How to Hire Influential Finance Staffers: A Case Study

How do you go about hiring a finance staffer? As when filling any position, you selectively screen résumés. You conduct a traditional one-on-one interview and subject candidates who survive that cut to multiple additional interviews. You thoroughly examine their technical skills. Perhaps you run ...

By David McCann • Feb. 13, 2014

Video: TV Management CFO Edward Van Saders

Edward Van Saders has spent the last 20 years running finance for news and media operations. In his present job, Van Saders, who studied acting in college, is CFO at TV Management Associates, the parent company of independent station WRNN in New York.Like most people, he’s had ups and downs over ...

By Marielle Segarra • Feb. 10, 2014

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Top 5 stories from CFO.com

From CPA licensure changes to undergoing a digital transformation, these are the most popular stories CFOs are reading. 

By CFO.com staff

Is Finance-Cost Benchmarking Off Track?

The typical method of establishing a peer group for purposes of benchmarking the finance function’s costs is lacking an important ingredient, according to research and advisory firm CEB.When benchmarking finance costs, companies generally compare themselves to others in their industry (or related...

By David McCann • Feb. 7, 2014

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Feb. 7

Walter Investment Management has selected Gary Tillett to head finance, after the company files its form 10-K for 2013. Tillett, a former adviser to the firm, most recently worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he headed the New York Metro transaction services practice.Kevin Cook has been promo...

By Joan Urdang • Feb. 7, 2014

Baptist Pastor Moonlights as CFO

Meet William Dawson. We met him ourselves at CFO’s Playbook for Private Companies conference in Miami in late October. To say he’s not a typical finance chief would be something of an understatement.Dawson is the pastor of Mount Gilead, a Baptist church in Williamsburg, Va. When a pair of parishi...

By David McCann • Feb. 6, 2014

PCAOB Abandons Auditor Rotation

After spinning its wheels on auditor rotation for three years, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board may have finally conceded defeat. On Thursday, according to CFO Journal, PCAOB chairman James Doty told the SEC that “We don’t have an active project or work going on within the board to m...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 6, 2014

Needed: Guidance on FASB Private Company Rules

While there have been a number of healthy and spirited debates recently over the proper approach to aiding small and mid-sized businesses, there is no disagreement over the importance of creating an environment that is conducive to their growth.It is in this spirit that on January 16, 2014, the F...

By Joe Adams • Feb. 5, 2014

Obamacare May Push More to Work Less

A new report from Congress projects 2.5 million fewer jobs due to the Affordable Care Act’s effect over the next 10 years, but the drop will mostly come from Americans reducing their own work hours. With easier access to health care outside of the full-time job market, some may drop out to pursue...

By Aram Zucker-Scharff • Feb. 4, 2014

Batter Up! Baseball-Gear CFO Enjoys His Unique Job (Video)

You don’t have to be a baseball fan to be familiar with the term “Louisville Slugger,” perhaps the most iconic brand name in sports history. Lawrence Writer, the CFO and chief operating officer of the famed baseball bat’s maker, Hillerich & Bradsby, knows he’s got a job that more than a few p...

By David McCann • Feb. 4, 2014

Can Financial Regulation Make You Too Risk-Averse About People?

Evidence suggests that investors, leaders and others may become excessively fearful of risk. That creates dangers and opportunities when it comes to human capital, and “retooling” human capital risk with principles from finance and other management disciplines can help leaders stay balanced.Finan...

By John Boudreau • Feb. 4, 2014

HP Audit Finds Proof Autonomy Fudged Accounting

Hewlett-Packard, aided by auditor Ernst & Young, has found what it was looking for: proof that British firm Autonomy Corp., which HP acquired in 2011, was cooking the books. In a filing to U.K. regulators, HP said Friday that Autonomy had inflated revenues and made errors in accounting for ce...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 3, 2014

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Jan. 31

Thomas Sweet has been named to lead the finance function at Dell. He takes over from Brian Gladden, CFO since 2008, who is leaving the company at the end of February. Sweet is moving up from his posts as corporate controller and chief accounting officer.Starbucks has promoted CFO Troy Alstead to ...

By Joan Urdang • Jan. 31, 2014

Will the ‘myRA’ Help Companies Cut Retirement-Plan Costs?

In the corporate world over the past 30 years, pension plans gave way, in large part, to 401(k) plans. Companies saved big bucks; workers didn’t fare as well.In his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama unveiled a new idea that could result in companies shedding still more of...

By David McCann • Jan. 29, 2014

The Role of Intuition in a World of Big Data

In the fairly recent past, I worked as a part of the leadership team at a company that was built and run almost entirely on the intuition and instincts of a small group of founders. There was plenty of raw data and a good deal of relevant information around too, but when it came to the critical d...

By John Parkinson • Jan. 29, 2014

What’s the Point of a Tax Audit?

Problem audits with the IRS are always a little bit of everybody’s fault. Taxpayers who feel bullied become unresponsive.  Auditors who feel ignored take a hard line.  Before you know it, no one is talking, every exchange is hostile and the point of the tax audit is entirely forgotten.“What’s the...

By Walter Harris • Jan. 27, 2014

A New Direction for Goodwill

Private companies may have something to celebrate in 2014. The Private Company Council (PCC), an advisory body to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, is rejiggering financial reporting for private firms this year. Among the changes is a new standard that proponents say will make it easier f...

By Marielle Segarra • Jan. 27, 2014

The Bud Starts Here

The marijuana industry in Colorado has potential to be massive, yet there are still roadblocks preventing it from becoming a legitimate business endeavor.One major hurdle holding marijuana growers, retailers and ancillary businesses back is the banking industry’s reluctance to allow businesses to...

By Alissa Ponchione • Jan. 27, 2014

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Jan. 24

Rowan Conn is the new CFO at Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. He replaces Sean Gamble, who will leave the company for unspecified reasons but will stay on until March 31. Conn moves over from NBCUniversal International, where he was also CFO. Jason Beesley will take over that post.BMG, the m...

By Joan Urdang • Jan. 24, 2014

The Construction Industry: A Recipe for Growth?

For those worrying whether sustained growth will ever return to the U.S. economy, the construction industry may represent a beacon of hope. Devastated by the recession, builders have been seeing their sales rising ever since they hit the bottom of the downturn more than three years ago. Better ye...

By David Katz • Jan. 23, 2014

New Market-Based Income Tax Poses Challenges

Some say it’s because of the increase in virtual Internet-based companies. Others say it’s due to the growth of the service-based economy. And certainly the states’ need for revenue is playing a role, as is the states’ desire to appear more tax friendly to companies located or thinking of relocat...

By Joseph F. Burnett • Jan. 22, 2014

For Ex-Yahoo! Finance Exec, Thinking Big Means Going Small

Mark Lambert spent 12 years working at Fortune 500 companies. For the past eight, he’s been plying his trade at small start-up ventures. He prefers the latter, and it’s not a close call.An experience Lambert had shortly after joining ClearSlide, a maker of sales-productivity software tools where ...

By David McCann • Jan. 21, 2014

FASB Issues New Private Company Accounting Alternatives

Private companies that adhere to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) will soon have more options when it comes to accounting for goodwill and for interest rate swaps. On Thursday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued two updates to GAAP. Any private company that doesn’...

By Marielle Segarra • Jan. 20, 2014

China Will Always Be a Struggle

Baidu CEO Robin Li believes foreign firms will always find it tough to succeed in China, the search engine’s home market, according to a CNN story Monday. The reason they  fail is because they don’t “understand the local market environment,” says Li. “Companies need to know how to connect to the ...

By Vincent Ryan • Jan. 13, 2014

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Jan. 10

Bob Pollichino plans to retire as head of finance at The Madison Square Garden Co. next fall, but he will remain a consultant to the company for 12 months after his retirement. A search for his replacement is underway.Pericom Semiconductor has named James Boyd to the top finance spot. He is a for...

By Joan Urdang • Jan. 10, 2014

Why Your ERP Is Underperforming

The latest annual study by Panorama Consulting Solutions confirms what many users of enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) already knew: implementing one can be a nightmare and reaping its expected benefits is tricky.In a survey of 172 global companies by technology adviser Panorama, only 3...

By David McCann • Jan. 6, 2014