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

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

Can companies still afford to be green?(Featured In October)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... How do finance teams balance long-term environmental concerns with the short-term demands of investors, employees, regulators, government agencies, and other stakeholders? In our special report, "Corporations and the Environment," the CFO.com...

Pentagon priorities.(from the editor)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... WHAT, YOU MAY WELL ASK, DOES THE FINANCIAL MANagement of the Department of Defense have to do with corporate finance? Not enough, apparently. As senior writer Kris Frieswick explains in "Losing Battles" (page 44), since 1985 the DoD has been...

Strong words for the PCAOB.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2004... AFTER READING YOUR INTERVIEW with William J. McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ("The Enforcer," August), I was skeptical of his insistence that auditors should be able to detect fraud. Based on my 30-plus...

Risky comments.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2004... I APPRECIATE YOUR FOCUS ON ENTERprise risk management in "Watch Your Back" (August). It is a topic not nearly important enough in the eyes of executives. I did want to point out one thing that does not come through clearly in your article:...

Stop the stereotyping.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2004... WHILE I UNDERSTAND Ms. WILSON'S frustration and disappointment at the continued discrimination and belittlement by customer-service individuals from another culture (Letters to the Editor, August), one might think she would extend the same...

Let's hear it for CMAs.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2004... YOUR ARTICLE "CPA ASCENDANT" (Your Move, June) discusses the growing number of executive recruiters who insist that CFO candidates have the CPA credential. However, the article failed to consider the CMA (certified management accountant),...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
October 1, 2004... Correction: As a result of a calculation error, the 2004 Working Capital Survey (September) incorrectly listed Delta Air Lines as third among the best working capital performers. In fact, Southwest should have been listed third. A corrected...

Deficit bending.(newswatch)(Congressional Budget Office)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Last month, the Congressional Budget Office announced it expects a record federal budget deficit of $422 billion for fiscal 2004. While the CBO projects the deficit will shrink to $348 billion in 2005, its outlook for the next 10 years is grim....

Down but not out.(newswatch)(Mercer)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Health-care costs will increase at a lower, but still brisk, rate of 9.6% in 2005, according to Mercer.

Taxpayer beware.(IRS)(United States. Internal Revenue Service)
October 1, 2004... THE TAX MAN IS KNOCKING ON DOORS. IN JUNE, THE INternal Revenue Service informed Motorola that the global communications giant owed an estimated $500 million in back taxes due to transfer-pricing errors. The IRS is also taking a hard look at...

Big Apple bennies.(newswatch)(New York City Council )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... BIG APPLE BENNIES The New York City Council passed a law requiring those with $100,000+ city contracts to offer domestic-partner benefits.

A trademark move.(Intellectual Property)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... IN THE LATE 1990S, BUSINESS-METHOD patents came into vogue as Internet pioneers staked out intellectual property. Priceline.com patented its "reverse auction" sales method in 1998, for example, and Amazon.com patented its "one-click" ordering...

Less vacancy.(newswatch)(vacancy rate)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The vacancy rate for U.S. office space declined 34 basis points, to 17.6%, in the second quarter, says Grubb & Ellis.

The SEC flexes its new muscle.(Enforcement)(Securities and Exchange Commission)
October 1, 2004... Two years after Congress voted to boost its budget, the Securities and Exchange Commission has nearly completed a monumental hiring binge, adding 932 employees between December 2002 and July 2004, which boosted staff to 3,520 after attrition....

Easy money.(newswatch)(ABA)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... EASY MONEY: 80% of banks will increase lending to middle-market companies by 10% in the next year, says a survey by the ABA.

A loan and a helping hand.(Debt)
October 1, 2004... GENERAL ELECTRIC COMMERCIAL Finance (GECF) wants to lend you money. And if that's not enough, it'll throw in a few finance experts to help out around the shop. Through a program called "At the Customer, For the Customer" (ACFC), GECF says...

Whistling wind.(newswatch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The SEC has fielded nearly 250,000 tips about possible securities-law violations so far this year, according to USA Today.

Give it away now.(ROI)(Return On Investment )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Each month, Quill Corp., a $1 billion office-supply company owned by Staples Inc., ships thousands of free Mrs. Fields cookies to its customers, along with their orders of pencils and pens. The company has also given away weekend trips, digital...

Expense report.(newswatch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... EXPENSE REPORT: Nearly three-quarters of finance executives support stock-option expensing, says a Grant Thornton survey.

The FASB express.(Accounting)(Financial Accounting Standards Board)
October 1, 2004... ONCE UPON A TIME, YOU COULD GROW a mighty oak from a seed during the time it took the Financial Accounting Standards Board to make a ruling. But during a CFO conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last November, FASB chairman...

Standard update.(newswatch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... FASB is set to issue its next complete standard-setting schedule this month on its Website, www.fasb.org.

Wal-Mart wants to skip this class.(Law)(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... WAL-MART MAY BE FACING THE largest class-action lawsuit ever filed against a private employer in the United States. Or it may not. The class action, involving up to 1.6 million women charging sexual discrimination, was certified in June. But a...

A few good suppliers.(Procurement)
October 1, 2004... Cut costs by trimming the number of your suppliers. Heard it before? It's the business equivalent of "diet and exercise." But paring down to just a few suppliers can be too much of a good thing. The Hackett Group, an Atlanta-based...

More than money.(newswatch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... MORE THAN MONEY: A Lee Hecht Harrison survey shows that 39% of job seekers put other aspects, like corporate culture, over pay.

Half-baked accounting?(Reserves)(Interstate Bakeries Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... IN AUGUST, INTERSTATE BAKERIES Corp. announced it would delay filing its 2004 10-K report, citing a glitch in implementing its new accounting system. Mitchell Pinheiro, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, says the maker of Wonder Bread...

Getting the prices right.(Consulting)
October 1, 2004... When costs have been cut to the bone and revenue growth is still shaky, a company naturally turns to thoughts of pricing. Many are thus moving from cost-plus pricing to value pricing or variable pricing. But the new models can be tricky, so...

Better product design.(newswatch)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... is a more effective way to cut cost than outsourcing, says a study by software form Boothroyd Dewhurst.

Blogging for dollars: once the domain of the disgruntled and demented, Web logs are being embraced by business executives.(techwatch)
October 1, 2004... IN JULY, MICROSOFT CORP. DID WHAT WOULD HAVE probably been unthinkable just a few years ago: the Bellevue, Wash.-based company's MSN division launched a commercial Web-log service; that is, a service that enables customers to set up their own...

Getting on board.(Recruitment)
October 1, 2004... SEAN HUURMAN IS NOT NECESSARILY known as an environmentalist, but he knows how to save a few trees. In June 2002, Huurman, a managing director at business-consulting firm BearingPoint, was trying to figure out how to carry out a difficult...

Maybe next year: the failure of the Google IPO to sizzle confirms the market wants only steak.(new deals)(Initial Public Offerings)
October 1, 2004... FOR PAUL FLANAGAN, NOW CFO OF A THRIVING, PRIvately held, Web-based graphic design and printing company called VistaPrint, memories of his last experience with an initial public offering are still vivid. [paragraph] "It took three years, and a...

Default swap faults: a dispute in the Enron bankruptcy case highlights troubling questions about credit default insurance.(Spotlight: banking)
October 1, 2004... IT'S NO SECRET THAT BANKS' USE OF CREDIT DEFAULT swaps relies on an inefficiency in markets. Indeed, the elucidation of this inefficiency won economist Joseph Stiglitz a 2001 Nobel prize. The inefficiency, which Stiglitz defined as...

Testing the top line: analyzing a company's sources of revenue can bring insights into growth.(budgeting)
October 1, 2004... MOST COMPANIES DON'T REALLY MANAGE TOP-LINE growth. They allocate resources to businesses they think will be most productive and hope the economy cooperates. But a growing number are taking a less passive approach, and studying revenue growth...

CFO: internet address directory.(budgeting)(Brief Article)(Directory)
October 1, 2004... American Business Media www.americanbusinessmedia.com ADA www.ada.org/DR PLAN American Express www.AmericanExpress.com/ BusinessExtrAACard Ariba www.ariba.com/analyze Cap Gemini www.capgemini.com...

Leasebacks are back: market conditions are producing sale-leasebacks with surprisingly favorable terms.(real estate)
October 1, 2004... LAST MAY, WACHOVIA QUIETLY STRUCK A $546 MILlion deal that received little mention in the financial press. It wasn't one of the acquisitions that the country's fifth-largest bank has become known for. Instead, it was a giant sale-leaseback: 8.2...

Can we talk?(Auditor Relationships)
October 1, 2004... IN YEARS PAST, WHEN CFO JEFF TOMZ WOULD SIT DOWN at the end of an audit engagement with the partner in charge, the meeting was usually brief. "I would ask, 'Any issues?' He'd say, 'No issues,' and we'd be done,' he recalls. But since the...

HealthSouth Corp.(CFOs On The Move)(John Workman named CFO)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Embattled health-care provider HealthSouth Corp. has named John Workman to the CFO post....

Whirlpool Corp.(CFOs On The Move)(Roy Templin promoted)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Roy Templin has been promoted to the lead finance role at appliance company Whirlpool Corp....

Mossimo Inc.(CFOs On The Move)(Mali Shrinivas resigns)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Clothing maker Mossimo Inc. has announced that CFO Mali Shrinivas has resigned. It has been alleged that he falsified his resume....

Chiquita Brands International Inc.(CFOs On The Move)(John W. Braukman III joins as CFO)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Chiquita Brands International Inc. has a new top banana in its finance group, adding John W. Braukman III as CFO....

Diageo Plc.(CFOs On The Move)(Deirdre Mahlan named finance chief)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Liquor purveyor Diageo Plc has named Deirdre Mahlan finance chief of Diageo North America....

Aberdeen Group.(CFOs On The Move)(Ted Owens joins as CFO)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... Ted Owens joins research firm Aberdeen Group as CFO.... For more on CFO careers, visit www.cfo.com.

The CFO and the sea.(grapevine)(Chief Financial Officers)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... JOE HARRIS, CFO OF New Boston Fund Inc., a Boston-based real estate investment company, isn't your average weekend sailor. Last spring, Harris finished second in the 50-foot mono-hull class of the Transat, a solo transatlantic sailing race from...

Brother act.(grapevine)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... In 1995, Bob Calderoni was faced with a major career choice: whether or not to leave his post at IBM headquarters in Armonk, N.Y., to take a new position with Big Blue on the West Coast. A New York City native, Calderoni worried about the...