The Outlook

There is no question that over the past decade or so, chief financial officers have risen to prominence in the corporate landscape. And with the new century upon us, it’s only natural to wonder how the role may continue to evolve. What new responsibilities will they be expected to assume? Could a...

By Stephen Barr • Jan. 1, 2000

The Gurus

Unless Y2K turned out to be a much bigger catastrophe than most experts predicted, this issue of CFO reaches readers with 1,200 months to go until year-end 2099. No one can say for sure, of course, what the heirs of today’s finance professionals will face by the next fin de siècle. But the future...

By S.L. Mintz • Jan. 1, 2000

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

Who Knows?

Years after most executives first heard the term, knowledge management remains a fuzzy concept and an elusive corporate goal. No wonder, since few experts can even agree on what it is.“A lot of people still think of knowledge management as an IT solution to moving information around, and that’s a...

By Randy Myers • Dec. 1, 1999

Penny Pinchers: Our Sixth Annual SG&A Survey

Let’s face it. In the seventh year of the strongest bull market since World War II, the subject of cost savings is generally less riveting than, say, the size of the latest mega-merger. So it is perhaps not surprising that, with few exceptions, CFO magazine’s sixth annual SG&A survey reveals ...

By S.L. Mintz • Dec. 1, 1999

U.S. in Taxing Dilemma

A ruling by an international trade group could derail a domestic tax break that saves U.S. corporations billions annually. But there’s a strong likelihood that Uncle Sam will appeal the decision, and Congress may be called upon to draft new provisions that help companies compete internationally. ...

By John P. Mello Jr. • Oct. 1, 1999

The High Price of Potential

Those insane internet-company valuations have created quite a buzz on Wall Street of late. Although they’ve come down closer to Earth recently, it remains hard to divine rational explanations. Now a study of the Internet industry has found at least a little rhyme, if not reason, to the values–and...

By George Donnelly • Sept. 1, 1999

Smooth Operator

Greg Maffei says he doesn’t lose any sleep over Microsoft Corp.’s antitrust battle with the Justice Department, simply because the software giant’s 39-year-old senior vice president and CFO plays no role in the case. Yet Maffei claims that he worries about the company’s future nonetheless.What da...

By Ronald Fink • Aug. 1, 1999

The Plight of a New Currency

Issues with the Euro?Pity the poor euro. Introduced with fanfare in January, the euro has sagged since its inception, coming close to parity with the dollar. But while the euro has spurred some embarrassment and political handwringing among its Eurozone advocates, the new currency’s weakness also...

By George Donnelly • Aug. 1, 1999

Metrics for the Masses

More than a decade ago, Georgia-Pacific Co., in Atlanta, signed up with Stern Stewart & Co. and began measuring financial performance with Economic Value Added. It started making incentive payments to managers based on the EVA numbers. Then, before any thought could be given to extending the ...

By Bill Birchard • May 1, 1999

Forum: The Family of Managers

There’s a lot of criticism these days about the vagaries and personal politics involved with family businesses. As the chief financial officer of a 74-employee, second-generation family business, though, I’d say that any business would do well to adopt some of the underlying principles of a well-...

By Kent Noble • Sept. 1, 1998

Alan B. Graf Jr. – Fedex Corp.

Memphis in early August is about as hot as it gets in the summer-soaked South. Yet, there was Alan B. Graf Jr., executive vice president and CFO of FDX Corp. (parent of Federal Express), down in the trenches, sweating in a golf shirt, heavy gloves, and steel-toed boots, hauling packages at the co...

By Russ Banham • Sept. 1, 1998

Basil Anderson – Campbell Soup

For Campbell Soup Co., cost optimization is a key element of strategy. “It isn’t about head- count elimination or cutting for the sake of taking costs into the bottom line,” says Dale F. Morrison, CEO since June 1997 of the $6 billion food giant. “We call cost cutting a productivity program enabl...

By Ann Monroe • Sept. 1, 1998

Economy Class

Forget Microsoft Corp. It’s the airlines whose recent dealings with competitors really have companies on edge. With alliances in the wind between United and Delta, American and USAir, and Northwest and Continental, companies face the threat that this increasing cooperation will exacerbate the alr...

By John P. Mello Jr. • July 1, 1998

Speech Therapy

Just before his presentation to a group of about 70 investors and analysts last February, James Condon did what he frequently does before such occasions: he ducked into a bathroom and threw up. A few minutes later, the CFO of CyberCash Inc. was on stage and in command– confidently telling his com...

By Joseph McCafferty • June 1, 1998

When Puts Marry Calls

For companies that might otherwise resist raising cash at today’s low interest rates, Wall Street has devised a new temptation: synthetic put bonds, or put-call notes.“We probably wouldn’t have refinanced without this structure,” says David Van Benschoten, vice president for treasury operations a...

By Emily S. Plishner • May 1, 1998

Getting Defensive

If a company needs to mount a defense against a hostile takeover, the CEO’s first call likely goes to the general counsel. But increasingly, the finance department quickly gets brought into the fray as well.Smart move, at least in the case of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), which in March managed ...

By Linda Corman • May 1, 1998

High Rollers

The day before last Thanksgiving, then-39-year-old financial whiz Jonathan Ledecky pulled off a bold deal. He went to the public equity markets and raised half a billion dollars for his company, Consolidation Capital Corp., in an initial public offering. What made this deal so brazen was not just...

By Joseph McCafferty • April 1, 1998

One STEP at a Time

When Life USA Holding Inc. needed $100 million to expand its fast-growing business during the next five years, it skipped over the usual capital providers and went right to a vendor. Far from admitting weakness, submitting to exorbitant terms, or relinquishing some control of its own business, ho...

By Ian Springsteel • April 1, 1998

Different Strokes

In times of double-digit profit growth, companies seldom challenge a conventional approach to pricing. Apart from weighing costs and the importance of retaining favored customers, what else counts? But good times do not last forever. As companies grope for ways to sustain revenues through less bo...

By Cathy Lazere • April 1, 1998

Forum: Simpler Isn’t Always Better

Imagine arriving at the hospital by ambulance with your father, who is experiencing severe shortness of breath. As paramedics speed him into the emergency room, you try to make sense of highly technical medical jargon. Paramedics, nurses, and doctors communicate in “code,” using precise terms to ...

By Gabor Garai • March 1, 1998

All Together Now

No doubt about it, budgeting and forecasting are universally loathed. For the finance department, the process can take six months to complete. For most operations people, it’s an overly financial exercise designed mainly to please corporate headquarters. The result, says Holly Snyder, director of...

By Cathy Lazere • Feb. 1, 1998

Change of Viewpoint

In the fall of 1994, when then-31-year-old Eliot W. Jacobsen joined Viewpoint DataLabs International Inc. as its first CFO, circumstances were far worse than the confident alumnus of Harvard Business School and Boston’s Bain & Co. had realized. Far from a promising young technology firm in ne...

By Robert A. Mamis • Feb. 1, 1998

Champions of Change

Nobody knows that better than the winners of the 1997 REACH Awards for financial reengineering, cosponsored by CFO magazine and MasterCard Corporate Products.Case Corp. was a three-time finalist in last year’s competition; this year it’s a two-time winner, for internal audit operations and accoun...

By Ian Springsteel and Russ Banham • Dec. 1, 1997

In-Flight Infight

In a perfect world, Delta Air Lines Inc. CFO Thomas J. Roeck Jr., along with Ronald W. Allen, would be doing some first-class celebrating these days. As chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the nation’s third-largest airline, Allen presided over a breathtaking two-year rise from th...

By Roy Harris • Dec. 1, 1997

The Best Is EDS

Category WinnerCustomer ProcessingEmployee ProcessingTo undertake an extensive overhaul of finance at a company with more than $8 billion in annual revenues takes a lot of stamina in any year. But to do so in 1990, when words like reengineering, benchmarking, and best practices hadn’t yet entered...

By Russ Banham • Dec. 1, 1997