Maybe it won’t help but at least they hired one. There may be something to the strategy of not having a CFO but we’ll be damned if know what that is. Hey, if you’re making money hand over fist and getting the checks cut on time, who gives a damn, right?
Unfortunately for MySpace, their ever-shrinking market share has maybe gotten to the point where some semblance of a financial strategy may be necessary. Enter Mark Rosenbaum who will surely help turn this ship around. Or maybe not, who knows. Good luck man.
MySpace Hires Finance Chief [WSJ]
Related Posts
Remember When You First Wanted to be a CPA?
This came through the twitters this week and apparently we weren't the only ones who […]
Key Steps for CFOs Starting at a New Company
This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.
Last year, 13 percent of chief financial officers changed jobs. Although this was down from 18 percent the prior year, Deloitte’s CFO Programs predicts CFO turnover will rise again this year.
The ramifications of turnover are huge. Tom Bonney, founder and managing director of CMF Associates, which offers temporary CEO, COO and controllership services, estimates that when a CFO leaves, efficiency in the finance department is automatically cut in half and exposure to risk i CFO joins the company, the ramp up period is longer than other key executive roles, due to the CFO’s broad array of responsibilities.
A recent report from Deloitte CFO Services highlights practices that successful CFOs have used to get off on the right start in their new positions based in large part on interviews with more than 20 CFOs from varied companies with nearly $170 billion in combined revenues, most with more than $2 billion in revenues.
Step one: Get to know the business. Learn what works and needs to be changed. Use your team as a resource in the process. The ability to be a good listener, as well as a clear communicator is crucial as CFOs establish relationships and plan for the long term. Listening to your team will not only help you plan your business goals, but reveal your company’s culture, and establish you as a trusted leader.
Step two: Create a 180-day agenda. Most CFOs surveyed by Deloitte felt they had six months to establish their roles. This includes creating an agenda with their CEOs and peer executives, as well as recruiting and renewing talent to build an ideal team. Then clearly communicate your agenda to your team and begin establishing a long term vision.
Step three: Make an impact on the business. If the first 180 days are about getting to know the company, choosing what to do and getting the right team in place, the next 12 months are about execution and ratcheting up the contribution of finance to the business. Making this difference requires deploying resources and capabilities effectively to achieve key initiatives. To do this, align talent with top priorities, delegate with confidence, adopt effective practices, and encourage transparency and accountability throughout your team.
Be mindful about how you allocate your time. Focus on where you can get results, sooner rather than later. “You need to get quick wins,” says Ajit Kambil, Deloitte’s global research director.
You also need to gain a quick understanding of the trends and metrics of your company, especially as it relates to the industry you are serving. “This knowledge, along with the ability to communicate with the management team, will foster success for the executive and assist in reaching corporate goals,” says Thomas Galvan, CFO of Rising Medical Solutions, a medical-financial solutions firm.
Think strategically. If you move up from controller to CFO, instead of worrying about GAAP and FASB, you may be asked to participate in strategic decisions. “The critical relationships are now not so much between the income statement and balance sheet, but between the CFO and a CEO – as well as the board of directors,” explains Todd Ordal, president of consulting firm Applied Strategy. “The political skills required can be significant.”
Culture also counts. For example, in a small organization, it can be critical for a CFO to be hands-on, but in a larger organization, it can be critical for the CFO to delegate. Do your homework and don’t assume anything.
Ultimately, the Deloitte study found the critical issues fell into three buckets: time, talent and relationships. Says Kambil: “If you don’t get them right, you diminish the opportunity to succeed.”
White House Backs Down on Corporate Foreign Earnings Tax
This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.
The Obama administration is slowly starting to pick its battles; starting with taxes on corporations’ foreign earnings.
The administration has abandoned its proposal to eliminate U.S.-based multinationals’ ability to defer tax on income by shifting assets to foreign subsidiaries, according to a published report.
While details are sketchy, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the administration’s proposed budget for fiscal 2011 shows that it has abandoned its plan to eliminate the so-called “check the box” system under which U.S. companies can defer U.S. tax on income by shifting income-generating assets to foreign subsidiaries without recognizing gains on the transfer.
The proposal would have eliminated companies’ ability to avoid tax on such transfers and forced the repatriation of earnings shifted in this way.
According to Bloomberg, the administration backed down in the face of intense opposition from multinationals. Observers note that Congress has tried to squelch the efforts of the Internal Revenue Service to clamp down on U.S. companies getting foreign tax breaks at the same time as U.S. tax breaks, although many of those breaks are facilitated by the check the box system.
“Maybe the administration figured this was one it did not need to pick a fight on,” Jasper Cummings, a partner in the Raleigh, N.C., office of Alston & Bird and a former associate chief counsel of the IRS, said in an email to CFOZone Tuesday. “They have enough fights as it is.”
Still, Cummings noted that the administration still has “a pretty long list of other changes” in international taxation that it is pursuing. Chief among them is a plan to tighten the pricing rules for transfers of intangible assets.
As CFOZone reported last fall, one such proposal would crack down on asset transfers of employee compensation. In a paper released in May outlining its budget for the last fiscal year, the administration said it would “clarify” the treatment of transfers of intangible assets to include shifts of such expenses.
At present, many companies avoid paying tax on gains resulting from transfers of so-called “workforce in place” under rules that also allow goodwill and “going concern” to go untaxed. In early 2007, however, the IRS issued a staff directive and audit guidelines warning that it was “improper” for taxpayers to classify workforce in place as goodwill and going concern. And an IRS official in September indicated that transfers of workforce in place should include the value of products or services the employees create if much of the work is complete at the time of the transfer.
According to Bloomberg, the administration’s proposals to toughen the rules on transfer pricing would generate $15.5 billion in tax revenues for the coming year and along with other international tax changes produce $122.2 billion over a decade.