SURVEY SAVVY Half of all CEOs surveyed recently by the NYSE Group ( www.nyse.com ) planned to increase their employee education and retention programs. Eight out of 10 said operational efficiency, driven by employees, would be the greatest internal factor impacting profitability in 2007.
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TOPICS
Management accounting
A Major-League Dream Come True
SPOTLIGHT As one of 10 children of a die-hard New York Yankees’ fan, Berna Greer, CPA, grew up in a house that revolved around baseball. But she never expected to make it to the Major Leagues. Still, there she was, throwing out the first pitch at the Detroit Tigers game
Take Control of Your Job Search
GOLDEN BUSINESS IDEA Attention CPAs at all levels. Well-meaning colleagues give you many tips about how to find your dream job. Here are four things not to do when conducting your search. 1 | Don’t rely on only one technique to land a job. Just 10% of all jobs are
Social Spending
SURVEY SAVVY eople who buy socially responsible mutual funds are more likely to use their wallets in other socially conscious ways as well, a February survey by TIAA-CREF ( www.tiaa-cref.org ) found. The company surveyed 1,002 TIAA-CREF customers, split evenly between those who invested in its Social Choice Account (SCA)
Hired Help: Finding the Right Consultant
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CPAs can help companies hire consultants to deal with a wide variety of employee benefits challenges including managing the rising cost of health insurance, maintaining competitive benefits offerings and dealing with the complexity of pension and other retirement plans. Before hiring a benefits consultant, companies should check
Edward W. Trott Quote
AS QUOTED “My hesitancy about fair value became outweighed by my desire to have financial statements communicate as much information as possible. I learned that there’s a better way.” —Outgoing FASB member Edward W. Trott
Smart Stops on the Web
HUMAN RESOURCES SITES Staff Smart www.adphire.com CPAs responsible for filling open positions will want to check out Automatic Data Processing Inc.’s (ADP) Web site for its calculator that determines the cost of a bad hire and of high turnover. The site also offers free information on screening candidates and adhering
Keep Peace With Your Boss
GOLDEN BUSINESS IDEA Have a difficult manager? Try some of these coping strategies from CareerBuilder.com: Take a look in the mirror. Maybe you’re being a pain in the neck, too. Clean up your act, concentrate only on work and see whether things change. Focus on the boss’s needs. Employees who
A Very Long Audit
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK y sister, a nursing student at the time, had come to visit and arrived early enough to meet me at my client’s site. She came up to our audit room, met my fellow team members and sat at the partner’s desk, right next to mine.
On the Record
Although typically the major players have been making the headlines, defendants are coming from all types and sizes of businesses. … When it comes to corporate fraud, anyone can be a player. — Executive Roadmap to Fraud Prevention and Internal Control: Creating a Culture of Compliance by Martin T. Biegelman
Data Point
NUMEROLOGY 75 Percentage of working mothers that said their bosses were supportive of their family needs. Source: This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers’ Manifesto by Carol Evans, Hudson Street Press, 2006.
Job-Hunt Tips
TOP 10 1 | Look for opportunities. Take on new assignments to broaden your skills. Put out feelers to see whether you’re marketable outside your company. On an interview, don’t passively expect to be told where you’ll fit in. Create a job for yourself. 2 | Become a skilled job
Tips for New Leaders
TOP 10 1 | Don’t get too close too quickly. It’s tempting to become one of the gang—a friend who happens to be the boss—but effective leaders have to manage the distance between themselves and their followers. 2 | Sharpen your situation-sensing antennae. Try to be sensitive to which way
Women Pull Up a Chair
SURVEY SAVVY W omen held 14.7% of all Fortune 500 board seats, up from 13.6% in 2003 and 9.6% in 1995, according to a 2005 census of women board directors by Catalyst ( www.catalyst.org ). The number of Fortune 500 companies that had 25% or more women board directors rose
Home Builders Have New Tax Credit
.S. home builders have new motivation to build energy-efficient homes. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 included many provisions regarding coal, natural gas, renewable energy and energy efficiency and distribution. It also enacted a new tax credit under IRC section 45L—the energy-efficient home credit—available to eligible contractors. Depending on
Sallie Krawcheck Quote
AS QUOTED “As an analyst I was very comfortable being uncomfortable, and as a CFO I have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I have to be fine with delivering bad news.” —Sallie Krawcheck, CFO, Citigroup
Bookmarks
Policies and Procedures to Prevent Fraud and Embezzlement: Guidance, Internal Controls, and Investigation By Edward J. McMillan 308 pages; softcover John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, N.J., 2006 Nearly every enterprise is a potential victim of fraud, and CPAs well-versed in the scope of fraudulent activities can help businesses prepare
Responsibility at the Top
NUMEROLOGY Source: “Salary Guide 2006 for Accounting and Financial Professionals,” Ajilon Finance and Business Finance magazine.
Litigation Breather
BUSINESS TRENDS Investors filed 45% fewer class-action lawsuits alleging securities fraud in the first half of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005, according to a report by Stanford Law School’s Securities Class Action Clearinghouse. The 61 filings marked the lowest number for any six-month period since the first
Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack
SPOTLIGHT f the sun is shining outside, you’re likely to find Jack Oujo, CPA, on a baseball field. The former AAA minor league umpire just can’t get the game off his mind. In addition to running Jack Oujo CPA Inc. of Wall, N.J., Oujo coached his son Christopher’s Junior League
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