Many manufacturing companies have successfully implemented lean practices in recent years but the lean philosophy hasn't been as popular with the service industry. Here's how it can benefit.
Following the bailout of many of the nation's biggest banks, the question has arisen: just how big is too big, when it comes to banks? The answer isn't as clear as it might seem.
Pay-for-performance compensation is designed to motivate employees, but it often ends up rewarding managers who set the bar low. Here's an alternative approach for setting incentive plan targets.
While analytic methods have been available for some time, new insights and a demand for greater predictability are accelerating the application of analytics in business decision-making.
William Fuessler is the global leader of IBM's financial management practice serving clients in the areas of Business Performance Management, Business Risk Management, Finance Transformation and Financial Enterprise Applications.
Steve LaValle is the global leader of strategy services within the IBM Business Analytics and Optimization service line, a practice area dedicated to the application of insight, analytics and business process improvement.
What is this thing called cloud computing? Do you really need to know about it? Does your company need to do something right now? And, bottom line, what are the implications for finance organizations?
Companies need to improve their GRC efforts, according to an Ernst & Young risk survey. Half of respondents acknowledged that there are gaps in their organization's risk coverage and sixty-seven percent report that they have overlapping coverage among two or more risk functions.
Companies don't need a stack of cash and unlimited time to come up with profitable ideas, a project assigned to Stanford University students demonstrates. Given just $5 in seed money and two hours to brainstorm, small groups of students were able to come up with money-making ideas that they then successfully executed.
Managers usually assess the value of an IT project through return on investment (ROI), but for long-duration, ongoing IT projects, companies should look at a "return on assets" (ROA) approach, according to Miko Matsumura, chief strategist at Software AG.
Deloitte Chairman of the Board Sharon Allen discusses the results of the third annual Ethics & Workplace survey that she commissioned to examine the reputational risk associated with employees' use of social networks.
When it came time to find a CFO, the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital wanted someone who not only could crunch the numbers and understood how a hospital actually functions -- but someone who could make a connection at a values level with doctors, nurses and the children they love to serve.
Bill Fuessler, global leader of IBM Corp.’s financial management practice, explains how companies can better apply business analytics to their business decision-making.
Massachusetts businesses must soon deal with the country's strictest data privacy protection regulation. Here are some steps to minimize the risk to your organization and those whose personal data you hold.
The U.S. Postal Service's proposal to cut mail delivery to five days a week would have at least a small impact on several areas of treasury including operations, cash flow, and staffing schedules.
Charles Murray, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argued in an op-ed piece in last week's Wall Street Journal that payroll taxes and income tax withholding are "bad for democracy" and should be abolished.
Just 20 percent of your customers drive 150 percent of your profit, according to Derek Sandison of PM2, which means there are a lot of customers dragging your company's returns down. Here are some identifying characteristics of unprofitable customers.
Contingency fees, which are paid to a broker based on selected criteria such as the number of policies sold per year, can raise a company's insurance expenses.
