CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from May 2004

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from May 2004

The financial frontier.(from the editor)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
May 1, 2004... AT ONE POINT IN THE MOVIE APOLLO 13, THE AMERICAN public sleeps as the astronauts drift dangerously into the stratosphere. The same could be said to apply to financial management at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Shortly...

Fed up.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I FOUND YOUR ARTICLE ON THE FEDERAL banking regulations ("Playing Favorites," April) excellent and right on point. In my interactions with these regulators [as former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission], I found that...

Right on the money.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... YOUR ARTICLE "THE GREAT INFLATABLE Service Bill" (April) was right on the money. Many other areas have the same of similar types of billing overcharges. As a former cost-recovery specialist, I have experienced many of the situations Mr....

Correcting baseball stats.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... IN "SQUEEZE PLAY" (APRIL), THERE WAS one factual misstatement regarding Major League Baseball's new debt-service rule. As reported, 15 clubs were asked to present their financial plans in detail to the commissioner's office. However, after...

Turning the job corner.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I HAVE RUN ASSOCIATIONS OF SIX-figure finance executives for 6 years, have been a member of Financial Executives International for 12, and am the founder and executive director of the Finance Leaders Association (www.finance leaders.org). I...

Beware discrimination.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... YOUR ARTICLE ON PRICING-OPTIMIZATION software ('Answering RFQs, PDQ," Techwatch, March) was interesting--as far as it went. I would advise pricing managers to be cautious of any strategy based on price discrimination. In an era of high...

E-mail alert.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... IN THE CRUELEST BLOW OF ALL?" (TECHWATCH, March), you state that "... by next year, U.S. businesses will send a staggering 35 billion E-mails each day." Staggering is hardly the word. The population of the United States is approximately...

The VC circus.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... YOUR ARTICLE "CAPITAL WITHOUT the Venture" (February) succinctly and clearly described a complex, fluid situation. But the quote at the end from the National Venture Capital Association official--about the mysterious 10-year business cycle for...

Ensuring security.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I WAS DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED WHEN you failed to point out that all of the "digital pathogens" in your "Spy vs. Spy" article (Techwatch, February) depend on Microsoft products. If it were not for specific design decisions made by Microsoft, this...

Dangerous accounting.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS Board is proposing to require companies to expense employee stock options in the income statement. This proposal will lead to a double accounting of the impact of stock options in computing earnings per share....

Time out.(newswatch)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Think twice before you organize that softball game at the company picnic. Injuries sustained at work-sponsored recreational outings could result in workers' compensation claims. A March 10 ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court found that...

Small-town blues.(Risk Management)
May 1, 2004... DOES LOCATING THE HEADQUARTERS OF A LARGE COMPANY in a small town increase the likelihood of fraud? Richard Breeden, the court-appointed watchdog of WorldCom-cum-MCI, thinks so. The former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission says...

Make room for Daddy.(Benefits)(Paid Family Leave Act (SB1661) in controversy)
May 1, 2004... NOW HERE'S A DIFFERENT KIND OF bond issue. In a controversial vote in 2002, the California legislature passed SB 1661, better known as the Paid Family Leave Act. Under the legislation, both male and female employees in California can take up to...

Making the grade.(Corporate Governance)
May 1, 2004... Which are the best-governed companies in America? According to GovernanceMetrics International, they include 3M, Intel, McDonald's, Pfizer, and Target. These heavyweights, along with 13 others, received scores of 10 out of 10 in GMI's latest...

Trials of a CFO whistle-blower.(Sarbox)
May 1, 2004... In many ways, Dave Welch is Exhibit A in the debate over how well the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 can defend conscience-stricken employees. Fired from his job as CFO of Floyd, Va.-based Cardinal Bankshares Corp. and its subsidiary, Bank of...

Outsourcing the handyman.(Manufacturing)(Advanced Technology Services Inc. Peoria, IL)
May 1, 2004... JERRY WHITAKER, A VICE PRESIDENT in Eaton Corp.'s $2.3 billion electrical-products division, had reservations about outsourcing his equipment maintenance. At the time, Eaton employed on-site mechanics to tackle emergency repairs. "Our initial...

Parading to Puerto Rico.(Tax)(corporations move to Puerto Rico for tax exemptions)
May 1, 2004... In March, Tyco International Ltd. came under heavy criticism for its decision to maintain its incorporation in Bermuda. But some companies have discovered a locale that has tax advantages without the political pressure that comes with moving to...

It's better (and worse) than you think.(After the Scandals)
May 1, 2004... IT'S BEEN A LONG TWO-AND-A-HALF years since Enron's spectacular collapse. Arthur Andersen has vanished, other success stories of the 1990s have been exposed as frauds, and Congress has passed a big, expensive law to keep it all from happening...

Hill on Wall Street.(Ten Questions)(Interview)
May 1, 2004... AS DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AT Thomson Financial First Call, Chuck Hill helped make consensus numbers, analysts' collective forecast of earnings expectations, a critical factor in investment decisions. His lucid analysis of corporate performance...

Will IM pay? Backers say instant messaging will revolutionize the way businesses work. They may be right.(techwatch)
May 1, 2004... WHEN VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS NEEDED TO GET a key part to a disabled plane in Barbados in September 2002, the carrier called on delivery specialist Sterling Courier Services. Under normal circumstances, Sterling (a division of Quick...

The secret life of copiers.(Security)
May 1, 2004... LAST FALL, REPORTS BEGAN CIRCULATING that a large university in the Northeast had uncovered an illegal music-file-swapping service on campus. Generally, when such a story hits, it turns out that the swappers were hosting their service on a...

Where are all the Europeans? Conditions seem ripe for a transatlantic M&A invasion. There are good reasons it isn't happening.(new deals)
May 1, 2004... FROM ACROSS THE POND, AMERICAN ASSETS LOOK downright cheap these days. Weakened by huge U.S. trade deficits and low interest rates, the dollar has plunged 32 percent since its October 2000 peak. And with merger-and-acquisition activity heating...

Forget Black-Scholes? Why the traditional option-pricing model may not be the best way to value employee grants.(Spotlight: compensation)
May 1, 2004... LET THE MUDSLINGING BEGIN--AGAIN. No, WE'RE not talking about the Presidential campaign. We're talking about the latest battle over the Financial Accounting Standards Board's plan to require companies to treat employee stock options as an...

NASA, we have a problem: can Gwendolyn Brown fix the space agency's chronic financial woes?
May 1, 2004... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has long been criticized for its inability to manage costs. During the 1990s, faced with flat budgets and ambitious program goals. NASA adopted a management approach of "faster, better,...

Pay-as-you-go IT services: where's the business value? New report from CFO Research Services and Saugatuck Technology shows real business value and management guidance for "on demand" IT services.(Advertisement)
May 1, 2004... Understand the Reality of "Pay-as-you-go" IT services Business changes; markets change; customers and suppliers change. The engine that drives these changes is IT--but for too many firms, IT is a slow-moving, sunk-cost investment that...

Euro clash: removing tariffs is easy. Breaking down social barriers to trade is hard.(European Commission)
May 1, 2004... THE GMO MONSTER TOMATO Tour kicked off last November in Brussels, outside the European Council building. During the following month, members of the environmental group Friends of the Earth Europe rolled the giant inflatable fruit around the...

In case of emergency: new technology--and new threats--have businesses reexamining how they cope with disaster.(Special report: disaster recovery)
May 1, 2004... BY ALMOST ANY YARDSTICK, PRAIRIE STATE BANK is not what you'd call a major financial institution. With a handful of branches scattered in south-central Kansas, the bank maintains a small retail business in the GWMA (Greater Wichita Metropolitan...

Raiding the returns: hidden costs and high fees eat into 401(k) plan benefits.(CFO buyer's guide: 401(k) providers: Part 2)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... ALTHOUGH FALLOUT FROM THE MUTUAL-FUND TRADING scandals still dominates the headlines, some companies with 401(k) plans reserve their greatest ire for another issue: fees. Complaints focus mainly on the steep fund expenses that are passed...

Looking under the hood: new attestation standards for internal controls put more power in the hands of auditors.(regulation)
May 1, 2004... IF YOU THINK AUDITS ARE TOUGH NOW, just wait. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires auditors to certify not just financial results but also the processes by which they are determined. The law mandates a formal audit--including...

Worst day ever: CFOs on their toughest experiences.(your move)
May 1, 2004... IN THE FALL OF 2000, JANICE DIPIETRO WAS FEELING great. After reviewing her start-up company's numbers with its lead private-equity investor, she was eagerly anticipating a new infusion of capital in two weeks. DiPietro planned to use the funds...

Grocery company Safeway Inc.(CFOs On The Move)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Grocery company Safeway Inc. has named Robert Edwards as CFO, replacing Vasant Prabhu, who has joined Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

BMC Software Inc.(CFOs On The Move)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... George Harrington was named SVP and CFO of BMC Software Inc., succeeding former CFO John Cox, who will now report to Harrington as chief accounting officer.

Lafarge North America Inc.(CFOs On The Move)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Eric Olsen will be the new CFO of construction-materials supplier Lafarge North America Inc. effective January 1, 2005, replacing retiring Larry Waisanen.

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc.(CFOs On The Move)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Winn-Dixie Stores Inc.'s new CFO is Bennett Nussbaum. He succeeds Richard McCook. For more on CFO careers, visit www.cfo.com.

Nortel disconnect.(grapevine)
May 1, 2004... IT'S BEEN A WILD FEW years for Nortel Networks Corp. The Brampton, Ontario-based telecom company slashed its workforce by almost two-thirds, divested assets, and consolidated real estate. In July 2003, it reported that it was settling into...

The good life.(grapevine)(CFO-turned-philanthropists serving the society)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... When the late-1990s bubble burst, many CFOs of dot-coms and tech companies either headed back to "bricks and mortar" of faced investigation by the SEC. So it's refreshing to learn of former CFO stars from that era who walked away clean, rich,...