Bossasaurus.

Bosses as a thing of the past - The Future The growing popularity of the employee empowerment concept has led to the formation of self-managing work teams in many large companies. These self-managing teams are typically expected to handle traditional management duties such as quality control, conflict resolution, employee training, job selection and budget preparation. Not all teams, however, work alike or perform as effectively as envisioned. Some enjoy only superficial autonomy, while others are unable to function across departmenta...

Cleaning up your desktop assets.

Controlling computing costs - Includes related article Most traditional methods for monitoring and controlling information technology (IT) costs have been rendered obsolete as more firms shift to distributed computing systems. To ensure that a company's asset-management program keeps apace with the changes occurring in corporate computing, financial executives will have to adopt new and more accurate methods for tracking the expense of maintaining desktop computing assets. Steps that they can take include conducting a complete asset inventory of ...

FEI awards honor individuals, chapters.

Financial Executive Institute The Financial Executives Institute gave out two distinguished-service awards at its annual conference in Washington, DC. One award was given to Buel T. Adams of CBI Industries and FEI's Chicago chapter, while the other was given to Ian D.G. McKechnie of Central City Concern and the FEI's Portland Chapter. Both awardees were recognized for their role in providing outstanding leadership to FEI's member chapters. Two other awards were also handed out during the Washington, DC conference in Oct. ...

FEI Canada's committee on corporate reporting.

Financial Executives Institute - From FEI Financial Executives Institute Canada (FEIC) maintains a Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR) to track regulatory proposals related to financial reporting issues. The CCR is composed of 20 executives from various Canadian companies. Mark Walsh of Imperial Oil is the committee chairman while Steven Bower of BCE Inc. is its vice chairman. The CCR convenes four times a year and regularly responds to proposals forwarded by regulatory bodies in Canada such as the Financial Accounting Standards B...

Final Jenkins Committee report debuts at symposium.

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Special Committee on Financial Reporting - From FEI The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has released the executive summary of the final report submitted by its Special Committee on Financial Reporting. The AICPA's special committee, which is better known as the Jenkins Committee after its chairman Edward L. Jenkins, was set up in 1991 to study the relevance of existing business reporting standards. The Jenkins Committee's executive summary highlights the need to develop a financial reporting model that truly meets us...

How Boeing tracks costs, A to Z.

Includes related article Boeing Co. has improved its cost-management procedures by giving its operating units more responsibility for controlling their costs. To accomplish this, Boeing opted to realign its accounting processes to make it easier for cost information to be broken down on a departmental basis. It also made sure that each department received the financial information needed by identifying which cost information was relevant for each unit's operations. Boeing's move toward a cost-management system that s...

How to pick a synthetic GIC.

Guaranteed investment contract Synthetic guaranteed investment contracts (GICs) provide greater safety than traditional GICs, mainly because they allow greater diversification and tend to provide higher returns. Not surprisingly, synthetic GICs have become very popular with pension funds, many of which have increased their investment in synthetic GICs because of the higher volatility associated with standard GICs. Pension fund managers, however, need to exercise caution when selecting synthetic GICs since not all carry the...

Pumping up your research arm.

Funding R&D costs Public companies that wish to fund R&D costs may take advantage of a financing mechanism that was first developed for application in the biotechnology, electronics and computer industries. This financing mechanism involves the setting up of free-standing special-purpose accelerated-research corporations (SPARCs) that later go public using stock-and-warrant offerings for research and development (SWORDs). The mechanism allows investors to place their funds in the underlying company sponsoring ...

Six questions to ask before you buy variable life.

Personal Financial Planning Variable life insurance has become an increasingly popular investment option since it enables policyholders to create an investment mix that has a higher level of equities than a comparable cash-value insurance product. A variable life insurance policy permits higher returns because premiums can be directed toward mutual funds within the product's separate account, unlike other cash-value products such as whole-life or universal-life insurance which require premiums to be traded within the in...

Some taxing questions.

Interview with Fred Goldberg of the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlements and Tax Reform - Interview Fred Goldberg is a former IRS Commissioner who now holds the position of executive director at the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlements and Tax Reform. Goldberg got involved with the commission in 1993 after being persuaded by its leaders, Sen. Robert Kerrey and Sen. John Danforth, of the need to come forward with specific deficit reduction measures that would enjoy bipartisan support. The commission, which is expected to submit a report to Pres. Clinton before the end of 1994, has a total o...

The Weston Group's glimpse of an ancient culture.

Native Canadian Art The Weston Group's corporate art collection consists primarily of works by contemporary artists Christo and Horia Damian. The Toronto-based food processing group, however, also maintains a small but distinctive set of Native Canadian artworks, most of which were commissioned for installation at Weston's Toronto headquarters as a way to pay tribute to the company's Canadian origins. Weston's Native Canadian art pieces include a 19-foot high totem pole carved by Native Canadian artist Tony Hunt...

Wanted: the right investment banker.

Starbucks Coffee Co.'s initial public offering Starbucks Coffee Co. began preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) in a very systematic manner: it opted to conduct a rigorous search for the right investment banker to handle its IPO. In the course of its selection process, Starbucks met with over 20 prominent investment banking firms over a two-year period. From this initial list of prospects, it selected six for its shortlist, using as its basic criteria previous experience in handling the IPOs of companies similar to Starbucks. Ea...

When to hold, when to fold.

Determining the viability of underperforming units - Includes related article Publicly-listed companies are under great pressure to maximize the performance of individual business units. One reason for this is that the presence of underperforming units can lead to a sharp downgrade in the ratings given by security analysts, a situation that often leads to a severe erosion in the stock price of the concerned company. When this occurs, senior executives are usually faced with a bleak choice: they either have to close down the poorly performing unit or risk a continued de...

Who says the FASB isn't listening?

Financial Accounting Standards Board The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has received a lot of negative commentary for its decisions on such accounting issues as pension benefits and health care. More recently, the FASB has been criticized for what has been called its unreasonable stance on the accounting of stock options that are offered as part of executive compensation packages. According to the FASB, such stock options should be accounted for at the outset, regardless of whether they are consummated or not. This ...

Your 401(k), your way.

Salary-reduction savings plan - Includes related article Effective management of a 401(k) plan requires the establishment of administrative procedures that allow the plan's basic objectives to be attained. Therefore, the first step that must be taken when evaluating a 401(k) management plan should be to determine what exactly a company's objectives are in providing employees with this basic retirement planning benefit. Questions that have to be asked include whether the company aims to be a competitive employer or whether it simply wishes to ensure...