CFOs’ Optimism at 5-Year Low

Financial executives’ attitude on the U.S. economy has gone downhill. In the midst of weakening housing prices and consumer demand, plus concern about fuel costs, labor costs, and interest rates, nearly 50 percent of CFOs are more pessimistic about the economy than they were three months ago. Thi...

By Sarah Johnson and Don Durfee • Sept. 13, 2006

Sowing the Seeds of Your Legacy

When Warren Buffett announced his plan to channel billions of dollars worth of his personal fortune through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in an effort to eradicate major diseases, philanthropy became headline news. Few can rival the size of Buffett’s donation — approximately $37 billion, ...

By Chuck Jaffe • Sept. 1, 2006

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

What Lies Behind Those “Rational” Decisions?

Once a fringe subject, behavioral finance is now taught in business schools across the land. The notion that psychological factors can distort financial decision-making is widely accepted, although the effects of such distortions on markets continue to be debated. Most research in the field has f...

By Edward Teach • Sept. 1, 2006

Here Comes the Son

Aditya Mittal launched the largest merger in steel industry history late last January, a few daysafter his 30th birthday. Following a bruising eight-month battle, which featured protectionist rumblingsfrom various European governments and a vigorous (some said racist) defence by the seniormanagem...

By Tony McAuley • Aug. 30, 2006

Overseas Gigs Shorter, But Not Cheaper

As global companies increasingly get a better handle on how much their international assignment programs truly cost, they’re looking for ways to cut back, according to Achim Mossmann of KPMG.Some are decreasing the amount of time employees spend away from their main office. KPMG’s Global Assignme...

By Sarah Johnson • Aug. 28, 2006

Price Fixers Hit with Stiffer Fines

Not only may companies implicated in price-fixing schemes have to pay hefty fines, they may have to pay them twice, if not more.In May, the European Court of Justice, an appeals court for the European Union, upheld a fine of €43.9 million ($55.5 million) imposed on Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Dani...

By Karen M. Kroll • Aug. 24, 2006

Energy Costs Top Small Biz Worries

Increasing energy and fuel costs have become the main concern for small businesses, according to a nationwide study sponsored by the International Profit Associates Small Business Research Board.Of the 358 small business owners polled in July, 15 percent named energy and fuel prices as the primar...

By Helen Shaw • Aug. 17, 2006

Setting a Gold Standard

Candente Resource Corp. no longer calculates currency-exchange rates. It doesn’t wait for international wire transfers to clear either. It doesn’t have to: the gold- and copper-drilling company, based in Vancouver, converted some of its corporate dollars and cents to gold grams and mils.“When I d...

By Laura DeMars • Aug. 10, 2006

Cabin Fever

If in springtime thoughts turn to love, by late summer hearts yearn for real estate. After a week watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico or red-tail hawks soar over Big Sur, it’s only natural to dream of doing it all again next year. And over the holidays. And long weekends. Heck, why not e...

By Scott Leibs • Aug. 1, 2006

View from China

In the rush to gain a foothold in a market of 1.3 billion people, multinationals are pursuing mergers and acquisitions in China more religiously than ever. Foreign companies have so far this year bought stakes in 248 Chinese assets, many of them state-owned, worth $14 billion, according to data p...

By Wu Chen • Aug. 1, 2006

Learning to Love Dividends

This is the age of the share buyback. With record amounts of cash swelling corporate bank accounts, companies are increasingly giving money back to shareholders by buying their own stock. Over the past year and a half, companies in the S&P 500 have spent a staggering $515 billion repurchasing...

By Don Durfee • Aug. 1, 2006

House Passes Ex-Im Small Business Bill

Small businesses that want to export their products got a boost from Congress on Tuesday, when the House unanimously approved a bill to reauthorize and reform the U.S. Export-Import Bank.The legislation—H.R. 5068—which must now make its way through the Senate, was sponsored by Rep. Deborah Pryce ...

By Marie Leone • July 25, 2006

Lessons From A Global Retailer: An interview with the President of Careefour China

Carrefour’s hypermarkets in China are the Bosporus of retailing—commercial centers where East and West splash against each other. Tanks of live fish, eels, bullfrogs, and turtles dominate the fresh-food sections, while vacuum-packed strips of bacon and slices of pepperoni lie in refrigerated case...

By The McKinsey Quarterly • July 19, 2006

The Fine Art of Self-Protection

No one likes to spend money on something he can get for free, but if the fine print on your employer-sponsored disability insurance reads like a Stephen King novel, consider investing in your own personal policy.While medical science has greatly enhanced the odds of surviving a catastrophic illne...

By Randy Myers • July 1, 2006

Business Outlook Survey

It didn’t take long for finance executives to lose faith in the future of the economy. After a spike in optimism last quarter, CFOs are back to their worrying ways. According to the latest Duke University/CFO Business Outlook Survey, just 24 percent of CFOs are more optimistic about the direction...

By Joseph McCafferty • July 1, 2006

Small, Midsize Manufacturers Optimistic

Fully 96 percent of top executives describe the condition of their manufacturing or distribution business as “thriving and growing” or “holding its own,” according to a recent survey by professional-services firm RSM McGladrey.A total of 1,031 executives — including 489 chief financial officers, ...

By Stephen Taub • June 26, 2006

As Good as It Gets

View the ranking of Europe’s largest 100 debt issuers.If you had to choose one company that embodied the ups and downs of the business cycle over the past 10 years, KPN might be it. From euphoria in the late 1990s to the plunge in share prices in 2000 and 2001, frenzied cost-cutting in subsequent...

By Jason Karaian • June 22, 2006

Popular Ambition

Federico Castor is hardly the sort of consumer who makes marketers rub their hands with glee. The 55-year-old lives in a precarious-looking concrete shack in the community of San Andres Bukid in Manila. He’s lived there since 1968, selling cigarettes — one stick at a time — and candy from a makes...

By Justin Wood • June 15, 2006

Selling Russia

“See, no bodyguards with machine guns, no armored car,” Vitali Podolsky points out as he removes a laptop from the back seat of his Audi sedan on a sunny spring morning just off Petrovska Street in Moscow’s pricey — and fairly customer-devoid — shopping district. He says it with a smile, but the ...

By Tony McAuley • June 15, 2006

Small-business Owners Eye Slowdown

Small business owners are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the economy’s prospects, according to a monthly report by the National Federation of Independent Business. William Dunkelberg, chief economist of the NFIB, said: “A slowdown is definitely going to happen. The only question is how f...

By Stephen Taub • June 14, 2006

U.K. Regulator Allays Sarbox Worries

An acquisition of the London Stock Exchange by a U.S. suitor would not automatically subject its member companies to stringent U.S. regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the U.K.’s regulatory watchdog has reportedly stated.The issue has become more than theoretical. In March, the Nasdaq Sto...

By Stephen Taub • June 12, 2006

Connecting the Dots

Synthesis is a subject that’s discussed a lot around Novasep. With good reason. A big part of its €400 million ($491 million) business depends on the ability of biochemists to synthesize organic molecules for customers in industries like pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. But it’s the synthesis t...

By Janet Kersnar • June 12, 2006

CFO Optimism Drops as Risks Multiply

Chief financial officers are growing more pessimistic about the U.S. economy but still plan to increase capital spending and hiring this year. Their expansion plans will be in substantial jeopardy, however, if inflation, the federal funds rate, or the price of oil continues to rise.Those are some...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 7, 2006

India: Tale of Two Strategies

Two major technology companies are taking distinctly different approaches to India.IBM announced that it expects to nearly triple its investment in the country over the next three years, to $6 billion, primarily in services, research, and software operations.Speaking before 10,000 employees gathe...

By Stephen Taub • June 6, 2006

This Time It’s Personal

This year, demographers tell us, the massive wave of baby-boomer retirements will begin, and the impact will be felt on everything from corporate-succession planning to condo sales. One likely ripple effect will be a mad rush to the offices of financial planners, as executives who spent a lifetim...

By Scott Leibs • June 1, 2006