Online articles
The Library provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
If you have any difficulty accessing these electronic resources, please see our help page for further guidance. The page also provides search tips and tricks that you may find useful.
Displaying 1-30 of 104 results
Exclusive
Leading remote or hybrid teams
- Article
- 01 Nov 2023
- David J.Elrod
Leaders need to take special care to communicate effectively with remote or hybrid team members, says David J.Elrod. The article runs
through useful methods of communication and emphasises the need to provide clarity on strategic plans and priorities and give regular feedback.
Exclusive
Reimagine how you recruit and train managers
- Article
- 01 Nov 2023
Traditionally companies focus on skill and development programs to help prepare their managers, but a Gartner study suggests that a fundamental shift in the managerial pipeline is crucial. The study recommends a better selection process, where employees can nominate themselves for managerial roles, preventing biases and diversifying the pipeline. Training programs should prepare aspiring managers for the complexities of the role, focusing on issues like pay equity, remote work and redundancies.
Exclusive
Innovative processes in finance and accounting
- Article
- 01 Oct 2023
- Vineet Jain
Adopting innovative technologies can lead to streamlined processes, real-time insights, and increased focus on strategic planning, says Vineet Jain CA. The article looks at innovation in the record-to-report (R2R), accounts payable and procure-to-pay processes and the potential for automated tools to assist with these tasks. Finally, important challenges associated with AI and other innovative technologies and skill sets which forward-thinking finance and accounting professionals should develop are covered.
Exclusive
Navigating AI: a pragmatic guide for corporate boards
- Article
- 01 Oct 2023
- Chris Smith
The article focuses on how the exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) across various sectors is compelling boards to redefine their roles in providing oversight and guidance on AI strategy and risk management. It emphasizes the importance of a human-centred approach to AI, aligning strategic decisions with an organization's mission and values, addressing ethical dilemmas, intellectual property concerns, and privacy challenges.
Exclusive
A company reinvents itself in sign of hope for Japan
- Article
- 24 Aug 2023
- Winnie Hsu, Sano Hideyuki
The huge conglomerate Hitachi became a symbol of corporate Japan's slide toward mediocrity when it got into difficulties during the global financial crisis and posted the biggest loss ever by a Japanese manufacturer. Yet the company has since undergone a turnaround, revamping its strategy to focus on growth and making its board more international and independent.
Exclusive
Inc. Best Workplaces 2023
- Article
- 01 May 2023
- Bill Saporito
Business magazine Inc.'s list of the best US companies to work for in 2023. Some of the most popular companies focus on employee wellness - particularly mental well-being and work-life balance. They have found ways to extend their culture without busting the budget; for example setting up a meditation room or offering a quarterly 'mental health day'.
Exclusive
How to create a stakeholder strategy
- Article
- 01 May 2023
- Darrell Rigby, Zach First, Dunigan O'Keefe
Companies have recently come to recognize the limitations of the view that they must create value only for shareholders, with many CEOs pledging to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders. Discusses how firms can use data to help develop a clear description of their purpose, establish criteria for evaluating progress toward it, set priorities among stakeholders and start measuring value creation for each group.
Exclusive
Resiliency and strategic risk management: Protecting strategic value includes a mix of metrics, cybersecurity, reputational risk management, and more
- Article
- 01 May 2023
- Mark L.Frigo, Dennis H.Chookaszian
The authors discuss how CFOs and boards can support strategic resiliency and risk management skills as core competencies for creating and protecting long-term value. In a conversation together, they look at tools for long-term value creation, cybersecurity and resiliency, strategic resiliency and risk assessment, reputation risk, skills for business leaders, strategic life-cycle analysis and lessons on resiliency from bank failures.
Exclusive
Developing an entrepreneurial small business strategic plan
- Article
- 01 Mar 2023
- Hakan Butuner
Feature explaining how to use shortened Systematic Strategic Planning (SSP), a tool particularly suitable for developing strategic plans for SMEs. The article uses a case study of an entrepreneurial new business to demonstrate how the first four steps of a shortened SSP strategic plan can be applied.
Exclusive
How CFOs can better manage: Strategy execution
- Article
- 01 Feb 2023
- Seth Elliott
Best practices in business strategy execution can help CFOs balance their traditional role of oversight and control with their emerging role as a catalyst for growth. Seth Elliott discusses using the objectives and key results (OKR) framework to track progress and organize goals. includes figures: 'The four faces of the CFO' and 'The quarterly OKR cycle'.
Exclusive
Expand your pricing strategy
- Article
- 01 Jan 2023
- Rafi Mohammed
Pricing consultant Rafi Mohammed recommends that companies should re-examine not just their prices but their pricing strategy - looking for different ways to charge customers. Looking at models used by other industries can offer inspiration for pricing innovations, such as offering to rent a product that's typically bought, or selling a service by the hour instead of by the day. By adding new pricing options, you increase the odds that customers will find one tailored to their needs.
Exclusive
Strategy making in uncertain times
- Article
- 01 Sep 2022
- Mark Gottfredson, Michael Mankins
Most companies have stuck with conventional techniques for strategy-making. In this article the authors describe what it takes to produce great results during economic uncertainty, and propose a practical model for strategy development that they have seen work at several leading companies.
Exclusive
Strategies for individual leadership
- Article
- 01 Jul 2022
- Mark L.Frigo, Kathleen Stokes
Advice on translating great business strategy to create great leadership strategy for both individuals and high-performance teams. The article contains a short interview with Kathleen Stokes, who gives her perspective on leadership driven strategy as a finance leader.
Exclusive
Succession stories: lessons learned from former family office CEOs
- Article
- 01 Jul 2022
- Jane Flanagan
The article discusses succession planning in family enterprises, considering how CEOs may retire without causing significant disruption to business operations. The author highlights the importance of trusted advisors as sources of guidance, and outlines certain key aspects of the strategic succession planning process, including training future leaders and writing clear job descriptions for successors.
Exclusive
McKinsey lays out what makes 'next level' Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) teams
- Article
- 18 May 2022
- Sheryl Estrada
CFOs from McKinsey and other businesses answer the question: 'What do you need from your FP&A team?'. Answers included harnessing data to make quick decisions, automation, and providing insights to strategic thinking.
Exclusive
Three tricks to make hard decisions easier
- Article
- 01 Mar 2022
- Marc Randolph
Entrepreneurs often face what feel like impossible or unknowable choices. Marc Randolph shares three decision-making tricks he relied upon as cofounder and CEO of Netflix - and that he still uses today for business strategy decisions. These include the 'one-way or two-way door decisions' identified by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Exclusive
Liminal movement by digital platform-based sharing economy ventures: The case of Uber Technologies
- Article
- 01 Mar 2022
- Raghu Garud, Arun Kumaraswamy, Anna Roberts, Le Xu
The authors explore the challenges that digital platform-based sharing economy ventures face in establishing legitimacy for their business models by examining the dynamics that ensued when Uber Technologies deployed its ridesharing business model in four U.S. cities. They find that platform-based sharing economy ventures such as Uber do best by rapidly forging ahead with their market strategies in each local context before regulators can intervene decisively and compromise their viability.
Exclusive
Budgeting to fund strategic plans
- Article
- 01 Dec 2021
- Daniel Butcher
The CFOs of CSX and ATI reveal best practices for finance to lead organizations' strategic planning and budgeting processes.
Exclusive
Crafting a mission statement
- Article
- 02 Aug 2021
- Jolene A. Lampton
A mission statement works with the company or business' code of ethics and helps inspire its employees to work toward a common goal of that company or business. It should be the way the company and employees work. The statement should be reviewed to respond to current changes that have occurred recently.
Exclusive
How come so many strategies fail?
- Article
- 01 Jul 2021
- David J.Collis
Leaders often focus on the parts rather than the whole strategy, says David J.Collis. Instead they should take a holistic approach to business strategy, recognising the interdependencies of components in their company's complete strategy landscape. He compares strategy mistakes typically made by CEOs at innovative new businesses and at mature established companies.
Exclusive
Avoiding corporate short-termism
- Article
- 01 Apr 2021
- Mark L. Frigo, Gregory V. Milano
Drawing on research from the Return Driven Strategy Initiative at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, this article considers how CFOs and finance organizations can help their companies to avoid excessive focus on short-term returns, and create greater long-term value that benefits all stakeholders. The authors consider the causes of short-termism, before going on to set out measures which can help combat it.
Exclusive
Time to pivot? You need a story
- Article
- 01 Sep 2020
- Robert Bremner, Rory McDonald
How to sell stakeholders on a new strategy. Pivoting entrepreneurs should explain strategy shifts with humility and express empathy for any inconvenience they cause stakeholders, say the authors. Savvy business start-ups craft broad pitches that leave room to manoeuvre along the way.
Exclusive
Controlling influence: Considerations in creating a strategic credit management department
- Article
- 01 May 2020
- Matthew Godby
Matthew Godby looks at some of the factors in achieving a strategic credit management department, including the order to cash cycle, systems and reporting, credit policies and taking a collaborative approach.
Exclusive
The big picture for compensation in a pandemic
- Article
- 01 May 2020
- Blair Jones, John Borneman, Kathryn Neel
The article discusses several foundational principles for compensation committees in developing new approaches to executive pay. The foundational principles include the need to prioritize stakeholders, the need to focus on engagement rather than retention and the need for the boards to align performance and pay outcomes to create the appropriate incentives.
Exclusive
The three disciplines of strategic thinking
- Article
- 01 Mar 2020
- Rich Horwath
The article offers several suggestions regarding strategic thinking in business - to maximize resources and profitably grow the business. It includes recommendations to strategically think about business, using group insights to identify new approaches to the business; to invested time in developing a plan for the year by paying attention on customer complaints, competitor activity and internal issues; and to understand resource allocation and how to maximize potential for organization.
Exclusive
What is the key to effective SWOT analysis, including AQCD factors
- Article
- 01 Dec 2019
- Steven A.Creek, Forest R.David, Fred R.David
Advice on how to make SWOT analysis factors specific, using actionable, quantitative, comparative, and divisional (AQCD) criteria. The authors provide guidance for all companies and organizations to conduct strategic planning more effectively, with a particular emphasis on conducting effective SWOT analysis.
Exclusive
Why are we here?
- Article
- 01 Nov 2019
- Sally Blount, Paul Leinwand
Article looks at how if you give your employees a purpose they are more likely to be engaged and motivated. The key is to tie this purpose to your customers and your corporate strategy.
Exclusive
Lessons from CFO teams in Japan
- Article
- 01 Nov 2019
- Chie Ikegawa, Nina Michels-Kim
The article discusses the findings of a 2017 survey of members of the Japan Association for Chief Financial Officers (JACFO). Responses to the survey indicated that companies that directly involved CFO teams in management accounting and strategic financial planning saw increased profit margins. The authors also consider some steps that CFO teams might take in order to add the most value to their companies.
Exclusive
Compensation impacts culture
- Article
- 15 Sep 2019
- Kathryn Neel, Katherine Barrall
The article discusses the impact of compensation on corporate culture. Topics discussed include program features can be assets or liabilities to the organizational culture; boards and committees can use discretion or make adjustments in the evaluation of performance against short - or long term goals; and increase in public demand for disclosure and proxy adviser and investor scrutiny.
Exclusive
Put purpose at the core of your strategy
- Article
- 01 Sep 2019
- Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche, Charles Dhanaraj
A study of high growth drivers has shown that the most successful companies put purpose central to their strategy, using it to redefine the playing field and reshape their value propositions. Explains how executives can develop and implement a purpose at their organisation and the benefits this is likely to bring.
Displaying 1-30 of 104 results
Find more articles
- Search our database of online articles (Business Source Corporate)
Can't find what you're looking for?
The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren't freely available online. Contact us for expert help with your enquiries and research.