Between the Lines of Open-Book Management

The scenario is simple, says Tom Landa, chief financial officer of AmeriSteel. A worker fails to do proper maintenance in one of the company’s steel mills; the machine fails; production stops; output slows; prices go up; customers drift away; profits sag; and everyone receives a smaller bonus at ...

By Julie Carrick Dalton • March 1, 1999

How PeopleSoft is Regaining Momentum

A few days before the new year, Ronald Codd stepped down as CFO of PeopleSoft to take the reins of Momentum Business Applications, a research and development company PeopleSoft decided to spin off last November. The move is clearly a bold departure. Drug companies, such as Alza, Centocor, and Imm...

By A CFO Interview • March 1, 1999

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

Franchise Chain Reactions

It seemed like a good idea at the time. To launch a new brand in the cutthroat retail food market, Boston Chicken’s management used a new model of franchising. It offered extremely generous loans to attract large, experienced franchisees, which then expanded the restaurant chain at record speed, ...

By Hilary Rosenberg • Feb. 1, 1999

Changing Channels

Parker Hannifin Corp. is in the advance guard of a sales revolution. The $4.6 billion Cleveland-based maker of industrial and aerospace components sells directly to about half its customer base, and the percentage is growing. Its direct customers get to bypass the network of distributors that ope...

By Kris Frieswick • Feb. 1, 1999

Acquiring By the Book

When Textron Inc. acquired British golf- equipment and turf-care company Ransomes Plc for $284 million last year, it was a testament to the usefulness of the “M&A Status Report” that serves as a playbook for Textron’s external growth strategy.Ransomes was noted in the first report that then-n...

By Stephen Barr • Feb. 1, 1999

Chase Manhattan with a Bank Shot

Bank ShotDina Dublon vaulted into the CFO position at Chase Manhattan Corp. She was formerly EVP and corporate treasurer at the New York-based bank. She is the first to hold the CFO position since Peter J. Tobin retired more than a year ago. Dublon joined Chase when it merged with Chemical Bank i...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Feb. 1, 1999

Uncovering the Bond Market Spread

In markets for the likes of narcotics and arms, prices fluctuate wildly day to day, quotes change in mid-conversation, trades are effectively unregulated, and middlemen walk away with billions in profits. That also accurately describes the U.S. corporate bond market, where 98 percent of the $10 b...

By Ian Springsteel • Feb. 1, 1999

Automating In-House Counsel & Law

From his computer, Sam Eberts, associate general counsel for Allegiance Healthcare Corp., has online access to 10 million legal documents related to the hundreds of lawsuits his company fights annually. Allegiance’s law department, in fact, is an 80 percent virtual environment when it comes to ha...

By Julie Carrick Dalton • Feb. 1, 1999

Mergers and Acquisitions: Sultans of Swap

Move over, Mark! Move over, Sammy! The corporate fence busters outslugged you both in 1998.Just as McGwire and Sosa captured the imagination of the baseball world with their record-shattering home-run race, today’s M&A masters stunned the business world by belting deal after deal out of the p...

By Stephen Barr • Jan. 1, 1999

Plucking More Profit from Production with MES

As companies increasingly turn to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, CFOs have found a new connection to the worlds of manufacturing, distribution, and human resources that ERP integrates with finance. But without another software acronym–MES, for manufacturing execution systems–producti...

By Roy Harris and Michelle Celarier • Jan. 1, 1999

How Can Companies Tame the Cost of Owning PCs?

With all the movements afoot in information technology, and with the Year 2000 problem casting its ominous shadow, the picture of corporate computing seems more out of focus than usual. But here’s comforting news: many of the new technologies and trends in IT only appear to pull in separate direc...

By Jeffrey Zygmont • Jan. 1, 1999

Lighting It Up at GE

Lighting It Up at GEDennis Dammerman, long considered the right-hand man of General Electric Co. CEO John F. Welch, was recently given the title to prove it. The former SVP and CFO was named vice chairman of the board and executive officer at GE. He was also promoted to chairman and CEO of GE Cap...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Jan. 1, 1999

IBM Seeks the Solution Within

Category Winner:* Employee Processing * Vendor ProcessingYou would think that if any company could figure out a way to deal efficiently with its suppliers, it would be IBM Corp. Yet, until the mid-1990s, the computer giant struggled with tons of paper invoices from small and midsized suppliers.“W...

By Russ Banham • Jan. 1, 1999

Is This the Hedge’s End?

Worried about earnings volatility? Get set for more, thanks to a new rule from the Financial Accounting Standards Board concerning accounting for derivatives.The new standard, known as FAS 133, becomes mandatory for fiscal years beginning next June 15, although companies are free to adopt it befo...

By Simon Boughey • Jan. 1, 1999

This Bug’s Life, Post Y2K

As CFO of Mastech Corp., a $400 million information-technology company, Jeffrey McCandless finds himself putting business partners and suppliers on the chopping block these days–ready to give them the ax if they slip up. “We’ll be monitoring them and making serious decisions during the next four ...

By Bronwyn Fryer • Jan. 1, 1999

Case Conquers All

Award for Overall Excellence and Category Winner:* Treasury Operations * Tax Operations * Customer Processing * Accounting ProcessesTed French says that at Case Corp., “finance reengineering was born of a different need.” Indeed. Unlike most reengineered companies, Case wasn’t in crisis–it was in...

By Russ Banham • Jan. 1, 1999

REACH Award Winners: Best at the Basics

They’re back! If the winners of the 1998 REACH Awards sound familiar, there’s a reason.* Only Cargill Inc., judged best in internal audit, is making its first appearance in the winners’ circle. Click here for their story.* Case Corp., a three-time finalist in the 1996 competition and a two-time w...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Jan. 1, 1999

Critical Condition for CFO Jobs in Health Care

A little less than a year ago, the CFO of Kaiser Permanente, Susan Porth, said she was leaving the nation’s largest nonprofit health maintenance organization after 20 years, 10 as finance chief, “for personal reasons.” Just four days later, Kaiser announced a whopping $270 million loss for 1997, ...

By Joseph McCafferty • Jan. 1, 1999

Ford’s Drive for Credibility

When Ford Motor Co. announced a major executive reorganization this past October, which included the early retirement of seven vice presidents, few were surprised that CFO John Devine was retained by incoming CEO Jac Nasser, or that his role was expanded. Devine, after all, is widely credited wit...

By Russ Banham • Dec. 1, 1998

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

With some notable exceptions, SG&A costs rose this year. a SLIGHT ADJUSTMENT to Calvin Coolidge’s famous dictum brings the 30th U.S. President right up to date: Nowadays, the business of America is efficient business. Companies that live up to this message practice it constantly, and nowhere ...

By S.L. Mintz • Dec. 1, 1998

Twin Peaks, Federal-Mogul

After three major acquisitions that mark the fastest growth spurt in Federal-Mogul Corp.’s 99-year history, the auto-parts maker deserves a break. But it is unlikely to get one soon. By 2002, CEO Richard A. Snell has promised, the Southfield, Michigan-based company will ring up $10 billion a year...

By Robert Stowe England • Dec. 1, 1998

Our Favorite Gifts

Holiday GiftsOur favorite things. Stumped for gift ideas? Look no further.It’s the time of year when people are in the giving mood, searching for just the right item for spouse, child, colleague, or CFO. Before you settle for yet another gold-plated divot replacer, CO2 bottle stopper, or cabbie’s...

By Brian O'Connell and John Xenakis • Dec. 1, 1998

A Data Warehouse for Owens & Minor

Last May, Owens & Minor Inc. suffered the kind of setback that leaves even the strongest company reeling. The Richmond, Virginia, distributor of medical and surgical supplies unexpectedly lost its biggest customer, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., to rival McKesson Corp. (which offered to throw...

By Edward Teach • Dec. 1, 1998

Misreporting Accounting Results

Two weeks after taking over as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s chief accountant last summer, Lynn Turner began holding secret meetings with business executives and accounting experts. Turner suspected that the recent accounting disasters at Cendant Corp., Sunbeam Corp., and Waste Managem...

By Stephen Barr • Dec. 1, 1998

Can We Really Simplify Tax?

In this world, there are only two tragedies,” Oscar Wilde wrote in 1892. “One is not getting what one wants. The other is getting it.” The United States had no federal income tax laws in those days and, anyway, Wilde was British. But his words are uncannily relevant to the current push for reform...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Dec. 1, 1998