Space Race

Many companies will move or expand into new facilities in 2011, particularly if the economy picks up steam. Fortunately for them — and for companies that simply want a better deal on their current space — the weak commercial real estate market presents opportunities for significant savings. With ...

By Russ Banham • Feb. 1, 2011

Any More Bright Ideas?

As the economy has struggled, the calls for America to pull itself out of its recessionary funk with an intensified commitment to innovation have grown louder by the day. Has America lost its R&D edge? Has the overall pace of invention slowed, and, if so, by how much? New figures regarding th...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Feb. 1, 2011

In the Minority on Majority Voting

At Apple’s annual meeting next month, the company’s seven directors up for election — including CEO Steve Jobs, who recently took a medical leave of absence — will very likely keep their seats. Six of them have been on the board for at least three years and one board member, Ronald Sugar, former ...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 27, 2011

Does the SEC Care if You’re Green?

One year after issuing controversial guidance for following environmental-risk disclosure rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission appears to have given the matter little attention.In a review of comments to regulatory filings made in 2010, law firm Davis Polk found only six instances of SEC...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 24, 2011

Regulatory Relief on the Horizon?

Last week President Obama issued an executive order that sounds like a dream come true for some companies. In it, he called for an across-the-board regulatory rollback, directing all federal agencies to form a plan for regularly reviewing and culling their current rules.The goal, as he explained ...

By Alix Stuart • Jan. 21, 2011

Regulatory Relief on the Horizon?

Last week President Obama issued an executive order that sounds like a dream come true for some companies. In it, he called for an across-the-board regulatory rollback, directing all federal agencies to form a plan for regularly reviewing and culling their current rules.The goal, as he explained ...

By Alix Stuart • Jan. 21, 2011

Boardroom Focus in 2011: Growth

Many CFOs can expect less stressful, more positive board meetings in 2011, with an emphasis on strategy and growth, say corporate-governance experts.Take the issue of cash. For the past few years, anxious directors have been asking finance chiefs how they intend to raise or preserve it. Now, with...

By Sarah Johnson • Jan. 13, 2011

Best of 2010: Regulation

If 2009 was a year of uncertainty in terms of how far-reaching the inevitable reform of the U.S. financial regulatory system would be, 2010 was a year of answers, starting with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Thanks to its 2,300 pages and more than 50...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Jan. 4, 2011

Best of 2010: Risk Management

Risk came at CFOs from seemingly every corner in 2010. Two major global brands faced reputational disasters, as Toyota’s safety problems and BP’s record-breaking oil spill grabbed headlines. The unstable global economy made news throughout the year, prompting finance chiefs to evaluate their curr...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 30, 2010

Executive Comp: Say When

CFOs’ compensation packages will be exposed to shareholders’ scrutiny next year, thanks to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which imposes mandatory advisory votes on publicly traded companies. But how often investors get their so-called say on pay will depend on anot...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 17, 2010

An Offer That Whistle-blowers Can’t Refuse?

By proposing to offer whistle-blowers big cash rewards if they come straight to the Securities and Exchange Commission with information about potential corporate fraud, the SEC will spur companies to tighten their internal controls, risk-management and internal-audit experts say.The Dodd-Frank fi...

By David Katz • Nov. 29, 2010

A Guide to Board Diversity

Although women and minorities have been seeking seats on corporate boards for many years, progress toward diversity in the boardroom continues to be glacial. More than half of public companies do not have a single minority director, while almost one out of three companies lacks a female director,...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Nov. 23, 2010

One Step Closer to Little GAAP

A blue-ribbon panel has recommended that a new set of accounting standards be drawn up for private companies based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The panel also recommended that a private-company rulemaking board be established, separate from the Financial Accounting Standards ...

By Marie Leone • Nov. 1, 2010

Missing from Proxies: Risk Talk

A recent analysis of 398 proxy statements filed by S&P 500 companies between February 28 and July 1 of this year found that only 22% of them mentioned that the CEO had any direct involvement in risk management. The study, conducted by Deloitte, also found that:• Just 35% of companies describe...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Nov. 1, 2010

A Fix for “Proxy Plumbing”

Finance executives want shareholders to come out of hiding, if for no other reason than to lower the costs of communicating with them.Toward that end, for the past several months the Securities and Exchange Commission has been soliciting comments on so-called proxy plumbing, the processes that de...

By Alix Stuart • Nov. 1, 2010

Six Days in June: Behind Office Depot’s Reg FD Violation

When Office Depot’s CEO and CFO determined in May 2007 that per-share earnings probably would fall short of analysts’ 48 cent consensus, they devised an unorthodox strategy.Just after CEO Stephen Odland notified the board of the lower projections on May 31, according to a recent Securities and Ex...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 29, 2010

Spending into a Headwind

Through the course of the economic downturn, many finance chiefs have come under pressure to locate as much cash as possible to make up for plummeting sales. For those executives, that’s often meant cutting back on spending for future growth.Yet for some companies, maintaining a certain level of ...

By David Katz • Oct. 29, 2010

Six Days in June: Behind Office Depot’s Reg FD Violation

When Office Depot’s CEO and CFO determined in May 2007 that per-share earnings probably would fall short of analysts’ 48 cent consensus, they devised an unorthodox strategy.Just after CEO Stephen Odland notified the board of the lower projections on May 31, according to a recent Securities and Ex...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 29, 2010

Lessons of the Fall

It may be hard to believe, but there was at least one positive outcome to the financial hardship that befell companies in the wake of the economic crisis that struck in September 2008: a heightened sense among finance chiefs of how to assess and manage unexpected risks.That message could be culle...

By David Katz • Oct. 27, 2010

More Bucks for Boards

A new study by accounting and consulting firm BDO found that director pay at midmarket companies rose 2% last year to an average of $110,500, a small increase reflecting the stagnant state of the economy. Of the 600 companies in eight industries studied, technology firms were the most generous wi...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Oct. 26, 2010

Software Blunders Trip Up Businesses

A gathering plague of glitches in software code that is threatening the financial health of many companies will only worsen as reliance on technology inevitably accelerates.So says Jeff Papows, former CEO of two big software companies that are now IBM business units, Lotus Software and Cognos. In...

By David McCann • Oct. 22, 2010

When in Doubt, Print It Out

For the past six months, Stephen Pedneault has been on a soapbox, decrying technology’s negative effects on the detection, prevention, and resolution of accounting and financial fraud. “When it comes to internal controls, we need to go back to basics,” he proclaims.Not exactly a Luddite, Pedneaul...

By David Katz • Oct. 21, 2010

The SEC: All Together Now?

The five-member Securities and Exchange Commission consists of three Democratic and two Republican appointees, and it operates in a highly politicized environment. During fractious times like these, with bipartisanship a rare commodity on Capitol Hill, pressures mount on the agency’s ability to p...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 6, 2010

The Calm Before Reform

You didn’t think you were going to walk away unscathed, did you?The historic Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 is now law. The 2,300-page statute takes aim at the financial-services industry, imposing a raft of new regulations and capital requirements on banks and ...

By Randy Myers • Oct. 1, 2010

Thinking Outside the Stocks

Alternative investments, such as hedge funds, private equity, and real estate, are slowly gaining sway with corporate pension fund managers. A recent survey by J.P. Morgan Asset Management of about 150 corporate pension plans found that alternative investments constitute about 11% of their assets...

By Alix Stuart • Oct. 1, 2010