ROI: Results Often Immeasurable?

One by one, they rose to make their pitches to the IT steering committee. As the day wore on, recalls consultant Doug Hubbard, business cases were presented for more than 20 IT projects. Each was framed in terms of the tremendous savings and benefits it would provide for the company, a giant midw...

By Norm Alster • Oct. 15, 2002

Scrambled Nest Eggs

In response to recent cases of senior executives “cooking the books,” federal legislators and finance regulators want to do some cooking of their own. What they’re looking at are ways to scramble the nest eggs of certain high earners.Reports of executives also getting paid huge sums in the wake o...

By Craig Schneider • Oct. 8, 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

I, Kozlowski

Disclaimer: While the entries in GW/BW are based on actual news items, some of the people, persons, events, and quotes in this article are fictional. Other stuff I just made up.Although there’s considerable debate among readers as to whether this column qualifies as a humor piece, it is intended ...

By John Goff • Sept. 27, 2002

Stealing Harvard

Not since 007 has a three-digit integer sounded so sexy.Now it’s 529, the number of the federal tax code section that spawned state-sponsored college savings plans, that’s grabbing the attention. Thanks to last year’s Tax Relief Act, which stripped away the tax on plan distributions, 529 plans ar...

By Craig Schneider • Sept. 26, 2002

Academia, and Other Assorted Nuts

Disclaimer: While the entries in GW/BW are based on actual news items, some of the people, persons, and events in this article are fictional. Other stuff I just made up.Please, no lawsuits.1. College CFOsAccording to a recent survey of CFOs of four-year colleges and universities by Education Mana...

By John Goff • Sept. 20, 2002

Finance Exec in Russia Abducted

The finance chief of Russia’s largest oil producer, OAO Lukoil, was abducted on his way to work last Thursday, according to reports from Dow Jones and the New York Times.Lukoil said first VP of finance Sergei Kukura‘s Mercedes was pulled over by masked men in camouflage carrying automatic rifles....

By Lisa Yoon • Sept. 16, 2002

Gracious Living

Disclaimer: While the entries in GW/BW are based on actual news items, some of the people, persons, and events in this article are fictional. Other stuff I just made up.Please, no lawsuits.GOOD WEEK 1. Jane WelchWhile going through a very public divorce must rank right up there with oral surgery ...

By John Goff • Sept. 13, 2002

CFOs: Recovery Not Right Around the Corner

After a cheerful forecast of an economic recovery three months ago, CFOs are once again concerned about future financial prospects at home and abroad. No doubt the scandals at WorldCom, Adelphia, and Tyco International–and the subsequent drop in the Dow and Nasdaq–have dampened their outlook.In f...

By Joseph McCafferty • Sept. 1, 2002

Global Confidence Survey

After a cheerful forecast of an economic recovery three months ago, CFOs are once again concerned about future financial prospects at home and abroad. No doubt the scandals at WorldCom, Adelphia, and Tyco International–and the subsequent drop in the Dow and Nasdaq–have dampened their outlook.In f...

By Joseph McCafferty • Sept. 1, 2002

Making Fares Fairer

When the airline industry announced second-quarter results in July, the numbers were not pretty: a combined $1.4 billion of red ink, after even larger losses in the first period. At the same time, US Airways was clearly on the brink of bankruptcy. So how did the airlines respond? They launched a ...

By Lori Calabro • Sept. 1, 2002

Summer Clearance

In response to numerous reader requests — yes, three can be considered numerous — we’ve decided to rerun our favorite items from Good Week/Bad Week from the past three months.We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed not having to write a new column this week.(Disclaimer: While the entries in ...

By John Goff • Aug. 30, 2002

George of the Jungle

Disclaimer: While the entries in GW/BW are based on actual news items, some of the people, persons, and events in this article are fictional. Other stuff I just made up.Please, no lawsuits.GOOD WEEK1. President BushIn a ceremony in the White House on Tuesday, President Bush signed sweeping legisl...

By John Goff • Aug. 2, 2002

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

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