An article in CFO magazine today announced the opinion that the US ‘Jumpstart Our Business Startups’ (JOBS) Act, whilst easing the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX, Sarbox) standards, might pave the way for fraud. You can read the article here . . .

From my viewpoint, the SOX benchmark has done little to address the causes or even the identification of fraud.… Read More

I had a interesting chat with a friend the other day, where he recounted this quote from a world record beating sailor (I forget the name, but it is not critical to the story).

With any new suggestion for additional ‘stuff’ for his craft (especially technology), he would always respond ‘will it make the boat go faster?’.… Read More

2011 has been a year of both turmoil and progress in the world and in many businesses. It’s certainly been a roller coaster ride!

Ups and Downs . . . Looking back, January 1st saw Estonia officially adopt the Euro currency and become the seventeenth Eurozone country.… Read More

This picture says it all for me. I could stop here . . . .  . 

The car park barrier is the ‘control’ over access and use of the car park. The automatic gate opens only when you swipe your employee badge on the reader and it only lets one car through at a time.… Read More

At the end of last year, I read an excellent book by Jeremy Hope entitled ‘Reinventing the CFO‘ .

The book challenges some long held assumptions about centralisation, planning, budgeting and forecasting as well as the role of the finance function as real business partner.… Read More

Tomorrow sees yet another compliance regime, the UK Bribery Act, comes into force. A much debated legislation which remains unclear in parts but reflects and puts even more teeth into the key tenets of the FCPA reglation from the US. Both these regulations have broad arms and don’t limit their interest to UK and US companies.… Read More