Catch-23

After DynCorp’s bid on a $40 million contract to maintain the C-141 cargo plane at Oklahoma’s Altus Air Force Base was turned down (along with several other competitors’) by the Department of Defense last year, president and CEO Paul Lombardi could hardly conceal his disgust. “It left a bad taste...

By Michelle Celarier • June 1, 1998

Up Close and Virtual

To high-tech companies, outsourcing and alliances are old hat; the pace of technology makes going it alone difficult for even the largest businesses. But EMC Corp., in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is pushing these strategies to new lengths. Since 1990, the maker of enterprise data storage systems ha...

By Kris Frieswick • April 1, 1998

Making Your Mark

Don DeNovellis is riding high on the power of branding. As CFO of $250 million Ekco Group Inc., DeNovellis recently helped mount a successful turnaround at the Nashua, New Hampshire-based company following its record loss of $30 million.Last year, the provider of kitchenware and bakeware, animal ...

By Russ Banham • March 1, 1998

Fighting Words

To the list of venues where intangible property has tangible asset value, add this one: The federal court system. Emboldened by Congress’s creation in 1983 of what many lawyers have come to view as a patent-friendly federal appellate court, and by a 1996 Supreme Court decision giving judges more ...

By Randy Myers • March 1, 1998

Sliced, Diced, and Still Obscure

When the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) adopted new rules for reporting the results of business segments last June, a snicker could be heard in finance departments from New York to L.A.In theory, Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 131 granted financial analysts their long-cherished ...

By Ian Springsteel • Feb. 1, 1998

HELL IN YOUR HALLWAYS

Mention the risk of violence in the workplace, and most people probably imagine mayhem inside post offices, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants. Their first thought certainly isn’t of a corporate setting.But if you assume you’re automatically safe within an office, consider this: 14 wor...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Jan. 1, 1998

On the Stand

Most chief financial officers don’t expect a day’s work to involve being a key actor in a courtroom drama. But with a rise in claims against corporations and renewed litigation accompanying today’s surging mergers activity, they’d better get prepared.At least that’s the view of such attorneys as ...

By Michelle Celarier • Jan. 1, 1998

Hell in Your Hallways

Mention the risk of violence in the workplace, and most people probably imagine mayhem inside post offices, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants. Their first thought certainly isn’t of a corporate setting.But if you assume you’re automatically safe within an office, consider this: 14 wor...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Jan. 1, 1998

Pepsi’s Next Generation of Purchasing

Category WinnerVendor ProcessingWhen Pepsi-Cola North America started to re- design vendor processing five years ago, controller and vice president Peter Bridgman figured the toughest part would be designing and implementing the new system. Sure enough, Richard Maddi, group manager, supplier serv...

By Ian Springsteel • Dec. 1, 1997

Where Credit Is Due

What’s wrong with this picture? Six years into the current economic expansion, both stock prices and personal bankruptcies are at record levels. A case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Maybe, maybe not. This much is clear: Companies that depend on consumer credit for much o...

By Robert Stowe England • Nov. 1, 1997