CA Magazine back issues from August 2006:
The race for talent is on
Aug 01, 2006; ... Accounting firms and corporations alike have to come up with creative ideas to hire and retain much needed talent Recruiters have known for some time that CAs are a hot and scarce commodity. Now, partners in accounting firms and company executives are noticing too, and they are learning ...
Letters
Aug 01, 2006; ... FACT OR OPINION? In "Selling out," by Robert Napoli (Personal financial planning, May), it states that "most private Canadian businesses will sell for a price based on a multiple of three to five times EBITDA." This is presented as a factual statement with no consideration of alternate ...
Four years later
Aug 01, 2006; ... Enacted in July 2002, the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) remains as important as ever, although after four years it's impossible to reach a definitive conclusion about its impact. Could the sense of urgency have prompted regulatory authorities to overreact when they adopted this act, which set the ...
Family man
Aug 01, 2006; ... Sticking it to the client is all in a day's work for needle-wielding Lome Brown, B.Sc, CA, Dr. TCM, R.Ac. The acupuncturist is founder and clinical director of Acubalance Wellness Centre, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Vancouver, where he helps couples overcome reproductive health ...
ASK AN Expert
Aug 01, 2006; ... Q How can I eat, drink and close a business deal over lunch? A: Business lunches can easily become no more than a social event unless you have a clear focus about what you want to achieve. Here are six tips to consider: Outline your objectives. Know what you want to achieve ...
Location, location, location
Aug 01, 2006; ... Moving abroad isn't just for the rich and famous. CAs are trading in home-grown scenery for a foreign view. According to a survey of CAs by Think Global Recruitment, 40% of respondents say improved lifestyle is the main reason they decided to relocate. For CAs, life abroad includes exposure to ...
Findings
Aug 01, 2006; ... SURVEY SAYS: KEEP CLIENTS According to a survey titled Managing a Public Practice Part 1: Billing Rates, Compensation and Benefits, conducted by the provincial institutes of chartered accountants/ordre and the CICA, 88% of managing owners, managing partners or sole proprietors of ...
THE DATING GAME
Aug 01, 2006; ... Single male CAs tired of being snubbed by the Osmug married can now flaunt their dating status with pride. According to a recently released international book, The Big Picture, the most eligible bachelors are accountants. In ranking rich, single Australian men aged 25 to 34 by profession, ...
BACTERIA FEST
Aug 01, 2006; ... Wonder why you're catching every flu bug that comes around? In a study funded by The Clorox Co. regarding germs in the workplace, researchers found the bacteria levels in accountants' offices were nearly seven times higher than the bacteria levels found in lawyers' offices. The survey states ...
Going Concern
Aug 01, 2006; ... BRUCE CUTAYNE, CA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, BLUE MOOSE PROMOTIONS COMPANY PROFILE: Blue Moose is a Canadian owned and operated company assisting organizations - such as the University of British Columbia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia - in promoting ...
NUMBERS Game
Aug 01, 2006; ... Show me the money The stage version of The Lord of the Rings in Toronto is estimated to have generated $600M in total economic activity proving blockbusters have a big impact on local economies. 1 Visitors in millions who flocked to Halifax in 2000 to see a flotilla of 70 tall ...
"AsQuoted"
Aug 01, 2006; ... Open for business? For years, Canadians have traveled to and from the US with relative ease. September 11,2001 changed that. A desire for increased security now affects individuals and commerce, with Canadian businesses fearing the impact of border restrictions. "It's become the ...
M&As spell value for shareholders
Aug 01, 2006; ... Conventional wisdom has it that mergers and acquisitions destroy value. But according to new research on M&A cycles from Towers Perrin and The Cass Business School, the opposite could now be true. Companies involved in deals in the current M&A cycle that started in 2003 are generally ...
CATCHING UP WITH ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS
Aug 01, 2006; ... Now that more than 90% of documents exist in electronic form, businesses are faced with trying to preserve, protect and manage sensitive information. How do you keep tabs on data when it floats around in so many forms - from wide-area networks to Blackberries to cellphones? Worse still, how do ...
BOOK VALUE
Aug 01, 2006; ... Business reads to help you keep on top of it all How TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE WITH eBAY, YAHOO! & GOOGLE By Peter Kent and Jill K. Finlayson McGraw Hill, $39.95 How to reach millions of customers directly with your online store ....
Skills management for the future
Aug 01, 2006; ... Your guide to business & accounting on the Internet One of the biggest challenges facing organizations today is the emergence of an age-diverse, attention-challenged and hard-tohire workforce that is the result of three distinct trends: demographics, changing attitudes, and skills ...
Watch out for maintenance
Aug 01, 2006; ... A review of new software products for your business Companies on the hunt for a new system typically do an exhaustive analysis of various options before they make a tentative selection. Once they do, the subject of maintenance inevitably rears its head. For some strange reason, vendors ...
Moving forward
Aug 01, 2006; ... A summary of current CICA projects and initiatives TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AS A PARTNER with PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada (including the last four as CEO), and two stints with Finance in Ottawa (with two years as assistant deputy minister for the Tax Policy Branch) weren't enough to make him ...
The WAR for talent
Aug 01, 2006; ... The search for crack chartered accountants has become critical in these days of high demand. How does one find them? There is a war going On. Like many wars, it is a struggle for scarce resources. But this is not a war with guns and bombs and killing; it is a war for talent in the ...
Ethics AT WORK
Aug 01, 2006; ... SILENCE USED TO BE GOLDEN. NO MORE. COMPANIES WANT EVERYONE TO TALK - ABOUT FRAUD. AND THEY'RE SETTING UP HOTLINES TO DO JUST THAT William, an experienced machinist with a large manufacturing company, was amazed by his new foreman's sumptuous lifestyle. He was very curious how the ...
Practical considerations
Aug 01, 2006; ... WHEN INCOME TRUSTS MAKE CROSSBORDER INVESTMENTS IT GIVES RISE TO INTERESTING CHALLENGES THAT REQUIRE CAREFUL RUMINATION Income trusts are becoming increasingly important players in Canadian capital markets and continued growth in the sector is expected. Consider that, according to the ...
Forget absolute returns
Aug 01, 2006; ... LOOKING FOR INVESTMENT GAINS? WELL, FIRST GET RID OF LOSSES OR REDUCE THEM BEFORE YOU CAN REAP ANY GAINS The investment industry has its own vocabulary to describe events or trends in the industry. For example, in the business, investment returns are described as having variability. So ...
The more things change ...
Aug 01, 2006; ... HAVE US CORPORATE COLLAPSES HAD AN EFFECT ON THE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF CANADIAN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRMS? In recent years, public accounting firms have been caught in a media firestorm fuelled by corporate fraud, disappointed investors and aggressive regulators. The collapse of Arthur ...
A book to keep at hand
Aug 01, 2006; ... A book to keep at hand CHRIS MERCER'S INTEGRATED THEORY IS REALLY THAT GOOD OF A READ FOR THE VALUATION, LITIGATION OR M & A PROFESSIONAL Every so often a great technical book comes along. Chris Mercer, ASA, CFA and one of the US's leading business valuators, has pulled it ...
A losing combination
Aug 01, 2006; ... Over the past year, I've written about the dysfunctional effects of the new corporate governance practices. With time, I'm becoming increasingly skeptical about the impact of the underlying reforms. Most observers believe they have improved the governance of public companies, but that remains to ...