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

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

Going public.(from the editor)
March 1, 2006... ONCE UPON A TIME, the post of chief financial officer was the consummate insider's job. Even as the prestige and power of the role increased, CFOs worked almost exclusively behind the scenes. Dealings with external constituencies--auditors,...

Through shareholders' eyes.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Your February cover story, "The Best Defense," shows what is available to top executives for defense efforts, it also mentions issues that "at the time" seemed legit but later appeared differently. It fails to mention, however, that in many...

Regulating hedge funds.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... It is right that the Securities and Exchange Commission should start regulating hedge funds. They are growing more common day by day, and a greater number of ordinary investors are putting their money into them. Forcing these funds to comply...

Out of touch.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I don't know who Jessica Byrnes is, but perhaps I should ("Sharing Responsibility," Letters, February). Her comment that you chose to print boldly in red--"There is not a single person working in a U.S. public company... who should not be able...

A safer workplace?(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Your magazine claims there's "strong evidence that guns and offices do not mix" ("Park-n-Load," Topline, January). Of course, "offices" aren't the issue, since the legislation moving forward across the country protects only honest...

Definite conflicts.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I read "Divided Loyalties" (December 2005) with interest. I am a broker with Newmark Knight Frank in New York City. Before joining Newmark, I was vice president of corporate real estate for Chase Manhattan, a director of corporate real estate...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... In our October In Tech section, we ran a story ("Surprise Inside") on possible tax deductions for embedded software in business machinery. In it, we noted that 21 states currently offer such an exemption. We have since learned that fewer states...

What's in your wallet?(Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules about executive pay)
March 1, 2006... IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS, the Securities and Exchange Commission will finalize new rules about what companies must reveal about executive pay. If the SEC hews to its January proposal, companies will have to add both more numbers and prose to...

Catering to the extremes.(ROTH 401(K)S)
March 1, 2006... TALK ABOUT YOUR LUKEWARM RECEPTION. Since its debut in January, the new Roth 401(k) plans have attracted as many critics as customers. Although it's a bit early to tell, a survey by Hewitt Associates LLC indicates that only 34 percent of...

Fairness as an option.(ACCOUNTING)(fair-value accounting)
March 1, 2006... LITTLE BRINGS ACCOUNTING RULE MAKERS and finance executives to loggerheads as quickly as the question of fair-value accounting. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has long advocated that companies carry assets at "market value" to the...

Uneven expansion.(unemployment-trends)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... AT THE END OF LAST YEAR, THE NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE stood at 4.9 percent, down 0.05 percent from a year earlier. A modest improvement, certainly, but it was not enjoyed equally across the nation. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor...

Basel II, Eurobanks 0.(BANKING)
March 1, 2006... BECAUSE OF THE CONSTANT MOVEMENT of the tectonic plates, some scientists predict that the gulf between Europe and North America will be some 6,000 miles--twice its current distance--in about 250 million years. But a widening rift between the...

Do you hear an echo?(BOOKS)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... IF IMITATION is the sincerest form of flattery, this month CFO should be very flattered indeed. UK-based consultant Jeremy Hope, co-founder of consulting firm The Beyond Budgeting Round Table, has published a new book that samples liberally...

Verbatim.(top line)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... "Symbol Technologies got a lucky break when [its] documents were destroyed on 9/11 in the attack on the World Trade Center." TESTIMONY FROM A GOVERNMENT WITNESS AGAINST SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES'S FORMER SVP OF FINANCE, MICHAEL DEGENNARO, THAT...

Protectionist measures.(AUDITING)
March 1, 2006... EVER SINCE THE DEMISE of Arthur Andersen, there has been speculation about what would happen if another Big Four firm went south. In January, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published a report calling for policy makers, businesses, and auditors to...

The end of confidentiality.(CREDIT COMMITTEES)
March 1, 2006... WHEN REORGANIZING IN BANKRUPTCY, companies used to be reasonably certain that the confidential financial information they gave credit committees would remain just that--confidential. But that was before the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and...

The great rate debate.(DIVIDENDS)
March 1, 2006... GENERAL MOTORS notwithstanding, companies have been eager to issue or increase their dividends ever since the federal tax rate on them was lowered to 15 percent. Last year, some 1,949 companies increased their payment, according to Standard &...

Now boarding, at a price.(Transportation Security Administration to introduce Registered Traveler program)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... WHO AMONG US, WHILE WAITING in an airport security line, has not wondered how much we'd pay to jump to the front? We might offer a day's salary, but would we surrender our financial information? It's a question many business travelers will...

View from China: in an era of unchecked growth, China's CFOs could use a lesson in stakeholder capitalism.(top line)
March 1, 2006... KARAN BHATIA, THE DEPUTY U.S. trade representative, urged China in late January to become a "responsible stakeholder" in its trading relationships with the United States. Here in Shanghai, her remarks created a frenzy as people strove in vain...

House poor: why the source of consumer spending may be tapped out.(by the numbers)
March 1, 2006... FOR SOME TIME NOW, analysts have been predicting that the tireless American consumer would stop spending. Could they be right at last? True, consumer spending increased 3.4 percent in 2005, and The Conference Board's January consumer-confidence...

I am Joe's conscience: employers are setting up ethics programs to teach workers to do the right thing. Is this the wrong approach?(insight)
March 1, 2006... WHEN THE ETHICS OFFICER Association held its first meetings in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1992, there were 19 members. A decade later, the group of corporate-ethics officers had grown to 600. Today, thanks to financial scandals and regulatory...

Commanding data: will a raft of federal, state, and local requirements ever lead to a single information-security standard?(advising on information technology security and financial services )
March 1, 2006... Ask Lee Dittmar to describe legislators and regulators' newfound interest in data security, and he responds without missing a beat. "It's a sleeping giant" Dittmar is not some idle speculator, either. A principal at New York-based Deloitte...

Rx for merger trauma: amid a resurgence in M&A, a veteran offers lessons learned from a difficult merger.(deals)(Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital )
March 1, 2006... Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital were peaceful neighbors for decades in the nation's medical mecca, Boston. Then, in 1996, the two merged--and for five long years, staffers fought over issues large and small amid a...

Staples' John Mahoney.(Staples Inc.)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... THIS YEAR, BOTH STAPLES INC., the world's largest office-products company and its CFO, John Mahoney, celebrate milestones. The company, which started in a Boston suburb with one store, turns 20 years old and now counts more than 1,780 stores...

The Spitzer backlash: as state attorneys general clamp down on corporate wrongdoers, companies fight back.(Eliot Spitzer )
March 1, 2006... At least once a week, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett gets an E-mail asking him to join his fellow attorneys general in signing letters to Congress, announcing joint positions--or, frequently, suing companies. He reads the...

Risk and how it could become your biggest asset.(Protiviti Inc.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... What is it that all Fortune 1000 firms want, but fewer than 40 percent of them have? A high degree of confidence that they are identifying and managing potentially significant risks. As the leader in Risk Consulting, Protiviti knows better than...

Help wanted.(Ingersoll-Rand Co. seeks 60 welders to help build heavy drilling machines)
March 1, 2006... Several years ago, managers at heavy industrial manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand Co. were looking to hire 60 welders to help build heavy drilling machines in Texas. What they got was a lesson in immigration law. Human-resource managers at the...

A tough act to follow: what CFOs really think about Sarbox--and how they'd fix the *!#& thing.(SPECIAL SECTION: compliance)
March 1, 2006... Last November, a small group of Unica Corp.'s senior executives, lawyers, and auditors gathered over dinner in downtown Boston to celebrate the launch of the company's initial public offering. Overall, they were pleased; the August IPO had...

Retooling Sarbox: the surveyed finance executives had lots of ideas on how to alter Sarbox; easing requirements for internal-controls testing topped the list.
March 1, 2006... RETOOLING SARBOX The surveyed finance executives had lots of ideas on how to alter Sarbox; easing requirements for internal-controls testing topped the list. Which of the following statements about Sarbanes-Oxley are true for you?...

The trouble with COSO: critics say the Treadway Commission's controls framework is outdated, onerous, and overly complicated. But is there an alternative?(COMPLIANCE)(National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting)
March 1, 2006... WELL, IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME. Last year, the nonprofit Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) announced plans to host a conference in December. Apparently, the IMA wanted to preview a fledgling internal-controls...

Serenity now! Board members worried about compliance-related lawsuits may want to revisit their D&O policies.(COMPLIANCE)
March 1, 2006... YOU COULD SEE THIS ONE COMING. On May 3, 2005, management at Cray Inc. notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had uncovered material deficiencies in eight of its internal controls over key financial systems. In the...

Deemed if you don't: U.S. multinationals may have a new way to avoid tax on foreign collateral, if a financing arrangement by Huntsman Corp. passes muster.(spotlight)
March 1, 2006... When U.S.-based companies want to lower their financing costs, they can borrow against the assets of their foreign subsidiaries. But only to a point. Under the Internal Revenue Service's safe-harbor rules, companies can generally pledge up to...

The best advice: choosing a financial adviser may be the biggest investment decision you make.(your money)
March 1, 2006... YOU WOULDN'T HIRE THE next guy who walks in your office and can talk business to be your company treasurer. If you did, you might wind up with a delivery boy instead of an executive. Likewise, you almost certainly didn't get your job...

Bigger fish, smaller pond: leaving a large company for the CFO spot at a smaller company can be a great move--as long as you do your homework.(your move)
March 1, 2006... HAVING AMASSED more than 15 years' experience at IBM Corp. on a steady ascent toward the top finance job, J. Donald "J.D." Sherman did what any sensible executive would do: he chucked it all to become CFO at a company 1/300 the size of IBM. ...

Symantec.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... After 15 years at the company, James Beer has left AMR, parent of American Airlines, to become CFO at software firm Symantec. AMR has launched a search for a replacement....

State University of New York.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Kimberly Cline is the new CFO at the State University of New York....

Interstate Hotels & Resorts.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Bruce Riggins takes over as finance head at Interstate Hotels & Resorts, rejoining the company after leaving last year to take the top finance post at Innkeepers USA Trust....

Money Concepts.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Money Concepts, a financial-planning company, has promoted Barry Rittman to finance chief from his role as controller....

TRC.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... TRC has tapped Cart Paschetag Jr. to head up finance at the engineering and construction-services firm....

First Avenue Networks.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Thomas Scott replaces Sandra Thomas as CFO at First Avenue Networks, a wireless-service provider....

Rambus.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Rambus, a technology-licensing firm, is looking for a new finance head after the resignation of Robert Eulau. CEO Harold Hughes is filling the role in the interim....

Windrose Medical Properties Trust.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Windrose Medical Properties Trust has appointed Paula Conroy CFO. Conroy joins from Roche Diagnostics, where she was director of finance....

Sallie Mae.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... C.E. Andrews has become finance chief at student-loan provider Sallie Mae....

Whitney Information Network.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Alfred Novas will lead the finance department at Whitney Information Network, a provider of postsecondary education....

Ford Motor Credit.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
March 1, 2006... Ford Motor Credit has named K.R. Kent vice chairman and CFO. He succeeds David Cosper, who has left to join Sonic Automotive....

Change at the exchange.(WALL STREET)(New York Stock Exchange Inc. merges with Archipelago Holdings Inc.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... WITH THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE and Archipelago Holdings merger nearly complete, the role of executive vice president of strategy at the new entity would seem full of growth opportunities. But that is apparently not enough for Amy Butte, the...

Lay-ing odds.(grapevine)(conviction law)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... THINK YOO KNOW THE OUTCOME of the ongoing trial of former Enron executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay? Want to bet? If so, two Websites are willing to take your money. At futures-trading site Intrade, based in Ireland, visitors can...