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IT Security: When Insiders Go Outside the Lines
For all the money companies have spent to secure their networks' outside perimeters against hackers and viruses, the problems posed by employees and other insiders may not be getting enough attention.

Choosing the Best Compensation Program
Fee or non-fee? It's a quandary many corporate decision-makers encounter when choosing cash managers. A noted cash manager - whose firm offers both types of services - provides some insights.

Cost Management: Only a 'Piece' Of Productivity Gains
"Many see cost management as 'bad,'" says Mike Baxter, a principal partner in the London office of Marakon Associates. Cost management is, indeed, seen by many as an excuse for slashing headcount and other sweeping short-term reductions. To Baxter, however, cost management is only one piece of an ongoing productivity program.

CFOs Best Prepare for a Communications Paradox
The spotlight on executive conduct and corporate malfeasance has never been brighter and -- as many have unfortunately learned -- one company's scandal can mean a black eye for an entire industry.

Internal Audit: Spotlight Shines On Its New Role
A dramatic reversal has occurred in the conservative world of corporate accounting. Since late 2002, the modest profile of internal audit has suddenly grown to monumental proportions. And, with surprising rapidity, a normally quiet, publicity-shy profession has been transformed.

HR Also Impacted by Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404
Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 requires management of a public company to report annually on the effectiveness of the company's internal controls over financial reporting. For most public companies, certain HR accounts are significant, necessitating management to document and assess the related processes and controls impacting those accounts.

Finance and IT: A Need to Work Together
Yin and yang, heavy metal and Mozart: The interpersonal dynamics of information technology and finance officers have often been portrayed as a clash of opposites, starting from their formative days as pizza-craving programmers or buttoned-down accountants.

The CFO's Great Balancing Act
Under performance pressures from shareholders and boards, CEOs are raising the bar for CFOs, tasking them with helping to meet today's challenging expectations for aggressive growth, while at the same time managing risks and costs.

 

Are We Overloaded Yet? Finding a Balance
New rules and regulations just keep on coming, while reporting deadlines get shorter. Financial Executives Research Foundation asks users and preparers about their experiences.

 

Keeping Data Under Lock & Key
Corporations are wrestling with the manifold issues raised by new privacy laws, including the costs, confusing rules and consumer wariness. Even those with dedicated privacy officers have their hands full.

 

Are You on Top of Your Software Licensing?
When it comes to properly managing software use, businesses can either pay now -- forking over a little bit of money to buy needed solutions -- or pay later, digging deep to pay enormous fines if caught out of compliance.

 

Rising Healthcare Costs: Searching For a Cure
With health insurance premiums rising at double-digit rates, one solution - an option in several new plans - encourages employees to think like consumers of their own healthcare.

 

Putting Directors In the Classroom
A host of programs have sprung up to teach corporate directors, including audit committee members, about their new responsibilities. Some companies are even providing the training themselves.

 

Accounting School Gets An Ethics Makeover
While accredited professionals naturally keep up in their fields, the new legislation is driving many to hone their ethics skills and knowledge as well.

 

Business Process Outsourcing Under Sarbanes-Oxley: Challenges and Complexities
There are a multitude of complex issues associated with outsourcing functions that require analysis from a legal, regulatory, liability, and contractual perspective. This article highlights some of the more critical of the issues under SOX.

 

Determining True Value of Payroll and HR Systems
Although not a direct contributor to profitability, payroll processing and all the costs related to Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) represent significant expenses for most organizations -- ones that have considerable impact on their bottom line.

 

F&A Outsourcing: What Buyers Are Saying
Original research from an FEI member questionnaire details current views about outsourcing finance functions -- including what most would and would not outsource.

 

Insider Trading Education and Prevention: What Your Company Can Learn From The Martha Stewart Case
Securities lawyer and legal compliance expert Bruce Brumberg examines issues raised by the Martha Stewart case that may apply to executives who trade company stock.

Corporate Reputations: Don't Give Them Something to Talk About
Observing the pummeling of many brands and reputations, smart companies are valuing their assets and designing programs to minimize negative fallout following a disaster, and reduce possibilities that one will occur.

 

Sarbanes-Oxley: An International Perspective
How is the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act being felt, both in the U.S. and in Europe? How are foreign registrants reacting to the new set of rules coming out of Congress and the regulatory agencies?

 

Paid to Perform
Trendsetter GE has adopted a pay-for-performance style executive compensation for its CEO, a signal, says compensation executive Tom Wamberg, of things to come.

 

Critical Crossroads for Retiree Health Benefits
Not long ago, companies enthusiastically adopted and expanded retiree health programs with seemingly little concern for the long-term financial implications. Unfortunately for both employers and employees, this situation has changed dramatically: today, the benefit to retirees and the financial burdens to employers are intersecting at a critical crossroads.

 

Myths and Realities of Sarbanes-Oxley
Steve Wagner, a Deloitte partner specializing in corporate governance and internal control, dispels myths and highlights the realities for Section 404 compliance in this Financial Executive Online Exclusive.

 

Fraud: What Starts Small Can Snowball
Most episodes of financial fraud start as "tweaks" or "adjustments." Experts say that most often, it's the culture that is to blame, and as the schemes deepen, individual reservations are simply overwhelmed.

 

Assessing the Future of Work
How will the nature of work change in the coming decades? In this interview, Richard W. Samson, president of EraNova ("a new era through mind extension") discusses how automation and offshoring are imperiling the future of U.S. knowledge workers.

E-learning: A Better Chalkboard
Online learning has come a long way in recent years, and as an established part of most corporations' training infrastructures, it's poised for greater importance in the future.

 

Defining Moment for Good Governance
Research reveals that Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is fast becoming a standard measurement for governance best practices for private companies, not just public ones.

 

Streamlining HR Processes to Improve ROI
Aiming to strike a balance between insourcing and outsourcing for HR efficiency? Consider Web-based "point solutions" to leverage best features that can meet today's and tomorrow's needs.

Technical Presentations: Going From Dull To Dynamic
Losing your audience when giving technical presentations? Here are tips from a communications specialist.

 

Even Private Company Boards of Directors Are Changing
Since the law's goal is to greatly increase regulation of public companies in the interest of their outside shareholders, and privately held companies do not have outside shareholders, you might conclude they could safely ignore Sarbanes-Oxley. Not so.

 

Is Technology Delivering on its Productivity Promise?
James Champy, business technology and productivity expert and a founder of the reengineering movement, offers his unique perspectives about the reality of productivity improvement enabled by technology.

Mitigating 401(k) Plan Fiduciary Liability for Companies and Individuals
With fiduciary liability rising -- a particular threat to small and mid-sized companies -- a consultant suggests ways to both limit liability and offer employees a better plan.

 

Globalization and IT: Fuel for the U.S. Growth Engine
Concerned that the economy is not growing fast enough? Noted economist Robert Shiller points out that economic growth, while 'always slow,' is nonetheless spectacular.

 

'Offshoring' Drive for Savings Accelerates
It isn't just technology functions like software development that are being sent overseas, moreover, but a whole raft of business processes like customer service and financial analysis -- hence the rise of "business process outsourcing," or BPO.

 

An executive recruiter says it pays to be proactive, especially in difficult times, and to be ready to explore opportunities as they come up.

 

A less traditional strategy for resolving the pain caused by these under-performing assets or excess inventory is through corporate trade, a process that may recover up to 100 percent of original value through the creation of future cash savings.

 

Kevin Cashman, a leadership coach for 27 years, has formed some strong opinions on a multi-dimensional model for leadership that creates value.

 

Rethinking the Leadership Agenda
While business has moved to a new level of complexity, many leaders remain stuck in the past. With leadership more crucial than ever, a radically different set of competencies is required.

 

Business Briefs: July/Aug.
How companies may unwittingly support terrorism. CEO turnover accelerates in U.S., Asia and Europe. How W-4's can be a painful thing. And more.

 

Demystifying the Rating Agencies
The focus on recent corporate scandals has also brought congressional attention to -- and scrutiny of -- the inner workings, the power and the role of the credit rating agencies.

 

New Regulations' Impact on D&O Insurance
Insurers' sharpened focus on corporate governance, policy changes and potential increased litigation combine to drive major changes in director and officer liability insurance in a tightening market.

 

Internal Audit: Active Ingredient in Reform Mix
Don't discount how internal audit, as a strategic partner in corporate governance, can help your organization meet challenges in the aftermath of Sarbanes-Oxley.

 

Climbing Toward a Common Goal
A proposal for getting back to the original purpose of stock options: incenting management to work for shareholders -- whatever accounting rules prevail.

 

India: The Maturing of a BPO Market
Clearly, when it comes to choosing an offshore outsourcing destination, India continues to lead the pack.

 

Needed: New Breed of Offshore BPO Provider
The firms that move quickly to develop higher-value process offerings and build a culture of customer service will be the market winners over the next five years.

 

Business Briefs: June
Experts disagree about what constitutes corporate governance. European telecommunications companies need to reinvent themselves. Airline suppliers are hurting, too. And a truly independent corporate board.

 

Sarbanes-Oxley 404: A Compliance Game Plan
For public company finance executives, compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires disciplined project management and a thorough consideration of the appropriate roles to be played by management and its advisors and auditors.

Assessing the State of Corporate Boards
Board expert Ralph Ward, editor and publisher of the influential newsletter Boardroom INSIDER and author of a new book, Saving the Corporate Board, talks to Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Marshall about the evolving shape of boards and board practices.

 

Developing an Effective Code of Conduct
Such a code, required by new regulations, needs to establish high standards, communicate them thoroughly and be enforced rigorously.

Today's Governance Codes: Demanding, Confusing and, Ultimately, How Effective?
Earnings may be on the upswing, but the turbulence touched off by recent accounting scandals is still very much in the air, thanks to blowups like the one at HealthSouth Corp. Pressure to improve corporate governance has been unrelenting in the past year, and it isn't likely to ease anytime soon.

Business Briefs: May
Survey: Private Firms React to Rules, Too ... High-Tech Firms Still Using Options ... Brand and Image Management Changing ... Employee Absence Costs Keep Rising ... Sales Tax Project Ranked Top Concern ... What's Your NQ? ... Corporate Governance Rating System Widened

Corporate Values Stimulus for the Bottom Line
Well-articulated company values can inspire employees and customers, as well as help build profitable, sustainable organizations.

XBRL: Revolutionizing the Corporate Reporting Supply Chain
XBRL can do for business reporting what giant metal boxes -- containerization -- did for the shipping industry.

Spring Economic Outlook: More Short-Term Pain
European countries need to regain a vision of growth and rely on themselves to fix their economic woes.

Solving Business Problems: Ethics Versus Education
A business professor argues that to solve today's corporate problems, ethics training is only part of the solution; the other part involves knowledge of key business drivers.

 

Does Issuing Dividends Pay?
President Bush's plan to eliminate the individual tax on dividends has spurred real strategy debates within companies -- with CFOs often differing with their CEOs.

 

Yes, Employee Stock Options CAN Be Valued
Recent history can provide clues for valuing employee stock options (ESOs). In fact, some experts say they can be modeled much like mortgage securities.

 

Considering Taking Your PUBLIC Company PRIVATE
The number of companies going private is increasing, just as the number of companies going public has decreased. Several compelling factors are driving the trends.

 

Business Briefs: March/April
Fewer Bankers Chasing M&A ... Allianz Targets D&O Marketplace ... R&D Spending Forecast Weak ... 10 Steps For Meeting New Governance Rules ... 'To-Do' List for Board Compensation Committees ... New Corporate Governance Handbook ... Online Site Focus: Business Assurance

 

The Future of Corporate Reporting: From The Top
James E. Copeland Jr., retiring in May and ending his 36-year career, is deeply concerned about the accounting environment and the tarring his entire profession has received for the wrongs of a few.

 

Corporate Heroes: Extraordinary Execution
In a global economy that has struggled for three years, some companies are demonstrating heroic qualities and overcoming tremendous obstacles. A look at four such corporate heroes.

 

Super Heroes To the Rescue!
Super heroes are overturning losses and transforming Marvel into a powerhouse entertainment company that's delivering shareholder value.

 

Director Of a Troubled Company? Stay Alert!
As a director of a troubled company, decisions you make can trigger huge potential liabilities -- unless you take steps to limit or avoid your exposure.

 

Global Views: Converging on the Language of Financial Reporting
The financial events of the last year have made it clear that a common worldwide language of financial reporting is a necessity. The good news is that the majority of countries recently surveyed support this need.

 

Making Sales Organizations More Cost-Effective in Lean Times
More than ever, financial executives are involved with sales operations. Ted Briggs, national head of the sales and marketing practice at Sibson Consulting, talks about effective targeting and competing in a tough environment, and shares common cost-containing mistakes to avoid.

 

Finance Portals: A View to Tomorrow's Business Strategies
While the benefits of operating through a centralized environment have been obvious for some time, new finance portals provide a complete and real-time picture of corporate performance.

 

The Future of Corporate Reporting: From the Top
An interview with Eugene D. O'Kelly, Chairman and CEO, KPMG LLP
KPMG's chief executive addresses tough questions about his role at KPMG, the firm's response to the accounting scandals, and his views on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

 

Can Your Audit Committee Withstand the Market's Scrutiny Of Independence?
Two professors summarize the recent rules about audit committees coming from Sarbanes-Oxley and the stock exchanges -- and offer advice about what to do and what not to do.

 

Business Briefs
Faster Reporting Could Boost Shareholder Value ... Contract Management Software Brings Savings ... Workers Confused About Pay: Study ... Survey Criticizes Credit Ratings ... Facts and Figures On Earnings Releases ... 2003 Salary Guide Sees Gains, Losses ... Protection Tips for Executive Travelers

New Regulations: Preparing for the Unplanned Costs
CEOs and CFOs in companies large and small are racing to better understand their financials in order to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and a myriad of other new SEC and corporate governance requirements.