CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from January 2005

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from January 2005

Pleading ignorance is no longer an excuse.(Material Weakness)
January 1, 2005... During the 2005 annual-report season, many companies may be required to report material weaknesses in their internal controls--disclosures that may hurt those companies' credit ratings and share prices. Although companies have long been...

Friends on board.(from the editor)
January 1, 2005... EVERYONE EXPECTED THAT SARBANES-OXLEY WOULD result in the seating of many more CFOs on the boards of public companies. It hasn't. Ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission decided to liberalize the definition of "financial literacy" for...

Keeping work in perspective.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... YOUR FEATURES DEVOTED TO Work/Life (November 2004) were disheartening for aspiring CFOs, to say the least. I'm not changing my chosen ambition, but I will remain intent on taking my full vacation--and then some. I don't care if I don't get paid...

A solution to the DoD's problems.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... A NUMBER OF MY COLLEAGUES thought I misquoted "Losing Battles" (October 2004) when I said that the Department of Defense spent an eye-popping $19 billion on business systems in fiscal 2004. Imagine what the cost would have been if the DoD were...

Get on with it.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... AFTER READING THE TWO LETTERS critical of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board chairman William McDonough ("Strong Words for the PCAOB," October 2004), I found myself quite annoyed. Instead of whining about the difficulties of detecting...

Holding government accountable.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... THE OUTRAGE ENGENDERED BY SUCH folks as those at Enron and the umbrage taken by Congress and the President have given us Sarbanes-Oxley, a law that severely punishes financial-statement "inaccuracies." So here's a proposal: How about a law to...

Calculating excess cash.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW REL Consultancy Group arrived at the data provided in your August 2004 cover story, "Too Much Cash." Please explain. Sue Keyes Via E-mail REL's response: In the analysis, we divided companies into...

Corrections.(letters to the editor)(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2005... The scorecard data for the telecommunications industry reported in the CFO article "Capital Choices" (December 2004) contained a number of errors. The article also failed to credit Thomson Financial for all of the raw data. The correct data and...

Grounded to a halt?(newswatch)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... More executives may consider flying coach this year or even taking the train, thanks to a provision of the new tax bill, the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. That provision will change the way companies account for employees' personal...

In the same language.(International Accounting)
January 1, 2005... THERE'S NO TURNING BACK NOW. THIS MONTH, SOME 7,000 listed European companies are scheduled to start using a single set of international financial-reporting standards--whether they are ready or not. The new IFRS rules must be adopted by...

Give it back!(Executive Compensation)
January 1, 2005... STATE REGULATORS ARE BECOMING significantly more aggressive in their attempts to rein in 'obscene executive-severance packages--so-called golden parachutes. But are their actions justifiable or simply political? California insurance...

Go directly to cash.(Accounting)
January 1, 2005... Of all the recent financial-reporting reforms, Securities and Exchange Commission chief accountant Donald Nicolaisen thinks the most important has yet to be proposed: requiring companies to use the direct method to report their cash flow. ...

Where's the coverage?(Equity Analysts)
January 1, 2005... IF YOU THOUGHT EQUITY ANALYSTS weren't paying enough attention to your company during the gold-rush days of the late 1990s, we've got bad news. Although the number of equity analysts in the United States has climbed 7.5 percent since 2003--up...

Private dreams.(Stock Exchanges)(Entrex Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The idea has been around for decades: a public marketplace for private-company stock. Now Washington, D.C.-based Entrex Inc. claims to have created such a market through a partnership sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission. ...

Tiptoe through the new regs.(Tax Directors)
January 1, 2005... IF CORPORATE TAX DIRECTORS WERE to adopt a mantra, it might very well be: Tread lightly. In fact, according to a new study by Ernst & Young LLP, 44 percent of tax directors say their companies have become more risk averse in the past two...

Scrutinizing assumptions.(Pensions)(Securities and Exchange Commission has been examining pension plans at six companies.)
January 1, 2005... The Securities and Exchange Commission has put companies and their finance executives on notice yet again, this time raising a red flag about pension accounting. Since October, the SEC has been examining pension plans at six companies with...

Barry Minkow.(10 Questions)(Interview)
January 1, 2005... BARRY MINKOW SAYS HE PLANS TO be remembered for more than the ZZZZ Best Co. fraud. The 38-year-old Minkow served more than seven years in prison for the infamous 1980s seam. But he hopes that his current efforts as head of the Fraud Discovery...

Casting a wider net: forget hot spots. Mesh technology brings fast and cheap wireless Internet access to entire zip codes.(techwatch)
January 1, 2005... WHEN BILL MARION TALKS ABOUT WIRELESS CONnectivity, he's not talking about an office suite in a small industrial park. He's not talking about the Starbucks near the green. He's talking an entire city. [paragraph] Marion, information-services...

Ernestine, meet Julie.(Voice Self-service)(Amtrak Inc.)
January 1, 2005... TRY TO BOOK A TRAIN TICKET ON AMtrak's home page and you might just swear off train travel. For sure, you'll swear. A recent attempt to book a journey from New York to Boston, for example, required toggling between windows, looking up obscure...

The answer is private: what kind of buyers and sellers made the greatest strides in deal-making for 2004?(new deals)
January 1, 2005... KMART-SEARS MAY BE THE BIG-NAME DEAL OF THE year, and JPMorgan Chase-Bank One may boast the biggest ticket price. But the big news in acquisitions was definitely private equity. That's because last year's strong M&A recovery--which by December...

Looking to land: increasingly, finance executives are taking the pilot's seat in site selection.(Spotlight: real estate)
January 1, 2005... THE BOEING CO. HAS A LOT RIDING ON THE 7E7 DREAM-Liner, the superefficient midsize passenger jet it plans to start producing in 2008. The company has already pumped billions of dollars into development of the aircraft, which it hopes will...

Introducing: the era of the activist CFO: leading CEOs are asking their CFOs to become activists who can ensure that strategic and operational commitments are met. The best CFOs have already got their agendas set.(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... The C-suite is now in flux. Investors have no tolerance for a company that cannot articulate a winning strategy and deliver consistently on growth and earnings commitments. The plan must be compelling, the business model aligned, and execution...

Across the board: spurred by regulatory change, directors and CFOs forge a new relationship.(Chief financial officers)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... Not long after Vada Hill joined the board of Denny's Corp., CFO Andrew Green took him on a road trip. When Hill stepped off the morning train in Philadelphia, the two men hit four local Denny's restaurants, sampling breakfast and lunch fare...

Serving up dividends: a new study of corporate cash flow shows that most of the nation's largest companies can increase dividend payments without jeopardizing their ability to grow.
January 1, 2005... THE CFO FREE CASH FLOW SCORECARD Recent trends in corporate cash flow suggest that U.S. companies are continuing to clean up their financial acts. In fact, they are increasingly in a position to initiate or increase dividend payments, even...

IT moves from cost center to business contributor.(New From CFO Research Services)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Senior finance executives report a growing appreciation for measuring and managing the value of IT--not just its cost. In a recent study among CFO magazine readers, executives report moving beyond measuring cost to embracing valuation analysis...

Start with demand: demand-driven manufacturing is radically altering how some businesses serve customers.(Special Report)
January 1, 2005... A HOLIDAY WEEKEND WAS fast approaching, and in Lima, Ohio, managers at the Procter & Gamble factory were shutting things down early. The move seemed to make sense. Analysis of purchase orders and historical sales trends indicated that the...

The bribery gap: while foreign rivals may make payoffs routinely, U.S. firms face new pressure to root out abuses.(international)
January 1, 2005... REGULATORS HAVE BEEN INTENSIFYING their scrutiny of corporate bribery infractions lately. In the last half of 2004, for example: * Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation...

Staying alive.(CFO Careers)
January 1, 2005... TO A FINANCE CHIEF, THE ARRIVAL OF A NEW CEO USUALLY means one thing: time to polish the r4sum4. "It's almost automatic" that the CFO leaves when a new chief executive enters, says Charles B. Eldridge, head of the CFO practice at executive...

Blame it on Boca.(grapevine)(Scott Sullivan of WorldCom's house is for sale)
January 1, 2005... IF YOU'VE BEEN THINKing about moving to Florida, have we got an opportunity for you in Boca Raton: a 19,000-square-foot house in a gated community, with 10 bedrooms, 12 baths, a library, a screening room, a boathouse, a six-car garage, a...

CPA of the month.(grapevine)(certified public accountants, Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In search of a new wall calendar for 2005? If you're tired of the usual selection featuring classic cars, swimsuit models, or Impressionist paintings, consider 12 months of accountants. In an effort to promote awareness of the accounting...

Tracey Travis takes over as CFO at Polo Ralph Lauren.(CFOs On The Move)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Tracey Travis takes over as CFO at Polo Ralph Lauren this month after a stint at Limited Brands....

Retailer Sharper Image.(CFOs On The Move)(Jeffrey Forgan resigned)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Retailer Sharper Image is looking for a finance chief after the resignation of Jeffrey Forgan....

Frank Sklarsky, formerly of Daimler-Chrysler AG.(CFOs On The Move)(appointed at Conagra Foods)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Frank Sklarsky, formerly of Daimler-Chrysler AG, follows James O'Donnell as CFO at Conagra Foods....

After more than 20 years at biotech firm Genentech, Louis Lavigne will turn over the top finance job.(CFOs On The Move)(David Ebersman appointed)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... After more than 20 years at biotech firm Genentech, Louis Lavigne will turn over the top finance job to David Ebersman in March....

Verizon Wireless.(CFOs On The Move)(John Townsend appointed )(Andy Halford appointed at Vodafone Group)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... John Townsend has been named finance chief at Verizon Wireless. He succeeds Andy Halford, who will become group financial director at Vodafone Group. For more on CFO careers, visit www.cfo.com.