note)
December 22, 2004... Even after the voting concluded, the rhetoric about the merits of change versus the status quo continued to pour forth, and the final tally revealed not only a deep division of opinion on specific issues but also a philosophical split on the...

Make IT connect.(Browser: news, trends, and research that drive IT strategy)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... While CFOs continue to get more involved in IT management, they are also customers of the IT department, and like customers everywhere they have certain expectations and preferences. When Forrester Research polled more than 200 finance...

How their garden grows.(Bright Ideas)(Imaginatik's idea management application Idea Central)
December 22, 2004... Much of IT is designed to get data to employees, but very little attempts to do the reverse: get information from them, particularly of the fresh-thinking and problem-solving sort that can enhance revenue. True, an entire discipline known as...

False sense of security?(Business Continuity)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... The perceived threats may have changed but the overall attitude remains; the same. A Harris Poll commissioned by SunGard Availability Services found, once again, that senior executives seem to be more confident about their companies' ability to...

Locking horns.(Corporate Security)(The Conference Board finds rare communication within corporations)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... "Cops, Geeks, and Bean Counters" is not a new reality TV show but, according to The Conference Board, an apt description of the security problem currently faced by many major corporations. Having spoken to high-level security personnel at a...

In Web we trust.(E-Business)(Collaboration between Intel Corp. and MIT's Sloan Center)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... With Internet research firm eMarketer predicting a 27 percent rise in fourth-quarter online sales this year versus last, there's little doubt that consumers will be spending a lot of time visiting a great many Websites. While the increased...

IP ins and outs.(Innovation)(intellectual property)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... Companies have high hopes of licensing their intellectual property (IP) to others, but they often fail to see the potential in being licensees themselves, So argue McKinsey consult ants Meagan Dietz and Jeff Elton, who found that while 43...

Automation acclimation.(Infrastructure)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2004... The technological bedrock of most organizations will look substantially different in one to three years, according to a Summit Strategies survey of more than 300 IT managers involved in infrastructure decisions. The big change: a move toward...

Travelin' on(line): have Web-based services figured out the business traveler?(bookmark)
December 22, 2004... At the peak of the dot-com boom, network-equipment vendor Extreme Networks became frustrated with the high booking fees and inflexibility of its travel-management company and began to explore online alternatives. Initial experiences with a new...

One way, or another? CFO's agree on the value of IT but disagree on how to measure and manage it.(Cover Story)
December 22, 2004... "It's one thing for a CFO to demand a solid approach to ROI, and another for a CIO to deliver it. We have to solve this problem, but there's been little progress." "At some point, it all comes back to ROI--in theory. But ROI is just one...

The seven-year niche: as open-source software proliferates, will companies swap rather than shop?
December 22, 2004... Anyone paying even the slightest attention to the fortunes of Linux, the "free" computer-operating system beloved by techies and intriguing to CFOs, has probably noticed that a new buzz phrase has entered the conversation. "Open source" has...

Taking charges: telecom-expense management is now serious business--and may save you a bundle.
December 22, 2004... Amid the bevy of exotic information technologies that companies hope to leverage or at least understand it's easy to lose sight of a relatively low-tech piece of equipment: the telephone. Until, that is, the bill arrives. Make that bills....

Getting a grip on performance: as performance-management software continues its climb, widespread acceptance may be at hand.(Buyer's Guide)
December 22, 2004... Several recent developments in the world of business-performance management (BPM) software may inject new life into a concept that dates back to at least 2000. New competitors are helping to drive down prices, the need to cope with new...

Bank of America partners with OutlookSoft for better forecasting.(Special Advertisement)(Advertisement)
December 22, 2004... WHEN BANK OF AMERICA'S CONSUMER REAL ESTATE (CRE) Finance department was challenged with forecasting their mortgage products pipeline at the division level, they knew it was time to automate the group's manual, labor-intensive forecasting...

Six degrees of cooperation: if it's who you know that counts, social-networking software will make sure your colleagues know them, too.(emerging IT)
December 22, 2004... Andra Marx knows the value of a good connection. Marx is a senior account executive at IntraLinks, a New York company that provides online meeting rooms in which employees of financial institutions, law firms, private-equity firms, and...

Toward an imperfect union: as the costly Oracle-PeopleSoft deal nears resolution, others may follow.(software)
December 22, 2004... It's part soap opera, part high-tech celebrity death match--Silicon Valley's answer to reality TV. As the finale approaches, few are willing to predict the ending, but many agree that however the Oracle-PeopleSoft story resolves, the IT...

With a little help from its friends: by surrounding itself with IT giants, EDS hopes to win a new audience.(take-away)(Electronic Data Systems Corp)
December 22, 2004... While the adage holds that any port in a storm will do, when technology companies encounter rough seas, the port of choice is the consortium. The CEOs of the member companies are trotted out en masse, either in person or in press releases, and...