Online articles
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Displaying 1-30 of 37 results
Exclusive
Design thinking for innovation
- Article
- 01 Feb 2023
- Kristine Brands
- Strategic Finance
How management accountants can apply the 'design thinking' approach to innovation to achieve a competitive edge. According to IDEO's Tim Brown, this human-centred approach can be used to integrate people's needs, technology, and business success factors to achieve innovation.
Exclusive
The key to a successful business scale-up
- Article
- 01 Jan 2023
- Martin Kupp, Jeffrey F.Rayport, Davide Sola
- Harvard Business Review
How to master the “extrapolation” stage, when business start-ups begin to focus on profitability, not just growth. The authors share their advice, based on their experience teaching business school courses on scaling up enterprises and their analysis of dozens of rapidly growing start-ups.
Exclusive
The importance of working capital management
- Article
- 01 Dec 2022
- Logan Arumugam
- Strategic Finance
Tips for practical ways an SME can optimise its working capital without using external finance. Recommendations include making a biweekly, 13-week rolling cash forecast; creating separate cost/profitability models for vital processes; and nurturing customer/supplier relationships, which will positively influence cash management.
Exclusive
RPA: intelligent evolution of a productivity bot
- Article
- 13 Sep 2022
- Marc Ambasna-Jones
- Computer Weekly
The article discusses that robotic process automation (RPA) software is expected to take people's jobs but is focused on tedious but necessary repetitive tasks. RPA helps in increasing productivity, reducing costs, and freeing up valuable employee time, the key business drivers for automated processes.
Exclusive
Armanino LLP advises businesses on planning for recession
- Article
- 08 Sep 2022
- Michael Cohn
- Accounting Today
Advice from business consulting firm Armanino on how to reduce costs without making desperately needed employees redundant. The firm advises clients to look at internal metrics such as cash flow, revenue per employee, average days to close new business and accounts receivable payments.
Exclusive
Resilience through value-stream mapping (VSM)
- Article
- 01 Aug 2022
- Javvadi H.Rao
- Strategic Finance
The author explains how management accountants can leverage this tool to identify key value-creating opportunities in the business value chain and gain competitive advantage. VSM offers a beginning-to-end view of transactions in terms of value-based pricing and cost optimization.
Exclusive
Five reasons to repatriate from the cloud
- Article
- 11 Jan 2022
- Stephen Pritchard
- Computer Weekly
The article explores the reasons behind cloud repatriation, a process of reverse-migrating application workloads and data from the public cloud to a private cloud. It mentions the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the cloud companies. It discusses the reasons for cloud repatriation including cost reduction; poorly planned moves to the cloud, supllier failure, security and regulation .
Exclusive
A collaboration between operations and accounting at Dublin Airport resulted in the optimization of life cycle costs of fixed assets
- Article
- 01 May 2021
- Dan Bumblauskas, Paul Bumblauskas, Kayla Hahn, Amy Igou, Ben Vaske
- Strategic Finance
How Dublin Airport gained a complete picture of its fixed assets, including more accurate information about potential maintenance costs. Life cycle costing (LCC) was carried out to consider all costs throughout a fixed asset's entire life cycle.
Exclusive
Beyond cryptocurrency: blockchain as a value creator & connector
- Article
- 01 Sep 2019
- Vikrant Viniak
- Logistics Management
Article looks at three case studies of blockchain use , showing cost savings and value creation mechanism and demonstrating the possibilities for companies reliant on strategic partnerships or those seeking to increase the transparency of interactions
between consumers or business partners.
Exclusive
Effective financial projections for a startup
- Article
- 01 Mar 2019
- Tiffany Hovland
- Journal of Accountancy
Practical considerations to help startups develop a business plan with meaningful financial projections.
Exclusive
Can RPA improve agility?
- Article
- 01 Mar 2019
- Pradeep Raju, Rod Koch
- Strategic Finance
The article discusses the use of robotic process automation (RPA) in accounting firms in relation to the notion of agile organizations. Topics include the relation of RPA to the automation life-cycle process in finance, the relation of RPA to compliance and labor productivity, and the calculation of cost savings and return on investment (ROI) for RPA.
Exclusive
Central intelligence
- Article
- 17 Sep 2018
- Rick Popley
How one business reduced costs and increased revenue during the 2008 recession.
Exclusive
The chief risk officer: it's not just about managing risk costs anymore
- Article
- 01 May 2018
- Graham Bippart
- Euromoney
Paul Ingram, Chief Risk Officer (CFO) at Credit Suisse International, gives his views on the remit of his role.
Exclusive
Value through Robotic Process Automation
- Article
- 01 Mar 2018
- Timothy Driscoll
- Strategic Finance
Replacing labor- and transaction-intensive processes with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can reduce costs while improving efficiency and quality. Article ooks at questions that CFOs are asking and 4 basic steps for to follow.
Exclusive
A CEO action plan for workplace automation
- Article
- 01 Jun 2017
- Michael Chui, Katy George, Mehdi Miremadi
- McKinsey Quarterly
The article discusses the business performance benefits of workplace automation and artificial intelligence (AI), strategic opportunities for companies, and the future of work. It states that beyond the elimination of labor and operating costs savings, automation can transform business processes, deliver improvements in speed, quality, flexibility, and customer service. The authors offer advice to senior executives on developing an action plan for integrating automation into the workplace.
Exclusive
What does automation mean for the G&A and back office?
- Article
- 01 Apr 2017
- Alexander Edilich | Allison Watson | Rob Whiteman
- McKinsey Quarterly
The article discusses how general and administrative (G&A) functions within a company are impacted by increasing automation. It looks at how incorporating technologies, redeploying employees and reimagining processes, companies can increase performance and reduce costs. Changes to organizational structure and job responsibilities due to automation are also discussed.
Exclusive
Free up cash
- Article
- 01 Sep 2015
- Renita Wolf
- Strategic Finance
Renita Wolf covers best practices to help your company manage working capital effectively.
Exclusive
Tail risk hedging: State of the market
- Article
- 01 Sep 2015
- Gladys Chow, Jerry A Miccolis
- Journal of Financial Planning
The authors discuss managing cost-effective "tail risk hedges" that attempt to mitigate the impact of rare but potentially catastrophic equity market downturns.
Exclusive
Financial applications in the cloud are multiplying
- Article
- 21 Jul 2015
- Anne Morris
- Computer Weekly
Reports on the growing interest in cloud-based financial applications in Europe as chief financial officers recognise the benefits the applications can bring in terms of reduced costs and improved efficiency.
Exclusive
Hanging on the phone
- Article
- 01 May 2015
- Richard Crump
- Financial Director
The acquisition of EE will add a new pillar to BT’s triple-play strategy. Chief financial officer Tony Chanmugam explains how cost transformation enabled the telecoms giant's current direction.
Exclusive
Measuring and managing customer profitability
- Article
- 06 Mar 2015
- Gary Cokins
- Strategic Finance
Find out how to grow the profitability of your customers. An update to Gary Cokin's 2001 book 'Activity-Based Cost Management: An Executive's Guide'.
Exclusive
Four keys to winning presentations
- Article
- 01 Jan 2015
- Controllers Report
Most financial controllers are called upon to present information to their management teams, including financial reports, cost-reduction strategies, and budgets. Financial presentations have a reputation for being dry or confusing, but they don't have to be if you follow some key tips.
Exclusive
How not to cut health care costs
- Article
- 01 Nov 2014
- Robert S. Kaplan, Derek A. Haas
- Harvard Business Review
Health care providers are trying to respond to the tremendous pressure to reduce costs; unfortunately their efforts often result in higher costs.
Exclusive
Enterprise operations and performance management
- Article
- 01 Oct 2014
- Ian Herbert
- Financial Management
Ian Herbert explains the lean approach to cost reduction and examines the potential benefits - and risks - for finance departments planning to adopt it.
Exclusive
Getting lean and mean at Caterpillar with ABM
- Article
- 01 Jan 2013
- Whitney Cox, David G. DeFreitas, John W. Gillett, Ross L. Fink
- Strategic Finance
A profile of the US engineering company Caterpillar's success using activity-based management and costing methodology.
Exclusive
The hidden cost of sick leave
- Article
- 01 Dec 2012
- Madeleine Thomson
- Management Services
The article discusses the issue of employees who are out on long-term sick leave also being entitled by law to take their vacation days when they return, or take payment for them in lieu of the time, and how this is a burden to employers. It focuses on stress being one of the major causes of sick leave, and that under British employment law, the employer is obligated to try to reduce work pressures if an employee is diagnosed with depression.
Exclusive
Reining in the spend
- Article
- 01 Sep 2012
- David Rosenbaum
Using electronic procurement solutions can help companies make purchasing processes more efficient.
Exclusive
The art of balancing cash flow and electronic payments
- Article
- 01 Jun 2012
- Mark Frey
- Financial Executive
The article discusses cash flow and electronic payments, presenting strategies which can help high-growth companies
reduce costs.
Exclusive
Process costing and management accounting in today's business environment
- Article
- 01 Aug 2010
- Jennifer Dosch, Joel Wilson
- Strategic Finance
An exploration of how process costing is carried out in industry, based on interviews.
Exclusive
Leveraging business cycle ups and downs
- Article
- 01 Dec 2009
- Greg Autry, Peter Navarro
- Financial Executive
A look at how firms can forecast business cycles and formulate strategies to take advantage of them.
Displaying 1-30 of 37 results
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