CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from July 2006

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from July 2006

Blowing in the wind.(from the editor, alternative energy)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... FOR DECADES, THE PROMISE of alternative energy has remained just that--a promise. Technological hurdles, daunting research and production costs, and the countervailing force of an energy policy that lavishes perks on oil and gas companies but...

Guiding light.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Your article "Suspicious Minds" (Insight, June) was one of the most interesting and insightful assessments of modern management I've read in a very long time. The one sentence "Your job is not so much to evaluate, but to make your...

Complex compliance.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... I believe your article "Drawing a Bead on Cost" (May) is very misleading and fails to take into consideration the tremendous amount of compliance that qualified plans have to comply with. The providers involved in this area have to be...

Before it's too late.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... The backlash and fallout on CEO pay will not come from CFOs or other senior executives ("What's the Boss Worth?" By the Numbers, May). They will come from shareholders, investors, lenders, and employees. CEOs and CFOs may want to prepare for...

More distractions.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Great article ("Coming Distractions;' April). Here are some additional risk considerations: Finding qualified people. There is a shortage of skilled and knowledgeable people. The education system is not producing enough well-trained...

Learning to count.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... In "The Bean Counter" story (Grapevine, April), the founder of Fedco Seeds Inc. learned to prepare the financial statements for his $2 million business. I thought he and others might appreciate knowing of a Website that helps teach and...

Playing by the same rules.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Some thoughts on immigrant workers ("Help Wanted," March): I tend to lean to the free-market position regarding labor rates. If someone will do the same job at a similar level of competence for a lower rate, he or she gets the job....

Keeping 'em happy.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... I thought your article "The Little Things" (Your Move, February) was great. As my company's senior vice president and CFO, I do many of the same things that Wendy DiCicco does for her staff. We are a not-for-profit Broadway theatrical and...

Correction.(letters)(Correction notice)
July 1, 2006... In "What Women Want" (June), CDW Corp. CFO Barb Klein was quoted as saying, "Women who are seriously interested in being CFOs can't stay in finance their whole careers." The quote should have read "CEOs" instead of "CFOs."

Backdaters get clocked.(OPTIONS, backdating)
July 1, 2006... CHARGES OF BACKDATING STOCK OPTIONS have swelled, with more than three dozen companies reporting investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission for suspicious options-grant dates. At press time, the Department of Justice had served at...

Under the runway.(REVENUE GROWTH, contracts of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport)
July 1, 2006... TALK ABOUT DEVELOPING ADDITIONAL SOURCES of revenue. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport may very well be sitting on a gold mine, or at least a natural-gas field. The airport is knee-deep in plans to conduct exploratory drilling on its...

Enron: end of an era.(CFO SURVEY)
July 1, 2006... THE LAND OF JUSTICE may be sure, but it isn't swift. Fifteen weeks after the trial first began, and 54 witnesses later, prosecutors finally secured guilty verdicts in the case against Enron's Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. CFOs had...

The longer view.(OUTLOOK)
July 1, 2006... CORPORATE AMERICA has a worsening case of short-termism. A 2005 survey of more than 400 financial executives revealed that 55 percent would delay starting a project with a positive net present value in order to avoid falling short of quarterly...

Frequent filer.(REPORTING ,Progressive Insurance Co. policies)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... PROGRESSIVE Insurance doesn't provide earnings guidance. Instead, the insurer provides something few other companies do--complete financial statements to the public every month. Plenty of companies give monthly sales figures or financial...

Don't know much about liquidity.(FINANCE EDUCATION,Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) planning)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... IF SOME MEMBERS of Congress get their way, terms like "Sarbanes-Oxley," "securitization," and "liquidity" could soon become more entrenched in the American lexicon. A cross-governmental body, known as the Financial Literacy and Education...

Verbatim.(topline)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... "A wise man once said you should pick battles that matter, but are small enough to win. This battle mattered, but it was too big to win." --CAROL TOME, CFO OF HOME DEPOT, EXPLAINING THAT THE COMPANY WOULD RETURN TO THE NORMAL FORMAT FOR...

Attack of the naked shorts.(EQUITIES MARKET)(short selling)
July 1, 2006... SHORT SELLING HAS ALWAYS BEEN a despised but accepted fact of life for public companies. More recently, though, an increase in naked short-selling--that is, when traders sell stock short without borrowing it first to cover the position--has...

Long live the local branch.(BANKING)
July 1, 2006... A FEW YEARS AGO, the outlook for local bank branches was grim. The conventional wisdom was that small-business banking would move online, eliminating the need for trips to the local branch. But that hasn't happened. Instead, small-business...

The AICPA: heading south?(ACCOUNTING,AMERICAN Institute of Certified Public Accountants)(Calendar)
July 1, 2006... THE AMERICAN Institute of Certified Public Accountants is on the move. Starting in August, the association is relocating many functions, including human resources, finance, and publishing, to Durham, N.C. With only about 50 employees--of the...

Warming up to climate change.(CORPORATE GOVERNANCE)
July 1, 2006... AL GORE IS NOT THE ONLY ONE confronting the threat of global warming these days. In fact, some companies, like General Electric with its Ecomagination initiative, are turning climate change into a business opportunity. A recent report by Ceres,...

Business outlook survey: concerns over inflation, interest rates, and fuel costs have finance executives singing the blues.(by the numbers)
July 1, 2006... IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR FINANCE EXECUTIVES to lose faith in the future of the economy. After a spike in optimism last quarter, CFOs are back to their worrying ways. According to the latest Duke University/CFO Business Outlook Survey, just 24...

Say yes to Dr. No? New research suggests that CFOs are an essential counterweight to optimistic CEOs.(insight)
July 1, 2006... IN 1917 THE U.S. NAVY WAS IN A PANIC OVER German U-boats, which had been sinking American ships in the Atlantic. Henry Ford, who had earlier boasted that his assembly lines could push out a thousand submarines a day, offered his company's...

Home delivery: frustrated by chasing down endless--and endlessly changing--information, some corporations are turning to RSS technology.(in tech)(Really Simple Syndication Technology)
July 1, 2006... IN THE PANTHEON OF UNWELCOME MESSAGES delivered to finance chiefs, "We forgot to bill the client" is number five (right between "J.J. smeared pudding all over your Treo" and "Legal says you got a notice from some guy named Wells"). When Campus...

Rising stakes: how the strength of private equity is changing M&A for corporate buyers.(deals)
July 1, 2006... KURT BRAUN LOOKS AT 75 TO 100 possible deals every year. As finance chief at ClearPoint Resources Inc. (formerly Mercer Staffing), a growing private company in the highly segmented professional-staffing business, he has helped develop a...

Station Casinos' Glenn Christenson.(ON THE RECORD)(Interview)
July 1, 2006... WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS, or so the slogan goes. But what's happening there in terms of development, says Glenn C. Christenson, CFO of Station Casinos Inc., is hard to keep secret. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Nevada is...

Power source: how a fresh crop of CFOs is propelling the alternative--fuels industry.
July 1, 2006... THE FIRST TIME DON POINTS VISITED Kramer Junction, California, he didn't know what to expect. It was 2001, and the retired finance executive had booked a tour of Solel Corp.'s solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert. Although Points had...

Hungry for more: Reg FD has changed the way companies serve up information, leading to plenty of tension between CFOs and analysts.(Regulation Fair Disclosure)
July 1, 2006... Carol DiRaimo was fed up. Last February, the head of investor relations for Applebee's International began an earnings call by urging analysts to stop hounding the restaurant chain's franchisees for confidential information. Callers were...

Angry and bored? You must be a customer: finding out what customers really think is a crucial first step toward an improved bottom line. New technology may help.
July 1, 2006... GE CAPITAL SOLUTIONS HAS HIGH EXPECTATIONS for its customers: it wants them to be so pleased with the company that they sing its praises to others. So the financial-services unit of General Electric sends out a brief survey that asks,...

{Don't} look deep into my lease: terms can be mesmerizing, but companies get a rude awakening when leasing's real cost is revealed.(spotlight)
July 1, 2006... THE PROMISE OF LOW MONTHLY PAYMENTS had enticed Rojacks Food Stores into leasing restaurant equipment rather than buying its own. But when the end of the lease loomed in 2000, the Mansfield, Massachusetts, chain still needed the shelving,...

What do you know? Tracking patent portfolios is not only critical for growth, it's necessary for survival.(patents)
July 1, 2006... When one of Mobility Electronics IncUs major customers decided to switch to a competitor's product five years ago, the potential defection galvanized top management. Not only would it mean up to $10 million in lost revenue annually, says...

Thinking inside the boxes: global supply chains must now address government logistics mandates, a post-9/11 legacy that is only becoming more complex.(supply chain)(Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism)
July 1, 2006... As the North American international trade director for German auto-parts maker Robert Bosch, Karl J. Riedl has worked for more than 35 years on import/export issues. During that time he has seen the logistics world evolve in any number of ways,...

The fine art of self-protection: why buying your own disability coverage may be a smart move.(your money )
July 1, 2006... No one likes to spend money on something he can get for free, but if the free print on your employer-sponsored disability insurance reads like a Stephen King novel, consider investing in your own personal policy. While medical science has...

Heavy vetting: boards of directors now want to talk to would-be CFOs--and vice versa.(your move)
July 1, 2006... With no fewer than six prior CFO positions on his resume, not to mention experience as an investment banker and as a CPA-wielding auditor at KPMG, Kenneth Goldman looked to be a shoo-in for the CFO position at Salary.com. But after a couple of...

CA Inc.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Robert Davis has recently left re-embattled CA Inc. under "mutual agreement." Corporate controller Robert Cirabisi has been named interim finance chief.

Getty Images.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Getty Images has chosen Thomas Oberdorf SVP and CFO. He joins the company from CMGI.

O'Reilly Automotive.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Tom McFall is the new CFO of O'Reilly Automotive.

NCO Group.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... NCO Group has picked John Schwab to follow Steven Winokur as its new finance chief.

Oil States International.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Cindy Taylor has been promoted to COO of Oil States International. She was previously the company's CFO.

Oscient Pharmaceuticals.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Oscient Pharmaceuticals has chosen Philippe Maitre as its new CFO. Maitre succeeds Stephen Cohen, who is retiring.

Riviera Holdings.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Mark Lefever has been named CFO and treasurer of Riviera Holdings.

NU Horizons Electronics.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... NU Horizons Electronics has named Kurt Freudenberg as its CFO. He succeeds Paul Durando, who is retiring.

Allete.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... James Vizanko is retiring as CFO of Allete.

Brocade Communications Systems.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Brocade Communications Systems has named Richard Deranleau as its new finance chief.

Adobe Systems.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Software provider Adobe Systems has named Randy Furr as its new CFO.

Aerospace Optics.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Loren Jensen has resigned as CFO of Tuesday Morning to become president and COO of Aerospace Optics.

LHC Group.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Barry Stewart has been chosen CFO of health-care services firm LHC Group.

American Eagle Outfitters.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
July 1, 2006... Joan Hilson is the new CFO of American Eagle Outfitters.

Art Winkleblack, CFO & EVP of H.J. Heinz Co.(Interview)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... HITTING THE BOOKS: B.A., UCLA (1980); M.B.A, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1982) FIRST JOB IN A SUIT: Assistant director of admissions at The Wharton School (2 years) BIG BREAK: Landing a job in the planning...

Saddle sore.(grapevine,Television program review)(Television program review)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... WOULD A MODERN-DAY accountant have the right stuff to run a Texas ranch house in 1867? Bill Cooke, former controller at a California hospital, got the chance to find out. Cooke recently appeared on the PBS reality series "Texas Ranch...