finance departments are the best place to train future CEOs?
The finance department is one of the best places to train future CEOs. This is because the experience that they will receive will have an impact on their ability to deal with a host of challenges. At the same time, they are learning how to effectively work with others and coordinate with various departments. The combination of these factors is providing CEOs with: the ability to adjust and address a host of challenges that are impacting the firm. Once this takes place, is the point that everyone is willing to go the extra mile in helping the firm to be successful in achieving its larger organizational objectives. (Nolop, 2012, pp. 3 -- 21)

Provide two actual examples of CFOs of publicly-traded companies who became CEOs of publicly-traded companies within the past 5 years. Do these individuals have the CPA and/or CFA…...

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References

Maxifield, S. (2010). Gender and risk: women, risk taking and risk aversion. Gender in Management, 25 (7), 586 -- 604.

Ng, L. (2011). Best management practices. Journal of Management Development, 30 (1), pp. 93-105

Nolop, B. (2012). The Essential CFO. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Managerial Decision Making
Finance department always plays a dominating role in the long run productivity in an organization and hence the reasons why the organizations strive try to strengthen this strategic function (Andrew, 2009). Organizations primary objective is to increase the level of surplus by taking effective strategies and mitigating the expenses.

There are numerous challenges which the organizations face during its day-to-day operations but to combat with those challenges are the actual bravery of the organization (Andrew, 2009). During the operations, an organization faces number of challenges like financial challenge, capital challenges, economical challenges, and political challenges (Bish, 2005). Appropriate strategies and tactics are more than necessary to cope up with these challenges comprehensively (Brown & Kate, 2001). For this piece of work, we have to perform the risk analysis of a chosen company. While doing this assignment, one has to consider it as an expert consultant in multinational financial management…...

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References

Andrew, G (2009), Operation Management, Saga Publications

Bish, E, (2005) Managing Flexible Capacity in a Make-to-Order Environment Management Science, Prentice Hall Publications

Brown, S & Kate, B (2001), Operation Management: Policies and Procedures, Pearson Group Publications

Bettley, A & David, M (2005), A Strategic Approach to Operation Management, McGraw Hill Publications

Moreover, many firms do not groom their CFOs to one day take the top position, wary of just such limitations.
In many industries, CFOs are not suited to the CEO role, because their skills do not reflect the key competitive advantages of the firm. However, in many cases the CFO is in the best position to drive shareholder value, and their skills in evaluating and structuring mergers and acquisitions can prove invaluable.

2) 1. The present value of 5700 one year from now at 3.6% interest is $5,501.93. The present value of 8900 two years from now at 3.6% interest is $8,294.14. The combined present value of these two accounts is $13.796.07.

2. At a 5% discount rate, the NPVs of the cash flows are: Year 1 $43.809m; Year 2 $67.120m; Year 3 $57.877m for a total of $168.806m. At a 12% discount rate the NPVs of these flows are: Year 1…...

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Works Cited

Sandrick, Karen. (1995). From CFO to CEO: What Does it Take to Make the Leap? Healthcare Financial Management. Retrieved July 7, 2008 at  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3257/is_n12_v49/ai_17869137 

Taub, Stephen. (2003). Now Playing: CFO as CEO. CFO.com. Retrieved July 7, 2008 at  http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3007934?f=most_read 

No author. (2005). CFO to CEO. Corporate Finance. Retrieved July 7, 2008 at  http://www.cristassociates.com/press/CorpFin_CFOtoCEO_040105.pdf 

Sandrick, Karen. (1995). From CFO to CEO: What Does it Take to Make the Leap? Healthcare Financial Management

Introduction and Company Overview Apple is an integrated designer and marketer of consumer electronics. The company’s products include computers, smartphones, tablets, wearables, as well as the software that powers these devices. Apple is based in California, but contracts out manufacturing to third parties, typically in China. It runs physical retail stores, and online stores, in dozens of countries around the world. The global nature of Apple’s business presents significant challenges for the finance department. In recent years, the company has been so profitable that it had massive cash holdings. These have typically been either returned to shareholders via dividends, and or invested in short-term securities, both of which provide more work for finance. This paper will serve as an introduction to the finance function within Apple.
Finance Touches Everything
In most companies, and Apple is no exception, the Finance department operates as its own team, but it serves all of the other teams,…...

Nature
CFO's

Do you think finance departments are the best place to train future CEOs? Provide two actual examples of CFOs of publicly-traded companies who became CEOs of publicly-traded companies within the past 5 years. Do these individuals have the CPA and/or CFA designations?

The reason why the finance departments are such a good place to train CEOs is they are teaching them about: how effectively controlling costs are a major part of an organization's success. When they are running a major corporation this will help them to create strategies that will support the long-term viability of the business. This is the key in being able to increase the earnings and the stock price.

Two examples of CFOs who were promoted to run publically traded companies over the last five years include: Indra Nooyi and Carl Carlisle. In the case Indra Nooyi, she was promoted to the CEO position of Pepsi Co in…...

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Bibliography

Dufree, S. (2005). Top Spot. CFO. Retrieved from:  http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/4444468 

Kaskey, J. (2010). Monsanto CEO to Leave. Business Week. Retrieved from:  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-22/monsanto-says-cfo-casale-to-leave-become-ceo-at-chs.html 

Howard, T. (2006). Pepsi Co Names CFO. USA Today. Retrieved from:  http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2006-08-14-pepsi-ceo_x.htm

Department of Finance is the lead agency supporting the Government's key economic and financial policy outcomes through the provision of advice and coordination of resource allocation for Government programs. It also provides financial services to the Government and the community, covering asset and liability management, collection of state taxes and insurance and superannuating administration. The organization is made up of a diverse group dedicated people with a wide range of skills, including accounting, finance, economics, business service, insurance, superannuating and management.
The Finance Department is comprised of three divisions:

Finance Administration Division

This division is responsible for the overall direction and policy implementation. It is also responsible for coordination of the Finance Department, which includes:

a) Budgeting and Accounting

Finance is responsible for the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the City's Operating, Utility and Capital budgets. The focus is to administer these processes to meet the needs of the community, City Council and other…...

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References

Yesilhark, M. (2000). What are the roles and responsibilities of a finance department?

Retrieved February 12, 2005, from Hausarbeiten.de

Web site:  http://www.hausarbeiten.de/faecher/vorschau/8283.html 

Department Functions. (2002). Retrieved February 12, 2005, from City of Kirkland

There is no evidence yet that federal involvement in the education system has improved outputs, which would be a prerequisite for efficiency. Part of this problem is data deficiency -- it is simply too early to tell if students reared under NCLB are more competitive because the first wave have barely left school, if they have left at all.
ith respect to Liberty, certainly federal involvement in education funding has constricted liberty. Even a small amount of federal funding can result in a strong federal influence on policy (Shelley, 2007). This influence on the system contributes to the erosion of state control. hile the states control the curriculum de jure, they are subject to varying degrees of influence from the federal government, depending on their dependence on Title I financing.

orks Cited:

US Department of Education website. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-org-us.html

No author (2007). Congress to eigh 'No Child Left Behind'.…...

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Works Cited:

US Department of Education website. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from  http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-org-us.html 

No author (2007). Congress to Weigh 'No Child Left Behind'. CBS News. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from  http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/No.Child.Left.2.278792.html 

Shelly, Bryan. (2007). A Small Lever: Federal Funding and State Compliance to No Child Left Behind. Wake Forest University. Retrieved April 21, 2009 from  http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/9/8/5/6/pages198564/p198564-1.php

It was also very interesting to note that many large suppliers may actually step in to help their troubled client. Again, this makes sense, especially if the client is a long-term business partner doing a major amount of business with the company. Saving a company actually makes sound financial sense in these cases, and uniting with a group of company creditors is also a good idea. It seems that for the most part, when a company runs into financial difficulties, if they are a viable and respectable company, there are resources available to help them regain their footing and continue business. This shows how important it is to always have excellent relationships with customers, no matter what business you engage in.

eferences

Brownstein, Howard and Edward Gavin. "When Bad Things Happen to Good Customers." Business Credit, June 2003, retrieved from ProQuest…...

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References

Brownstein, Howard and Edward Gavin. "When Bad Things Happen to Good Customers." Business Credit, June 2003, retrieved from ProQuest 27 June 2007.

The Steps that Can be Taken to Address Financial and Reimbursement Issues

The most effective way for controlling costs, is to find out where specific waste and misuse of funds is occurring. This will help administrators to identify those areas where there is a lack of accountability and ineffective controls. Once this occurs, you would then begin seeking out specific recommendations from the different department heads about: how they can control costs and increase productivity. This will allow us to determine specific tactics that can be utilized on the divisional level to effectively control costs. (Santerre, 2010. pp. 416- 432)

The next step is to seek out other sources of outside financing (such as grants). These can be used to help modernize the facility and provide funding for new programs that are in demand. This will allow the hospital to be able to finance and expand the different services that they are…...

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Bibliography

Pickert, K. (2010). The Unsustainable U.S. Health Care System. Time. Retrieved from:  http://swampland.time.com/2010/02/04/the-unsustainable-u-s-health-care-system/ 

Santerre, R. (2010). Health Economics. Mason, OH: Cengage.

Zelman, W. (2009). Financial Management of Health Care Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.

Finance
One batch takes 20 hours to make and produces 400L of ice cream. Sales last year totaled 50,000,000 liters of ice cream and the plant was working at full capacity. Therefore, the plant's capacity in working hours is:

50,000,000 / 400 = 125,000 batches * 20 hours per batch = 2.5 million machine hours. That is 285 machines in the plant, each working 24 hours per day.

Fixed manufacturing costs are $3,000,000 in total. The plant produces 50,000,000 liters of ice cream last year. Thus costs are 3,000,000 / 50,000,000 = $0.06 per liter of ice cream.

Variable factory overhead is $1,000,000 for the plant, or one-third of the fixed manufacturing overhead. This means that the variable factory overhead is going to be $0.02 for every liter of ice cream.

Based on the costs of inputs, the total cost of a liter of ice cream is as follows:

A2015893 Ice Cream

$/Liter

Milk

Cream

Sugar

Egg

Flavoring

Direct Labor

Tubs/L

0.02

Fixed Mfg

0.06

Variable Ovhd

0.02

Total

$0.60

2. Each…...

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Works Cited:

Globusz Publishing (2010). Standard cost. Globusz Publishing. Retrieved November 9, 2010 from  http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Costing/00000014.htm

Finance
Discuss some of the motivations firms have for setting up production facilities in other countries. Will the effect on the host country differ depending upon the motivation? Explain. Will the effect on the source country differ depending upon the motivation? Explain. What relationship might trade barriers (or the lack of trade barriers) have in determining a company's primary motivation for producing abroad?

The reasons for the foreign investment are high profit returns, and the rate of return is dependent upon the capital invested, the tax reductions and employees' fund. The foreign investment or production company is highly welcomed by the government because the company is expected to bring in foreign exchange. THz enhances the purchasing power of the country in international currency; thereby the nation has to rely minimum on loans and international borrowing.

The major motivation that the international investor has towards foreign investment is that cheap labor that the company…...

58, 59).
These insights are equally applicable to forecasting how global events will potentially impact the United States and its trading partners. The same techniques used for anticipating terrorism threats can use used for anticipating conditions of genocide and political upheaval, even in countries that appear to be economically and politically stable (Goldsmith, utcher, Semenovich, Sowmy (2012), et.al.). The DHS has also had to architect it systems that overcome bureaucratic inertia and protecting bureaucracy instead of flattening it (Larson (2004), pp. 29). Having had to streamline not just their own structure but the integration points with many other departments and divisions also shows how unique their cross-functional structure is (Mitchell (2003), p. 18). Using the lessons learned of organizational structure efficiencies and dynamics of cross-functional performance in more expanded areas could solve the impasse on budgeting within the broader U.S. government as well. There is also the potential to combine…...

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Bibliography

Goldsmith, Benjamin E., Charles Robert Butcher, Dimitri Semenovich, and Arcot Sowmya. Forecasting the Onset of Genocide and Politicide: Annual Out-of-Sample Forecasts on a Global Dataset, 1988-2003. Rochester, Rochester: 2012.

Hewitt, Ronald T. "Valuing it Human Capital." It Professional Magazine 14, no. 1 (2012): 58-60.

Larson, Richard C. "Emergency Response: Operations Research Models for Homeland Security." or-MS Today 31, no. 5 (2004): 22-9.

Mitchell, Kenneth. "The Other Homeland Security Threat: Bureaucratic Haggling." Public Manager 32, no. 1 (2003): 15-18.

Department of Defense Analysis of Parrott's The usiness Of War
It has come my attention that superiors at the Department of Defense (DOD) have requested my input on the historical role of played by private defense contractors, and the following report is intended to provide a synthesis of the work published by perhaps the most respected and recognized sources on this subject. Dr. David Parrott is the author of the seminal treatise on private military contracting throughout history -- titled The usiness of War: Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe -- and by adapting his thorough and comprehensive research on the influence of military enterprisers, mercenaries, and other segments of the private defense contracting industry, the DOD can formulate a more informed strategic foundation with which to shape future policy. As Parrott's writing style and logical construction can often be extremely obscure, the following biographical account and explication…...

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Bibliography

Parrott, David. The business of war: military enterprise and military revolution in early modern europe. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

"The Fellows: David Parrot." New College at the University of Oxford. University of Oxford, 11

Oct 2013. Web. 9 Nov 2013. .

Finance & Management
Skyline Corporation

The acid test, or quick, ratio adjusts current assets by removing less liquid assets, primarily inventories. It is expressed as coverage of so many times and is used to calculate working capital as the excess of current assets over current liabilities. By subtracting the inventories, or less liquid assets, it adjusts the assets to calculate for a truer working capital picture.

The current ratio measures short-term solvency, the extent current assets are sufficient to cover current liabilities. This ratio relates total current liabilities to cash, marketable securities, and receivables. If the current ratio is less than 1 and a competitor in the same industry is higher than 1, it shows that the company is carrying less inventory than its industry counterparts.

The inventory turnover ratio measures the liquidity of the inventory by calculating the number of times on average a company sells the inventory during a period. Analysts compute…...

Finance
An investor choosing between two different companies must undertake several steps in order to determine the best investment. In addition to understanding the industry of the company from a strategic perspective, a thorough financial analysis should be conducted. The strategic analysis will help to understand the underlying trends of the financial assessment. The financial analysis should include a ratio analysis, and should focus on the key areas of liquidity, solvency, leverage and profitability. In addition, the performance of the company's equity should be analyzed, particularly in relation to the company's financial performance. This will help to determine if the current share price is good value. This report will analyze two different companies -- Marks & Spencer and Tullow Oil -- using these criteria. There will also be a brief corporate social reporting analysis.

Marks & Spencer Overview

M&S is a department store retailer based in the UK, but operating internationally. The company…...

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Works Cited:

Marks & Spencer 2010 Annual Report. Retrieved February 11, 2011 from http://annualreport.marksandspencer.com/overview/about-us.aspx

Yahoo! Finance: Marks & Spencer. Retrieved February 11, 2011 from  http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MKS.L+Balance+Sheet&annual 

TullowOil.com. (2011). Retrieved February 11, 2011 from  http://www.tullowoil.com 

Yahoo! Finance: Tullow Oil. Retrieved February 11, 2011 from  http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=TLW.L+Income+Statement&annual

1. Develop a detailed budgeting process: The finance department should work with other departments to create a comprehensive budget that takes into account all operational and capital expenses. This process should be thorough and involve senior management to ensure all expenses are accounted for.

2. Monitor expenses regularly: The finance department should regularly review expenses to ensure they are in line with the budget. By tracking expenses in real-time, the department can identify any potential issues or discrepancies early on and take corrective action as needed.

3. Use financial management software: Implementing financial management software can help streamline budgeting processes, track expenses....

Efficient Budgeting and Financial Management in Building Finance Departments

Ensuring efficient budgeting and financial management is crucial for the financial health and operational success of buildings. Finance departments play a vital role in implementing strategies and processes that optimize financial resources and ensure accountability. Here are key measures employed by building finance departments to achieve this objective:

1. Strategic Budgeting:

Finance departments develop comprehensive budgets that align with the overall building strategy and prioritize capital investments.
Budgets are created using detailed forecasts and historical data analysis, considering factors such as occupancy rates, maintenance costs, and market trends.
Scenario planning and sensitivity analysis....

1. Use automated tools and software: Implementing finance-specific software can help streamline processes, reduce manual errors, and provide real-time data for better decision-making. This can include accounting software, budgeting and forecasting tools, and expense management systems.

2. Standardize processes: Creating standardized procedures for financial tasks can help improve efficiency and ensure consistency across the department. This can include establishing guidelines for budgeting, reporting, and auditing processes.

3. Improve communication: Encourage open communication within the finance department and with other departments. Regular meetings, updates, and training sessions can help keep everyone informed and aligned with the company's goals.

4. Cross-training: Cross-train employees in different....

Improving Operational Efficiency and Communication within a Company through On-Site Finance Departments

Finance departments play a pivotal role in driving operational efficiency and enhancing communication within an organization. By establishing an on-site presence, finance teams can foster a closer relationship with the business units and gain a deeper understanding of their operations. This leads to improved decision-making, streamlined processes, and enhanced communication.

1. Enhanced Visibility and Accessibility

An on-site finance department provides increased visibility and accessibility to the business units. Accountants, analysts, and financial controllers can be present on the shop floor, actively engaging with operations teams and gaining firsthand insights into the....