Budgeting

It has long been suggested that recessions are the perfect time for companies to up their spending rather than curtail it. Layoffs and bankruptcies release huge amounts of valuable assets into the marketplace at bargain prices, while the specter of shrinking revenues keeps rivals on the sidelines...

By Alix Stuart • Aug. 1, 2002

It’s Not the Heat — It’s the Stupidity

Insiders. Whistle-blowers. Political mudslinging. Breakfast cereal. Really, who needs reality TV when you’ve got corporate finance?GOOD WEEK1. Martha StewartIt looks like Martha Stewart may be off the front pages for a while — which has to be welcome news for the besieged home and garden doyenne....

By John Goff • July 19, 2002

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

A Man, a Plan, a Root Canal

Internal auditors as heroes? President Bush as tough on business? The WorldCom’s turned upside down.GOOD WEEK1. Cynthia Cooper, Glyn Smith (WorldCom)It’s hard to believe anybody can come out looking good in the WorldCom fiasco. But apparently, Cooper and Smith (one and two in WorldCom’s internal ...

By John Goff • July 12, 2002

Death Tax Takes a Holiday, Briefly

Resting in peace just got tougher.In June, after months of rancorous debate, the U.S Senate voted not to abolish the sunset provision of the death tax (also known as the estate tax). The vote, which split down party lines, all but killed hopes for a permanent repeal of the death tax.Granted, the ...

By Craig Schneider • July 1, 2002

Metrics

It’s not just the recession that’s taking a bite out of earnings. The entire S&P 500, as well as the 10,000-plus companies included in Standard & Poor’s Compustat database, are slated for an earnings slim-down this summer, at least by S&P’s calculation.Blame a new metric known as “cor...

By Alix Stuart • July 1, 2002

Yen Masters

In Japan, where courtesy still rules supreme over substance, a growing number of business leaders are starting to get downright rude. Frustrated by 10 straight years of declining shareholder values, these leaders are doing the previously unthinkable–writing off billions of dollars in worthless as...

By Carla Rapoport • July 1, 2002

Now You See It

Like counting on one’s fingers, data visualization is neither new nor (necessarily) complicated. The computer-based forms most commonly used in business today — the executive “dashboard,” or scorecards of various sorts — can trace their roots back at least 20 years. In 1786, Scottish economist Wi...

By Scott Leibs • July 1, 2002

Can’t Anybody Around Here Add?

The usual suspects? These days, they’re mostly CFOs.GOOD WEEK1. Enron Corp.What’s the one thing that can make a $1.2 billion restatement seem minor? A $3.8 billion restatement.Enron’s managers — both current and ex — won’t ever say it publicly, but privately, they must be thrilled with WorldCom’s...

By John Goff • June 28, 2002

Martha and the Vandals

Another five days, another round of corporate restatements, scandals, and resignations. Even Martha Stewart got dragged down into the muck and the mire, down there where most of us live and do our laundry. Who made our blotter? Read on.GOOD WEEK1. Arthur LevittLooks like the former SEC Chairman w...

By John Goff • June 21, 2002

Recovery Not Around the Corner, say CEOs

CEOs of small and mid-sized companies have become less optimistic that the economy will begin to recover by the end of 2002. This, according to a quarterly survey by TEC International, an organization of CEOs of U.S. businesses with annual sales between $1 million and $1 billion.In the first quar...

By Stephen Taub • June 20, 2002

The Ashford Files

It was a peculiar five days. The Andersen jury couldn’t come to a decision, and France couldn’t score a goal. Who made out okay this week? Who didn’t do so hot? Read on.GOOD WEEK1. Sellers of D&O InsuranceOn Wednesday, officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that wo...

By John Goff • June 14, 2002

Five Empty Boxes, and More

Who had a swell week? Who had a lousy week? Read on, MacDuff.GOOD WEEK1. Arthur KrauseThis week, Sprint Corp. announced that CFO Arthur Krause is retiring. Krause, 60, deserves a little golf time. He started at Sprint 31 years ago. 31 years. To give you an idea: when Krause first started at Sprin...

By John Goff • June 7, 2002

Forecast: Breaking Clouds, Some Sun

CFOs are expecting brighter skies in the near future. With the fallout from Enron finally starting to diminish, first-quarter growth coming in at a robust 5.8 percent annual rate, and with productivity climbing, finance chiefs find reason to believe that the economy is poised for a sustained reco...

By Joseph McCafferty • June 4, 2002

The Week That Was — Sort Of

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a new weekly column from CFO.com. It’s called “Good Week/Bad Week,” and it’s a real simple concept. Each and every Friday, we’ll present our picks of the winners and losers in finance during the previous five days. Who had a good week, and who had a...

By John Goff • May 31, 2002

Business Mapping: Brain Gain

“What a waste it is to lose one’s mind,” Dan Quayle once famously intoned. He meant to say, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” and in botching the quote actually proved his point. But could he have communicated his idea more effectively?A small software firm called Mindjet LLC says yes. Minds...

By Scott Leibs • May 28, 2002

Is Greed Good?

“The chairman of your [board’s] compensation committee should be richer than you and older than you,” one of America’s most admired bosses advised a private gathering of 50 chief executives in New York last November. “That way, he won’t get jealous when you make your fortune. In fact, he should b...

By Matthew Bishop • May 24, 2002

Terrorism: The Ultimate Wild Card

Worried. CFOs are very worried.Eight months after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, finance chiefs say they are still concerned about the prospect of another assault on American soil. This pervasive fear was underscored by a recent survey of 200 chief financial officers, treasurers, and...

By Jennifer Caplan • May 10, 2002

To These, the Spoils

Not only has America’s productivity wonder survived its first recession; it has positively thrived. Output per man-hour in the non-farm business sector rose at an annual rate of 8.6% in the first quarter of this year, its fastest growth in 19 years. Quarterly figures are volatile, yet the year-on...

By Economist Staff • May 10, 2002

Details, Details

Managing data can be a real pain (your Brent Spiner joke here).In fact, Alan Yong, a veteran technology analyst at Aberdeen Group in Boston, says he was shocked to discover that users still list data integration as one of the biggest hurdles in implementing budgeting and planning (B&P) softwa...

By Marie Leone • May 7, 2002

A B&P Camelot?

Like many managers, Linda Lindsay uses a table for budgeting and planning (B&P). But unlike most, Lindsay’s table isn’t imbedded in an Excel spreadsheet. It’s in a conference room.That’s right — Linda Lindsay’s table really is a table. Every other month, 16 financial liaisons, representing mo...

By Marie Leone • May 6, 2002

Major Miners

Budgeting and planning software has gotten a whole lot better over the past few years. Most B&P applications are now Web-enabled, which means finance executives can access the programs from practically any location. Almost all the programs slot seamlessly with ERP systems. The latest crop of ...

By Marie Leone • May 6, 2002

CFOs: Sanguine About the Economy

Are things looking up? U.S. finance chiefs think so. Fewer CFOs are fretting about the short-term domestic and global economies compared with a year ago, and more are registering a vote of confidence than was the case last quarter, according to our quarterly Global Confidence Survey. Furthermore,...

By Marie Leone • March 12, 2002

Bend and Stretch: Our Eighth Annual Cost Management Survey

To say that corporate America has its eyes on costs these days is a bit of an understatement. Hardly a day goes by without some announcement of a layoff, stalled capital investment, or acquisition put on hold. In January alone, Ford Motor Co. announced the closing of five plants in North America;...

By Lori Calabro • Feb. 1, 2002

CFOs See Slower Turnaround, Says Survey

On the whole, economists seem confident that the economy will begin to turn around by the second quarter of next year. The corporate officers who actually make budgets based on future revenues are slightly less sanguine, however. In fact, many CFOs expect the recession to continue into the second...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 18, 2001

The Plane, Boss, the Plane!

Is this what flight attendants mean by de-planing?Recently, Granada, the $8 billion media giant, revealed that a $90 million cost-cutting drive would include the sale of its BAe 125 jet. Meanwhile, management at BAT, the $36 billion-in-revenues tobacco giant, put the company’s eight-seater Hawker...

By Ben McLannahan • Dec. 1, 2001