The boom in offshore outsourcing is not only a lightening rod for policy makers and unions — it is also becoming a corporate governance issue at this year’s annual meetings. As more and more companies send software design, call centers and other functions to cheap labor markets like India and China, a number of companies […]
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Posted inInternal Controls
Q&A With PwC’s Global Systems, Process Assurance Leader
Last week, the SEC extended the compliance date for the internal control provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley. Accelerated filers will now need to comply for their first fiscal year ending on or after Nov. 15, 2004. The original compliance date was June 15. (Click here for details). This week, we talked with Lynn Edelson, the Global Leader […]
Posted inInternal Controls
With PwC’s Global Systems, Process Assurance Leader
Last week, the SEC extended the compliance date for the internal control provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley. Accelerated filers will now need to comply for their first fiscal year ending on or after Nov. 15, 2004. The original compliance date was June 15. (Click here for details). This week, we talked with Lynn Edelson, the Global Leader […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Restatements Due To Accounting Errors Decline In 2003
323 publicly traded companies filed restatements due to accounting errors last year, down from 330 similar restatements in 2002. According to a recent study conducted by Chicago’s Huron Consulting Group, the number one reason for the errors was mistakes in calculating reserves and contingencies. In previous years, revenue recognition was the leading cause. Though the […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
“Just Saying No” — The Indemnification Dilemma for Public Companies Dealing with the Wayward CEO
As the prosecution finally rested its case this month against Dennis Koslowski over alleged misconduct at Tyco, and Martha Stewart is in the home stretch of her criminal obstruction trial, you might ask the question — who pays for all this defense? And what happens if any of the many CEO’s and CFO’s now heading […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Companies Taking Longer Time To Close Their Books
Here’s proof that many companies will likely welcome the SOX 404 delay: it’s taking them longer to close their books. Roth According to research conducted by The Hackett Group, a division of $132 million benchmarking firm Answerthink, companies now take 5.5 days to close their books each month, up five percent from last year. According […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Editorial: Driving Business Ethics: Regulations, Or A Higher Calling?
Last spring, at a conference on Nantucket I co-founded back in 1999, I had the pleasure of running a session on ethics with Harvard Business School research fellow Laura Nash. A noted author and commentator on business ethics, Nash has spent much of the last three decades training senior directors and officers at Fortune 100 […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Internal Controls: A New Enforcement Frontier?
When crises of corporate conduct reveal widespread shortcomings in public company disclosure, lawmakers and regulators turn to questions of internal controls. Dissatisfied with the output of corporate reporting, they tinker with its inputs and the processes that connect the one to the other. With the new certification and attestation requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, this […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
$1.9 Billion E*Trade Appoints Its First Chief Risk Officer
New York-based financial services company E*Trade recently announced the appointment of James Bidwell to the newly created position of chief risk officer. Bidwell, formerly the company’s VP of corporate strategy, will be responsible for coordinating an enterprise-wide system for strategy and organizational planning, internal audit, asset protection, liability management and cost containment while ensuring risk […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
$15 Billion Qwest Communications Adds Two Directors
Brooksher Denver-based Qwest Communications recently announced two new board appointments, bringing membership to 14 for the first time since 2002. The new directors are Charles Biggs, retired senior partner at Deloitte Consulting; and K. Dane Brooksher, chairman and CEO of $679 million real estate investment trust ProLogis. Brooksher served with KPMG Peat Marwick for more […]
