Human Capital: Page 76

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    What Share Is Fair?

    Even in a year when bonus pools are shallow, if not completely dry, few would dispute the merits of merit-based pay. In fact, many companies are planning to widen payout differences among employees, says Ilene Gochman, director of Watson Wyatt’s organization effectiveness practice, because they w...

    By Alix Stuart • Dec. 1, 2009
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    A Question of Balance

    Complain all you like about the 401(k) plan, but it is not going away.True, 401(k)s have not proved to be the perfect substitute for pension plans. Workers tend not to use them to full advantage, and employers don’t always follow best practices in designing them. Participants’ account balances to...

    By Randy Myers • Dec. 1, 2009
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    All Eyes on Reform

    It’s a paradox: For years, CFOs have bemoaned the continually rising cost of health care and have spent countless hours assessing what percentage of those costs can be passed through to employees. Yet when talk turns to reform efforts, many CFOs are lukewarm about the prospect, if not openly host...

    By Kate O'Sullivan • Dec. 1, 2009
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    Keen to Be Lean

    Even as they wait to see what impact health-care reform may have on their businesses, CFOs at the nation’s hospitals and health-care groups are working hard to streamline their operations and drive costs down as profits slide.To do that, they are open to any sources of inspiration. When ThedaCare...

    By Josh Hyatt • Dec. 1, 2009
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    “You Don’t Manage by Models.”

    When the federal government subjected the country’s 19 largest bank holding companies to a stress test last spring, one company in the test stood out: MetLife. That’s because MetLife is better known as a diversified life insurer, the nation’s largest. With assets of $535 billion, it may be too bi...

    By Edward Teach • Dec. 1, 2009
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    A Tax Credit? No Thanks

    With more than 100,000 full- and part-time workers on his payroll, Costco Wholesale Corp. CFO Richard Galanti isn’t opposed to a jobs tax credit that would offset a portion of new employees’ salaries. But would he hire more people just to receive such a credit? Probably not.“Why would we hire som...

    By Russ Banham • Dec. 1, 2009
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    After 16 Years, a CFO Returns

    It’s an unusual career arc that brings a CFO back to a company for a second go-round, especially when the two tenures are separated widely in time. Such is the case with W. Anderson “Andy” Bishop, who first served as finance chief of Hallador Petroleum from 1990 to 1993, then returned to the post...

    By • Nov. 30, 2009
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 27

    Microsoft Corp. CFO Chris Liddell will leave the company at the end of the year. He will be replaced by Peter Klein, who currently heads finance for Microsoft’s Business Division. Liddell has been at Microsoft since 2005; before that, he was CFO at International Paper Co.Planet Payment Inc. CFO S...

    By Joan Urdang • Nov. 25, 2009
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 20

    Two executives at The Walt Disney Co. will be swapping jobs. CFO Thomas Staggs, a 20-year veteran of the company, will become chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. He is replacing 23-year company veteran James Rasulo, who will become head of finance.Tim Martin has resigned from the top finan...

    By Joan Urdang • Nov. 20, 2009
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    Fiduciary Liabilities: Are You Covered?

    If you are a fiduciary for your employer’s retirement savings plan, you already know that life isn’t getting any simpler. Lawsuits against plan fiduciaries are on the upswing, and some fiduciaries have been found personally liable for plan losses under ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Securi...

    By Randy Myers • Nov. 19, 2009
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 13

    Former banker Mitchell Scherzer is the new head of finance at Hearst Corp. Most recently, he led the media practice at merchant-banking firm The Silverfern Group.Animation studio LAIKA Inc. has named Gary Raksis CFO. Formerly, he was head of strategic planning and corporate finance at DreamWorks ...

    By Joan Urdang • Nov. 13, 2009
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    A CFO’s Strategy: Verticals Within Verticals

    If not a match made in heaven, Lawson Software and its CFO, Rob Schriesheim, are at least a solid fit. To keep its footing in a market dominated by two much larger competitors, the company must have a very strategic orientation. And the finance chief, far from an accounting geek, has spent most o...

    By • Nov. 12, 2009
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    “We’ve Got to Find the Middle Ground”

    Often, when ominous noises emanate from this country’s complex financial machinery, Robert Pozen is called on for a diagnosis. The chairman of mutual-fund company MFS Investment Management and a lecturer at Harvard Business School, Pozen has a knack for delving into the nuts and bolts of tortuous...

    By Tim Reason • Nov. 10, 2009
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    Creating Buyers: The ESOP as Exit Strategy

    These are tough times for selling a privately owned business. Valuations are low as the economy struggles to emerge from its recession, and even where buyers and sellers can agree on price, it can be difficult to secure bank financing to complete a deal. That’s pushing some business owners to cre...

    By Randy Myers • Nov. 9, 2009
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    CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 6

    Anthony Vuolo, COO of health-information provider WebMD Health Corp., has added the title of CFO. Vuolo, who previously headed finance from 2005 until taking over the top operations post in 2007, replaces Mark Funston, who is leaving the company.Pharmacy company CVS Caremark has promoted David De...

    By Joan Urdang • Nov. 6, 2009
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    Inside the Mind of a Strategic CFO

    There are two routes to becoming a corporate CFO, says Richard Fearon, vice chairman and chief financial and planning officer for Eaton Corp., a $15.4 billion industrial manufacturer.Twenty years ago, most CFOs came through the accounting and controller route, recalls Fearon. Today, “you’d probab...

    By David Katz • Nov. 5, 2009
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    Apply Yourself

    Finally, there’s good news for job-hunting finance executives: you can stop worrying that your résumé will end up at the bottom of a chin-high stack on someone’s desk.That’s because hiring managers now read résumés on their BlackBerrys, deciding within 30 seconds which ones deserve attention. Tha...

    By Josh Hyatt • Nov. 1, 2009
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    Losing Altitude

    All good things must come to an end, and that includes the rise in CFO pay during recent years. Following a 4% increase in 2007, total direct compensation for CFOs fell 4% in 2008, thanks to the recession. Yet there was a silver lining: base salaries continued to rise at a strong clip, an indicat...

    By Russ Banham • Nov. 1, 2009
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    After the Storm

    Talk about silver linings: thanks to the recession, the core skill set of the CFO has been highlighted like never before. From working-capital management to cost control to scenario planning, the CFO’s expertise has proven to be the critical factor in corporate survival. Finance chiefs across the...

    By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 1, 2009
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    Are You “Strategic”?

    In case you haven’t heard, the strategic CFO is in vogue. Again. Not that any CFOs have confessed to being less than strategic — at least, not until after they leave their companies and can comfortably complain about how their former bosses held them back. But today, as companies gear up for post...

    By Alix Stuart • Nov. 1, 2009
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    When CFOs Take the Top Spot

    When Greg Ebel was promoted from CFO to CEO of Spectra Energy last year, he expected his job at the $5.2 billion (in 2008 revenues) natural-gas company to be a lot tougher. Instead, Ebel has actually found his current role to be less stressful than his previous one. “The finance chief is accounta...

    By Alix Stuart • Nov. 1, 2009
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    Recession Impressions

    By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 1, 2009
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    “The Worst Is Behind Us.”

    Financially, it wasn’t a great year for Cisco Systems. Net sales for the Silicon Valley giant fell by 8.7% in fiscal 2009, to $36.1 billion, and the stock fell below $14 in March before climbing back to nearly $25 in October. But strategically, it may have been a transformative year. Underscoring...

    By Edward Teach • Nov. 1, 2009
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    The War for Talent Is Still On

    The labor market is generally teeming with available talent, yet skilled finance and accounting employees are not necessarily any easier to find. Indeed, the accounting profession shed less than 2% of its jobs between September 2008 and September 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,...

    By Alix Stuart • Nov. 1, 2009
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    Stock Gains Don’t Rescue Pension Funding

    The stock market’s 15% leap in the third quarter helped out companies on two fronts: their share prices rose, and they got a good return on their own equity investments. But one thing the bull run did not do was trigger a rise in the funded status of defined-benefit pension plans.Counterintuitive...

    By • Oct. 30, 2009