Opportunity Disintegrates

Jeff Clarke recently found out what Mick Jagger has known for a long time: you can’t always get what you want. The former CFO of Compaq Computer Corp. resigned from his post at Hewlett-Packard Co., which merged with Compaq in 2002, when it became obvious to him that he was not going to get the CF...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Jan. 1, 2004

Executive M.B.A. Grads Decide to Look Elsewhere

In 2001, Charles Bryant, 43, began an executive M.B.A. program at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and his employer, E-commerce-applications company BroadVision Inc., agreed to chip in part of the $63,000 tab.But the Redwood City, Calif.-based employer laid off Mr. Bryant fr...

By Perri Capell • Dec. 26, 2003

Top Finance Officers Must Be ”Squeaky Clean”

Ted Martin is the founder and chief executive officer of Martin Partners LLC, an executive-search firm in Chicago.How have requirements changed for chief financial officers in the wake of corporate accounting scandals?The new recruiting requirements are tied to what’s going to happen at the board...

By Perri Capell • Dec. 12, 2003

Back on Course

For every big-name CFO whose name disgraced the evening news in recent years, many more law-abiding finance folks have sullied their reputations in subtle ways.The causes are usually mundane — yet often the person in question simply doesn’t recognize the problem, or doesn’t believe that anything ...

By Lisa Yoon • Dec. 5, 2003

Rosie Accounting?

Allegations of improper accounting are still popping up—and in some unlikely places. The most recent flap stems from Rosie O’Donnell’s fight with the publisher of her discontinued Rosie magazine, Gruner + Jahr USA. The former talk-show host alleged in a lawsuit that the publishing company used im...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 1, 2003

Embracing Change

In case you haven’t noticed, times are tough for finance executives. In public companies nowadays, those in the top finance chair shouldn’t count on staying for long. Just under 25 percent of current Fortune 500 CFOs have stayed more than five years at one company, according to a March study cond...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Dec. 1, 2003

Subject to Failure

As the mutual-fund probe widens, 401(k) plan sponsors are taking a hard look at an industry long regarded as a reliable workhorse for individual retirement plans. That image has taken quite a beating since September 3, when New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a $40 million set...

By Linda Corman • Dec. 1, 2003

Rethinking Cash Balance Plans

Cash balance plans, a hybrid of traditional defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution 401(k) plans, lately seem to offer more risks than benefits — among them, increased funding obligations, a damaging court ruling on age discrimination, and pending Congressional action to curb conve...

By Craig Schneider • Nov. 19, 2003

Negotiating Effectively When You Feel Outgunned

Hired as vice president of a multinational’s high-profile division, Noel wasn’t happy. Due to his past successes, technical credentials and stellar references, he should have been able to write his ticket. However, he wasn’t thrilled by the offer he accepted and he blames himself.Noel [a composit...

By Douglas Richardson • Nov. 14, 2003

Drop and Give Me $20 Million

Pushups aren’t required at the Boot Camp for Executives, but the break-’em-down-build-’em-back-up-again mentality of Marine Corps training is the hallmark of the business-reengineering program, run by The Tatham Group.In the two-day program, facilitators at the Toronto-based consulting firm lead ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 1, 2003

Executive Charisma: Can It Be Learned?

When hiring, companies tend to value the candidate “who is appropriately serious and sober, and a big listener at the right time in the conversation,” says John Wilson, whose San Francisco-based recruiting firm, J.C. Wilson Associates, San specializes in finance executives. That’s true even more ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 1, 2003

Work in Progress

From Q-tips to Wisk laundry detergent, Unilever Home and Personal Care—USA produces a tool for almost every aspect of household management. And its finance organization seems no less thorough when it comes to helping its own 215 staffers manage their careers. “We like our CFOs of the future to be...

By Lisa Yoon • Nov. 1, 2003

The Price They’re Paid

When it comes to compensating top CFOs, the times have changed even if the players have not. Consider James H. Hance Jr. In 2000, the Bank of America (BoA) finance chief and vice chairman topped our list of the 25 highest-paid Old Economy CFOs, and graced the cover of CFO magazine. The previous y...

By David Katz • Nov. 1, 2003

Cashless Contributions

The sagging stock-market performance of the past three years hasn’t been kind to pension plans. By one estimate, companies are carrying underfunded pension liabilities in the neighborhood of $400 billion. And the economic environment that has left pension plans with gaping deficits has left compa...

By Joseph McCafferty • Nov. 1, 2003

Shy of Retiring

Of all people, CFOs would seem to be among the best at managing their own retirement benefits. Their know-how in gauging corporate costs, estimating investment returns, and forecasting tax implications would seem especially well-suited to figuring out their own future finances.As it happens, howe...

By Lisa Yoon • Oct. 31, 2003

Are Your Interview Skills in Tune with the Times?

Part of any effective job search includes preparing for that all-important interview, but are your interviewing skills up-to-date? What were considered correct responses in the 1990s could actually prevent you from getting a job these days. Why? Because the job climate has shifted and employers h...

By Kim Villeneuve • Oct. 24, 2003

Board-ing School

When it came to selecting a training program for corporate directors last February, Phoebe Wood moved right to the head of the class.The executive vice president and CFO of Louisville-based Brown-Forman Corp. chose a course called “Directors’ Consortium,” offered at at the University of Pennsylva...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 10, 2003

How Following Orders Can Harm Your Career

Betty Vinson has always kept her life well ordered. She posts one list on the refrigerator of what she needs to buy at Wal-Mart and another for the grocery store. She keeps a list of the clothes she wears to work so she doesn’t repeat outfits too often. The daughter of the former owner of a small...

By Susan Pulliam • Oct. 3, 2003

All in the Grooming

It’s not every day that a CFO fresh off the plane draws a line in the sand. But Wayne Chang, who became CFO of General Electric’s Medical Systems China unit two years ago, walked into the job in Shanghai with a certain confidence that people would listen to him.He needed it, because GE’s China go...

By Lotte Chow • Oct. 1, 2003

Above Board

Any doubts that compensation committees would come under fire were erased this past September, when New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso was forced to resign over his controversial deferred compensation package of close to $140 million.The guns were already loaded. Just one month before, ...

By Lori Calabro • Oct. 1, 2003

Favorite Questions of Executive Recruiters

“If you were a tree, what kind would you be?” TV journalist Barbara Walters was widely ridiculed after she asked Katherine Hepburn this airy question during a prime time television interview.If you sit down to an interview with an executive recruiter, it’s likely you won’t enjoy such a softball q...

By Perri Capell • Sept. 26, 2003

You’ve Got a First-Rate Finance Department

Years ago, I visited my brother in Manhattan. At the time, he lived in an apartment above an Italian restaurant. “How’s that Italian place downstairs?” I asked.His reply: “It’s not that good, but they deliver.” By at least offering delivery service — an absolute essential in New York — the restau...

By Lisa Yoon • Sept. 12, 2003

Bonus Babies: The Best-Paid CFOs

When it comes to compensating top CFOs, the game has changed — but the players have not.Consider James Hance. In CFO magazine’s 1999 survey, based on information by Buck Consultants, the Bank of America finance chief and vice chairman topped our list of the 25 highest-paid old-economy CFOs. That ...

By David Katz • Sept. 5, 2003

Doing Time?

When will we know if Enron Corp.’s Andrew Fastow is going to walk free or head up the river? No time soon, if the case of Paul Polishan is any indication.If you don’t remember Polishan, don’t worry. It’s been more than 10 years since the former Leslie Fay Cos.’s CFO orchestrated a financial fraud...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 1, 2003

Career Changers Consider a B-School Injection

In a tough economy, it’s harder than ever for professionals to switch to new career fields. But take one or two years off to earn an M.B.A., and changing professions may not be too difficult.That’s what recent B-school graduates who made dramatic changes in their careers after they got their degr...

By Perri Capell • Aug. 22, 2003