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

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

Where workers' compensation goes wrong.(RISK MANAGEMENT)
July 1, 2005... Companies that self-insure their workers' compensation exposure may take on new, unexpected risks when they outsource the management of those plans, writes deputy editor David Katz. Among the possible perils: padded bills, murky Disclosures,...

Let the sunshine in.(financial planning )(Brief Article)(Editorial)
July 1, 2005... WHEN CFO LAST EXAMINED THE BUDGETING-AND-planning cycle, the frustration in companies was palpable. Hampered by politics, the process took up to six months to complete, and often amounted to an exercise in number crunching. Not surprisingly, it...

Remembrance of doughnuts past.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I was excited when I first heard that my favorite doughnut place was going public. Having been brought up on glazed and "kreme"-filled Krispy Kremes, I knew the company couldn't miss... and it looked OK for a while ("Kremed!" June). T.W....

One picture, two conclusions.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... YOUR MAGAZINE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED to feature Kenneth Lay on its cover ("What Does Your CEO Really Know?" May). After he stole $165 million from Enron shareholders, the only place I want to see Lay is behind bars in a D.O.C. orange jumpsuit....

Correction.(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2005... The "Limits of Mercy" (April 2005) incorrectly stated that the SEC brought fraud charges against former Electro Scientific Industries general counsel John E. Isselmann Jr. (whose name was also misspelled in the article). The SEC brought (and...

Lose the yardstick.(financial practice)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Greg Hackett, a business guru who brought bench-marking and best practices to the corporate lexicon, has a new message for finance: forget about metrics. Hackett says that most of the gains from measuring have been made, and that now firms...

A friend at the SEC?(Washington)
July 1, 2005... JUNE WAS A KIND MONTH FOR THE BUSINESS LOBBY. NOT ONLY did Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William Donaldson throw in the towel, but President Bush quickly nominated Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), widely viewed as sym pathetic to...

Uncle Sam wants accountants.(Recruiting )
July 1, 2005... WHILE MOST MBAs AND ACCOUNTING graduate students will move on to jobs on Wall Street, the Big Four accounting firms, or corporate finance departments, a growing number of them are donning dark suits and sunglasses and joining the ranks of...

Autos rattle the junkyard.(BOND MARKET)
July 1, 2005... The downgrade of Ford and General Motors debt to junk status has created plenty of turbulence in the bond markets. The high-yield sector in particular was choppy all through May and into June, as managers of bond funds that are restricted from...

Playing both sides.(Pension plan performance )
July 1, 2005... THERE IS ONE MORE OFFENDER TO blame for poor pension-plan performance: biased investment advisers. A Securities and Exchange Commission staff report released in May brought to light a host of suspicious practices by pension consultants. The...

You must be this tall to ride.(initial public offerings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... While a healthy number of companies of all sizes have conducted initial public offerings so far this year--61 as of June 10--larger companies are leading the way. The average size of an IPO is $220 million, up 11 percent from last year. "We are...

Violent reactions.(managing workplace violence while outsourcing)
July 1, 2005... FOR ALL THE THOUGHT THAT GOES into the costs and benefits of outsourcing, companies rarely consider what may be the biggest risk: the danger of employee retaliation. Ignoring it may be a mistake, however. A new study suggests that offshoring...

On the road again.(TRAVEL)
July 1, 2005... More business travelers will be on the move this year, as financial executives are predicting an increase in corporate travel spending for 2005. Already, the travel volume in general has returned to pre-9/11 levels. According to a survey...

Dog days for the economy?(Business Outlook Survey)
July 1, 2005... IT MAY BE THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER, but finance executives expect the U.S. economy to begin cooling off. They predict that hiring and capital spending will slow during the next year, due partly to rising energy and raw-material prices. In fact,...

At home with RFID: radio frequency tags could prove to be a boon for tracking corporate assets--including people.(techwatch)
July 1, 2005... DESPITE REPORTS TO THE CONTRARY, THINGS DO occasionally work out for the best. Consider the case of radio frequency identification (RFID), or, more specifically, the June 2003 edict from Wal-Mart regarding RFID. In that pronouncement, the...

Other invoices, other rooms.(Transfer Pricing)
July 1, 2005... MENTION INTERCOMPANY TRANSACtions to finance managers, and most get a peculiar look on their faces--a look most readily compared to the soulless expression seen on prospective root-canal patients just before they disappear down the long hallway...

Soft in the middle: while blockbusters abound, the next tier of deals shrinks a bit. That could be a good thing.(new deals)
July 1, 2005... THE HEADLINES LEAVE LITTLE DOUBT THAT MULTIBILlion-dollar U.S. mergers and acquisitions are back, led in the first months of 2005 by the sale of Unocal to ChevronTexaco, May Department Stores to Federated Department Stores, MCI to Verizon, and...

A GAAP of their own: private companies seeking a wholesale exemption from FASB's accounting rules are likely to be disappointed.(SPOTLIGHT accounting)
July 1, 2005... ON TO BE A PRIVATE COMPANY, WITH no need to file Securities and Exchange Commission reports and able to grow your business unfettered by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or interrogations from auditions. Think again. Private...

Budgeting in the real world: more companies are writing budgets that reflect strategy--and reduce frustration.(Cover Story)
July 1, 2005... EXOTIC NEWCASTLE DISEASE, ONE OF THE most infectious bird diseases in the world, kills so swiftly that many victims die before any symptoms appear. When it broke out in Southern California two years ago, it could have spelled disaster for the...

Nonprofits by the numbers: in the wake of embarrassing revelations, high-profile scandals, and Sarbanes-Oxley nonprofit CFOs are striving for greater transparency and accountability.
July 1, 2005... The whole affair shocked Stephen Howell, CFO of The Nature Conservancy, the largest philanthropic environmental group in the world. In May 2003, a three-part series in the Washington Post put the Conservancy's operations under a spotlight....

The activist CFO--alignment with strategy, not just with the business: faced with higher investor expectations and intense regulatory scrutiny, chief financial officers are taking on an expanded and increasingly activist role within their companies.
July 1, 2005... To contribute your views to this research, visit www.cfoagenda.com. Chief financial officers are responding to a business climate marked by low investor tolerance and intense government scrutiny by taking on an expanded and increasingly...

Help yourself: customer self-service is finally catching on with consumers--and saving businesses a bundle in the process.(customer relationship management)
July 1, 2005... Ask engineers to name the great scientific innovations of the past 20 years, and you'll probably end up with a list like this: 1. Packet switching 2. Nanotechnology 3. Robots 4. 64-bit microprocessors 5. Computer-aided design/ manufacturing...

Out of exile: the tax cut on foreign earnings only seems restrictive. But some companies remain wary.(taxes)
July 1, 2005... LIKE OTHER MULTINATIONALS, DELL INC. HAS amassed an impressive pile of overseas cash: $4.1 billion, to be exact. That hasn't been returned to shareholders or reinvested. Instead, it sits in accounts in Europe and Asia, "permanently" reinvested...

A new balance.(RETIREMENT)(management of chief financial officers)
July 1, 2005... WHEN MARTIN WELCH LEFT KMART IN MAY 2001 after the company's chief executive decided to bring in a new CFO with more retail experience, Welch expected to land a new position soon. But with the economy in the doldrums, few opportunities...

CFO internet address directory.
July 1, 2005... Ace Group www.acelimited.com American Express corp.americanexpress.com/midsize Ariba www.ariba.com/source Cisco www. cisco.com/powered by Cognos www.cognos.com/ep Dell www.dell.com/power11 ...

Cedar Fair.(CFOs On The Move)
July 1, 2005... Amusement-park operator Cedar Fair has promoted Peter Crage to finance chief upon the retirement of Bruce Jackson....

ITT Industries.(CFOs On The Move)
July 1, 2005... ITT Industries has a new CFO, naming George Minnich to the post this month....

BJ's Wholesale Club.(CFOs On The Move)
July 1, 2005... BJ's Wholesale Club has promoted Paul McDonough to the top finance job as Frank Forward becomes chief administrative officer....

Career.(CFOs On The Move)
July 1, 2005... Career consulting firm Lee Hecht Harrison has appointed Daniel Schlotterbeck finance chief....

Martin Marietta Materials.(CFOs On The Move)
July 1, 2005... Anne Lloyd has become CFO at Martin Marietta Materials, advancing from her role as controller....

J. Crew.(CFOs On The Move)
July 1, 2005... Amanda Bokman has resigned from preppy-apparel purveyor J. Crew....

World Wrestling Entertainment.(CFOs On The Move)
July 1, 2005... Michael Sileck has entered the ring as CFO of World Wrestling Entertainment, replacing Phil Livingston.

Bittersweet victory.(staying connected with ex-employees)
July 1, 2005... THE U.S. SUPREME Court's unanimous overturning of Arthur Andersen LLP's conviction on obstruction-of-justice charges has been greeted with a muted cheer by members of the firm's far-flung alumni network. "You can't go back and put the pieces...

Here's looking at you.(BearingPoint Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Is he man or superman? In March 2005, Harry You left his post as CFO of Oracle to become CEO of BearingPoint Inc., the troubled McLean, Virginia-based consultancy. But since May, You has also been serving as interim CFO, after Joseph Corbett,...