Go Your Own Way

“Which idiot bought the first fax machine?” quips David Heede midway through a conversation about the Internet’s impact on corporate supply chains. It’s an unexpected — not to mention puzzling — question. But, pausing briefly, the director of purchasing at Bass Brewers, the UK beer maker owned by...

By Janet Kersnar • May 1, 2001

Say You’re Sorry

On the eve of a high-profile trial last winter involving Ford Motor Co., Bridgestone/ Firestone Inc., and a woman paralyzed in an accident involving a Ford Explorer and defective Firestone tires, the case was abruptly settled. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, except for one crucial...

By Kris Frieswick • May 1, 2001

Talent Loss, Tech Breakdowns Worry Dot-Com CFO

You’re the CFO of an E-tailer selling high-end clothes by designers ranging from Amy Chan to Zegna.Early this year, your company was frighteningly close to a Nasdaq delisting. Currently, the stock market’s in a downturn, with your own stock hovering at a little over a buck; department store inven...

By David Katz • April 26, 2001

New Guidelines Aim to Rein in Press Releases

Concerned that an increasing number of press releases may be less than reflective of both reality and GAAP, two organizations highly influential with senior financial executives on Thursday jointly issued a set of “best practices” guidelines intending to govern earnings press release preparation....

By Ed Zwirn • April 26, 2001

Wall Street Feels Reg FD’s Pain

If former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt could have been a fly on the wall at Tuesday’s SEC-sponsored meeting on the impact of Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), he would have been fairly satisfied. The rule, which was designed to prohibit selective disclosure of material information, was one of his pe...

By Jennifer Caplan • April 26, 2001

Press to CFOs: Lighten up on Reg FD!

The conventional wisdom says that the SEC’s Regulation FD has been a nightmare for financial executives since the rule’s enactment late last year. But, at an SEC-sponsored forum on Tuesday, several members of the news media and some financial information providers said that compliance with the ru...

By Jennifer Caplan • April 25, 2001

BREAKING NEWS: SEC Will Go Easy on Reg FD

CFOs complained, and the SEC has listened. That’s the message coming out of a Tuesday meeting sponsored by the regulatory agency in New York.Responding to CFO requests for both clarification of the rule and leniency in its enforcement, regulatory officials, including acting chair Laura Unger and ...

By Ed Zwirn • April 24, 2001

What’s in Store for Reg FD if It’s Not “In Play?”

Six months after Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure) was put into effect, the SEC will journey into the geographical heart of the investment community for a roundtable discussion centering on how it has worked so far. SEC officials, led by acting Chairman Laura S. Unger, who was the only commissioner...

By Ed Zwirn • April 23, 2001

Case Study: What If Your ERP Can’t Deliver?

Hershey still haunts them.True, CFOs whose companies are installing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems try to avoid the cost overruns and other, even worse perils.But the candy maker’s scary tale seems to have staying power. Maybe it’s because it all came down on Halloween, 1999.By then, ...

By David Katz • April 19, 2001

This Year’s Model

The vertical-marketplace model seemed so simple. Pick any multibillion-dollar industry. Insert your Web site between the buyers and suppliers. Skim a small fee off each transaction they conduct. Retire to a life of truffles and witty conversation.Unfortunately, the plan had one small hitch. Cash ...

By Tim Reason • April 15, 2001

Basel Faulty

Even at the height of E-commerce fever in 1999, local bankers in Asia and Europe didn’t fall over themselves to lend money to fledgling dot-coms. Few start-ups had the receivables or assets to qualify for loan facilities or lines of credit. Moreover, capital adequacy ratios set by the Basel, Swit...

By Adam Lincoln • April 15, 2001

Put Up or Shut Up

In theory, it is possible for managers at a public company to ignore the Internet and still comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (www.sec.gov) new standards for disclosing corporate information. It’s also possible that Bob Denver will be named patron saint of Uzbekistan, but it’s ...

By Randy Myers • April 15, 2001

Why One CFO Said Good-bye to His Defined-Benefit Pension

Sometimes it pays for a CFO to take a chance on a new job. But in this economy, maybe not too much of one. Ken Possenriede, CFO of Exostar, an independent E-marketplace for the aerospace and defense industry, finds he’s made just such a move.Before being named CFO of Exostar, one of the emerging ...

By David Katz • April 12, 2001

Reg FD Memo: Don’t Talk to Reporters

If CFOs talk to reporters about market-moving information, they might as well be talking to Wall Street analysts…at least when it comes to Regulation Fair Disclosure. This means these types of conversations could easily lead to a violation of Reg FD—and enforcement actions and penalties from the ...

By David Katz • April 10, 2001

Anti-Hacker Insurance Offered

Certain companies worried about Internet security can buy new insurance protection to help their executives sleep better. Insurance for Internet-related crime and expanded coverage for losses caused by certain third-party vendors are among the features provided under policy endorsement just added...

By CFO Editorial Staff • April 6, 2001

Getting Stiffed by Deadbeats?

Far from the roller coaster reports of earnings and economic indicators, risks are buried in back offices, moldering in old ledgers. But CFOs who want to make the best of a worsening economy may soon turn to digging up the facts on less sensational risks and actively managing them.Like the risk t...

By David Katz • April 5, 2001

Captives for Rent

Directory Distributing Associates Inc. (DDA) stopped paying through the nose for workers’ compensation insurance in 1994. Fed up with expensive state assigned-risk pools, DDA rented a captive facility instead–and slashed its expenses by half. “The strategy has driven down our costs and provided m...

By Russ Banham • April 1, 2001

Forensic Computing

Companies routinely find themselves in court these days for everything from trademark disputes to wrongful termination suits. And as more information goes digital, so does more courtroom evidence. PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Larry Kanter says that so-called electronic discovery is now commonpl...

By Alix Stuart • April 1, 2001

The FD Effect

Gregory Geswein feels a bit like a jilted lover. The reason: In recent months, the CFO of Diebold Inc. hasn’t been getting as many calls as he had from Wall Street analysts who follow the North Canton, Ohio, maker of automated teller machines. Sometimes Geswein will even get up the courage to cal...

By Stephen Barr • April 1, 2001

Ergonomics Rules Still Kicking

In the wake of federal legislation scrapping the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) ergonomics rules, momentum is quietly building on both the federal and state level for some kind of regulatory approach to take their place. According to a source at OSHA who refused to be iden...

By Ed Zwirn • March 30, 2001

Why CFOs Should Get Risk Management, HR To Play Nice

Sometimes it takes a CFO to bang the heads of risk management and human resources professionals to get them to play together for the good of the company. That was the case at National Semiconductor, remembers Eugene F. Kiernan, the veteran director of risk management and insurance for the Sunnyva...

By David Katz • March 29, 2001

What’s the ROI for Your Benefits?

Not long ago, calculating the return on investment (ROI) for your employee benefit plan might have been a normal activity—if you were the CFO of a company domiciled on Mars. Benefits, after all, have long been considered a “soft,” unquantifiable area.To be sure, everyone knew that benefits produc...

By David Katz • March 22, 2001

Delta’s Strategy for Reducing Turbulence

It should come as no surprise that Delta Air Lines has financial perils on its corporate mind.Beset by the threat of a pilot strike and by shrinking passenger rolls, Delta warned Tuesday that it expects to report a first-quarter loss of $85 million to $110 million, or 70 cents to 90 cents a share...

By David Katz • March 15, 2001

Did Amazon’s CEO Pass the Smell Test?

The ferocity of the insider trading controversy picked up steam when The New York Times reported last week that Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for his sale of up to 800,000 shares in February. It’s far from certain that Bezos actually ran...

By Joseph Radigan • March 13, 2001

Dodging OSHA’s Earnings Threat

In the end, employers dodged a bullet. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ergonomics rule could have added a loud “pop” to workers’ compensation costs. But on Wednesday, the House passed a bill disapproving the voluminous rule, as the Senate did earlier in the week. Now the bill is...

By David Katz • March 8, 2001