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

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

A league of their own. (Spotlight).
February 1, 2002... This month, major-league pitchers and catchers report for spring training. In December, baseball commissioner Bud Selig reported to the House Judiciary Committee that most American and National League teams lost money last year. But as CFO.com...

Plus Ca Change. (From the Editor).(business accounting scandals, past, present and future)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... WHAT'S LOST IN THE UPROAR OVER ENRON IS the fact that we have seen all the elements of this fiasco before. The Cendant scandal in 1998 featured accounting irregularities, management deception, and nagging questions about why the auditors, the...

Pro (& Con) Forma. (Newswatch).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... In December, the Securities and Exchange Commission sent a shot across the bow of Corporate America when it issued a formal warning regarding the release of misleading pro farina numbers. "Expect enforcement action to follow in short order,"...

Pull that Trigger. (Symbiotic Suicide).(credit rating triggers reevaluated)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... STUNG BY THEIR INDIRECT RESPONSIBILITY for such spectacular meltdowns as Enron Corp. and Pacific Gas & Electric Co., credit-rating firms are taking a closer look at how corporate credit agreements employ rating triggers. Most vocal has been...

One less tax obstacle. (Small Business Accounting).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... IN AN EFFORT TO SIMPLIFY tax accounting for many smaller businesses, the Internal Revenue Service has extended the use of cash-based accounting to certain companies with annual gross revenue of up to $10 million, replacing the previous $1...

Of Beans and Carrots. (Tax Shelters).(Companies that spill the beans about a tax shelter can avoid the 20 percent penalty)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... As part of its ongoing effort to crack down on tax shelters, the Internal Revenue Service has agreed to waive penalties for companies that voluntarily disclose questionable items in their returns before April 23. Companies that spill the...

Tax relief runs out of gas. (Legislative Update).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... PINING FOR TAX RELIEF from Congress? Don't get your hopes up. Granted, with Congress back in session optimists still have their fingers crossed, even though such juicy tax provisions as the repeal of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) were...

An online standard at last? (Raising Capital).(i-Deal L.L.C. software product information)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Raising debt and equity online will become easier if software developed by quasi-newcomer i-Deal LLC is successful. The software provides a broker-neutral platform that can link the disparate backroom systems of corporate issuers and investment...

Finding the perfect profit: Profit-optimization tools now look at the entire value chain. (Techwatch).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... JUST 18 MONTHS AGO, Ford Motor Co. was pleased with its first foray into profit-optimization software. By working demand-related data into its pricing (which options buyers wanted most, for example), it designed incentive programs that yielded...

And how will you be paving for that?: To the alternatives of cash, common shares, or a cash-common blend, you may add preferred stock. (New Deals).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... FOR MOST OF THE PAST DECADE, the bull market made common stock the favorite currency for corporate acquisitions. It kept buyers from overleveraging themselves, and allowed them to avoid huge charges by accounting for a deal as a pooling of...

Pray as you go: Without a Government safety net, companies are left with little coverage against terrorist attacks. (Spotlight Insurance).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... The Metropolitan Transportation Authority oversees New York City's subway system, buses, railways, tunnels, and bridges, from the Triboro to the expansive Verrazano Narrows connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn. Had a terrorist destroyed the...

Beyond Enron: The fate of Andrew Fastow and company casts a harsh light on off-balance-sheet financing. (Cover Story).
February 1, 2002... ASSET MONETIZATION, OFF-BALANCE-SHEET FINANCING, FINANCIAL ENGINEERING, CALL IT WHAT YOU WILL. When all is said and done, accounting wizardry of this ilk amounts to hiding information from investors. But as Abraham Lincoln knew, you can't...

Bend & Stretch: Why the best companies remain focused on cost cutting, whatever the business cycle. (The Eighth Annual Cost Management Survey).(largest companies ranked by cost management index)
February 1, 2002... TO SAY THAT CORPORATE America has its eyes on costs these days is a bit of an understatement. Hardly a day goes by without some announcement of a layoff, stalled capital investment, or acquisition put on hold. In January alone, Ford Motor Co....

Core Values: ERP vendors may stack up differently, but their basic financial applications rarely do. (CFO Buyer's Guide: ERP Software).(snapshots of major Enterprise Resource Planning software companies)
February 1, 2002... WHEN JACKSON LABORATORY completes the implementation of its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in April, you can be sure that CFO Lee Wilbur will be a happy man. The genetics research institution, in Bar Harbor, Maine, began the...

Should it stay or should it go?: Companies are finding a host of reasons to offload components of their E-Business operations. (Special Report Outsourcing).
February 1, 2002... With traffic to its consumer Web site doubling nearly every year since 1996 and online transactions surpassing $1 million annually, Amtrak knew its E-business operation was strained to capacity. Its first thought: outsource everything. So in...

Follow the Signposts: Scenario planning just starts with the plan. (Risk Management).
February 1, 2002... IT'S JUNE 1999. You ARE THE CFO OF A SUCCESSFUL TELEcom-products supplier. Your vice president of strategy has just completed an exhaustive scenario-planning exercise. Of the several scenarios he presents, one says that in less than three years...

Opting for Stock Options: Multinationals are still choosing to offer options. They just need to be tailored to local tastes. (Compensation).
February 1, 2002... THE ALLURE OF EMPLOYEE STOCK OPTIONS MAY have waned along with the world's stock markets, but it hasn't disappeared. In fact, the decline in equity prices may present employees with the best opportunity in years to reap long-term gains from new...

Board games turn serious. (Corporate Directorships).(chief financial officers as outside corporate directors)
February 1, 2002... WHEN WEB PLAN CEO John Laskey first became an outside director, joining wireless-software maker AdaptiveInfo Inc.'s board in 2000, he considered such directorships to be a critical career enhancement. The position exercised his strategic...

In the SEClub.(Securities and Exchange Commission's nominees)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... The Big Five and the Securities and Exchange Commission haven't exactly been the best of friends in recent months, with Enron and the other accounting debacles forcing the SEC to consider tougher standards for auditors. But two Republican Big...

Grapevine.(includes multiple assignments and promotions)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... FLOWER POWER When asked to join Laura Ashley Holdings Plc as its new CEO, David Cook rose to the occasion. Cook replaces Jim Bellingham, who is retiring from the London-based retailer famous for its floral-patterned fabrics. Cook...

All Chiefs, No Indians? (Executive Trends).(chief revenue officers)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... As if there weren't enough C-level jobs, now there's the chief revenue officer. CROs merge the functions of VP of sales/marketing with those of business development executive to oversee generation and acceleration of all revenue, says LaVon...

Corrections.(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2002... A table showing results of a CEO survey on changed merger-accounting rules in "Coming into Focus" (January) contained two errors. Asked if business-development people at their companies understood the new rules, 31 percent said yes and 69...

American Corporate Counsel Assn.
February 1, 2002... 18% OF U.S. COMPANIES plan to hire in-house attorneys in 2002, down from 47% in 2000, says the American Corporate Counsel Assn.

Table Talk.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... TABLE TALK: Starting in Q2, the SEC will require companies to detail equity compensation plans in new 10-K and 10-KSB tables.

Sinking Salaries.(base pay budgets adjusted downward)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... SINKING SALARIES: 20% of U.S. employers are adjusting their 2002 base pay budgets downward, according to William M. Mercer.