CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from January 2007

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from January 2007

Donation nation.(from the editor)
January 1, 2007... THE CHARITY BUSINESS IS BOOMING. Thanks to the Internet, which permits easy donation by credit card, and to personal videos, which brought such horrors as Katrina and the 2004 Asian tsunami right into our living rooms, public donations have...

Another take on corporate social responsibility.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... There are numerous articles about the social responsibility of U.S. corporations ("The Importance of Social Responsibility," Letters, December 2006) and none of them addresses the real problems. The term "corporation" does not appear in the...

Correction.(Correction notice)
January 1, 2007... In "Quality, Not Quantity" (Topline, December 2006), the Securities and Exchange Commission's budget figure was incorrectly given. The article should have said that in the past two fiscal years, the SEC's budget has remained flat at $888...

In whose best interest?(AUDITING)
January 1, 2007... LATER THIS YEAR, the six largest accounting firms plan to hold open forums on their reform proposals for the industry. Those proposals, as outlined in a report called "Global Capital Markets and the Global Economy," offer half a dozen changes...

Links still missing.(SCORECARDS)(tracking the performance of financial companies)
January 1, 2007... SCORECARD SYSTEMS THAT HELP track performance have been around for years. So why do companies still use them incorrectly? A new survey sponsored by a group of lo organizations and associations confirms what might seem intuitive: scorecards...

Comment on this.(REGULATION)
January 1, 2007... THERE WAS A LOT OF SQUAWKING this fall after European CFOs received comment letters from the Securities and Exchange Commission demanding additional information--sometimes lots of it--about how their International Financial Reporting Standards...

Are your workers engaged?(PRODUCTIVITY)
January 1, 2007... LABOR STATISTICS INDICATE THAT U.S. WORKERS are more productive than ever. What they aren't is inspired. According to Sibson Consulting's 2006 Rewards of Work Study, only 52 percent of employees are fully "engaged," defined as knowing what...

Backdating nibbles.(M&A)(Hewlett-Packard Co. acquires Mercury Interactive Corp.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... THE DRAWN-OUT SAGA of Hewlett-Packard's purchase of Mercury Interactive earlier this year seemed certain to dampen merger-and-acquisition activity, as potential buyers pulled back from targets possibly contaminated by backdating. But the deals...

Face time.(INVESTOR RELATIONS)
January 1, 2007... INVESTORS ARE INCREASINGLY DEMANDING corporate information from the horse's mouth--so much so that 40 percent of CFOs expect to spend more time on investor relations this year. "Personal contact is a key differentiator," says Bill Bruno,...

Ready for risk aversion?(PENSION INVESTING)
January 1, 2007... THANKS TO THE PENSION PROTECTION ACT (PPA), retirees may soon have to worry about returns, not underfunding. The new law, coupled with FAS 87's restrictions on smoothing pension earnings over time, encourages fund managers to be more risk...

Taking a busman's holiday.(WINTER ESCAPES)
January 1, 2007... Jeff Jones CFO, Vail Resorts Why skiing is great: "What other sport can attract such a wide demographic?" "Skiing allows me to clear my mind of the day-to-day stress of the CFO job." Helen E. "Betsy" Wallace CFO, American Skiing...

All the news that's fit to sue.(SECURITIES LITIGATION)(Pegasus Wireless Corp.)
January 1, 2007... WHEN YOU DIAL THE NEW ORLEANS OFFICE of Kahn Gauthier Swick LLC, an automated greeting kicks on: "Thank you for calling Kahn Gauthier Swick, the law firm featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other nationally...

Inflection point.(HEDGE FUNDS)
January 1, 2007... THERE IS NO DENYING that hedge funds are the black holes of the investment galaxy. With some 9,000 funds pulling in $1.2 trillion in investments while offering almost no transparency, they have raised the ire of CFOs and the eyebrows of...

Verbatim.(top line)
January 1, 2007... "With this new guidance, I will personally approve all future requests for attorney-client communications." --U.S. DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL PAUL McNULTY, ANNOONCING CHANGES TO THE CONTROVERSIAL THOMPSON MEMO, WHICH OFFERED GUIDELINES TO...

Business outlook survey: tentative optimism rings in the new year.(by the numbers)
January 1, 2007... CFOs ARE FEELING BETTER ABOUT IHE PROSPECTS for the U.S. economy in 2007. According to the Duke University/CFO Business Outlook Survey, 30 percent of finance chiefs say they are more optimistic about the direction of the U.S. economy. That's up...

Blinded by the light: how the "halo effect" distorts our view of company performance.(insight)
January 1, 2007... WHAT LEADS TO HIGH BUSINESS performance? Consultants and journalists have advanced many answers to this question, both in print and from the lectern. But most of those answers are little more than educated guesses. In fact, most of them are...

View from Asia: Asia's growing self-confidence turns a conference into a town meeting.(top line)(Editorial)
January 1, 2007... YOU CAN EXPECT MORE PUSH-back from Asia these days. Buoyed by rising consumer markets, China and India are feeling increasingly independent of the U.S. economy. China is conducting foreign affairs with a new confidence, and discussions on how...

Follow the e-mail trail: new federal rules governing electronic-document storage may catch some businesses unaware.(in tech)
January 1, 2007... ASK JEFFREY J. GREENBAUM, A litigation partner at Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross PC, to describe the new electronic-discovery statutes recently added to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and he doesn't hesitate. "It's a wake-up call for...

Even better than the real thing.(TELEPRESENCE)
January 1, 2007... OVER THE PAST TWO DECADES, videoconferencing has earned a bad reputation in the business world. Despite claims of new-and-improved technology from vendors, the act of conferencing via video hook-up has left a lot to be desired. Indeed,...

The year of living strategically: while private-equity bids got lots of attention, some public-company mergers aimed to remake their industries in 2006.(deals)(Company overview)
January 1, 2007... ONLY HALF IN JEST, Wall Street debt analyst Carol Levenson suggests that the 2006 surge in merger-and-acquisition activity reflected companies combining "to make themselves less vulnerable to a private-equity bid." Indeed, private equity (PE)...

Bank of New York's Bruce Van Saun.(ON THE RECORD)(The Bank of New York Company Inc.)(Interview)
January 1, 2007... FROM A DEAL STANDPOINT, last year could not have been any busier for Bruce Van Saun. For starters, there was the Bank of New York Co's acquisition of Urdang Capital Management, a real estate investment manager. Then, the 49-year-old vice...

Misgivings: recent studies raise an uncharitable question: is nonprofit accounting off track?
January 1, 2007... RELIEF INTERNATIONAL, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that provides disaster-recovery services around the world, reported that it had collected more than $11 million in grants and contributions for 2005. Yet the organization claims in its audited...

The last mile: why is it still so hard to engage line managers in budgeting?
January 1, 2007... IT'S A WARM NOVEMBER DAY on the plains of west Texas, and Dale Hosack, the 47-year-old CFO of bottle-maker Western Container Corp., has just finished an amiable conversation with two of the company's factory managers. Hosack is in a good...

Give & take: as state economic-development teams offer tax breaks to attract companies, revenue departments seek to get that money back.
January 1, 2007... YOU KNOW THE PITCH: Move your business to our state and we'll give you economic-development funds and juicy tax breaks. Maybe we'll throw in a free buckeye tree or some Texas rib-eyes. Yet just down the hall from where the state's...

Insult to injury: already bruised by backdating scandals, companies may face an unexpected tax hit as well.(in practice)
January 1, 2007... TWO YEARS AGO, Mercury Interactive Corp. was in rapid ascent. Having boosted revenue by more than 30 percent and signed an agreement with SAP that would create hundreds of new sales opportunities, the business-technology-optimization software...

Putting a cap on capex: even companies that spend big are working harder to make sure they spend smarter.(capital spending)
January 1, 2007... IF CONSUMERS SPENT LIKE COMpanies, credit-card debt would vanish. When it comes to capital spending, recent data suggests that CFOs on the whole are scaling back their expectations (see By the Numbers, page 20). And while those employed in the...

The 2006 capital spending scorecard.(Statistical table)
January 1, 2007... The 2006 Capital Spending Scorecard (A) - TOP PERFORMERS * (B) - BOTTOM PERFORMERS * CAPEX CAPEX in $ millions CAGR...

Tuition magicians: when financial-aid prospects are dim, some parents find smart ways to boost their children's college funds.(your money)
January 1, 2007... FOR MANY PARENTS, anxiety about paying for their children's college educations sets in at about the same time the "+" sign on the pregnancy test comes into view. The cost of college has outpaced the rate of inflation for years, and many experts...

It's not who you know, it's how many: what's in your wallet? For fans of "extreme networking," lots and lots of business cards.(your move)
January 1, 2007... WHEN DAVID Noymer started the hunt for a new job last fall, he had no trouble finding personal contacts who might lend a helping hand. With a database of more than 2,100 CFOs, accountants, CPAs, lawyers, and other professionals at his disposal,...

Chase Corp.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Kenneth Dumas was named treasurer and CFO of Chase Corp., a manufacturer of tape and protective coatings. He succeeds Everett Chadwick, who retired last year....

Lin TV.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Lin TV has a new CFO in its lineup; the TV stations operator named Bart Catalone to the chief finance spot. Catalone, formerly COO and CFO of Ziff Davis Media, replaces Vincent Sadusky, who was named CEO of the company....

Merrill Lynch.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Merrill Lynch's CFO, Jeffrey Edwards, abruptly resigned from the Nasdaq board in December....

Eastern Mountain Sports.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Robert Mayerson, a former CFO at Staples, traded office life for a bit of fresh air as the new CFO of outdoor-equipment outfitter Eastern Mountain Sports....

Mineral Technologies.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Charles McLane has been pressed into service as the CFO at Alcoa, replacing Joseph Muscari, who was appointed chairman and CEO of Mineral Technologies....

Susan Decker.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Yahoo's CFO, Susan Decker, has joined the board of Intel....

Cleveland-Cliffs.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Laurie Brlas will prove her mettle as the new CFO and treasurer of Cleveland-Cliffs, a producer of iron-ore pellets. She joins the company from Steris Corp. and succeeds Donald Gallagher....

American Reprographics.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
January 1, 2007... Jonathan Mather, formerly CFO at Netgear, will reproduce his role as the new CFO at American Reprographics, a print-on-demand services provider. Mark Legg, the former CFO, left to start his own financial consulting firm.

Beyond the Ivory Tower.(KPMG Consulting Inc.'s internship program)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... WITH SEVEN YEARS in public accounting, a Ph.D., and teaching experience at Washington University and Villanova University, associate accounting professor Shelley Rhoades-Catanach would seem somewhat overqualified for an internship. But , she...

A CFO's search for revenue.(Susan Decker named head of Advertiser & Publisher Group at Yahoo)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Susan Decker is trading in general ledgers for page dicks. As part of a massive reorganization, the now-interim CFO of Yahoo has been named head of its Advertiser & Publisher Group in hopes that she can pump up revenue and create more value for...