A few wealthy nations stepped up efforts last year to crack down on companies that bribe foreign officials to get lucrative contracts abroad, a watchdog group reported. But most of the 39 countries that joined the crackdown launched 15 years ago have done nothing or not enough, according to the report.
Most private companies do not share financial details with all employees, according to a new survey by Robert Half. But some executives think openness has its benefits. Among them: Quelling fears about the future, and showing employees how their work contributes to the bottom line.
After about a decade of outpacing advanced economies, BRIC economies are seeing their growth slow. Deloitte’s most recent global economic outlook largely blames the euro-zone debt crisis but also on domestic challenges in some of the BRICs.
Rather than zeroing in on specific countries as they devise a strategy, companies should focus on cities – in particular the 440 cities in emerging markets projected to double the global economic growth rate by 2025.
A new US public company auditing standard deems robust, two-way communication between external auditors and audit committees to be essential to high-quality audits. Experts say the standard, which must be approved by the SEC, reflects and codifies the healthy dialogue that has existed between auditors and audit committees for years.
While companies are waiting for the global economic climate to stabilise, they have time to look around for rapid-growth markets that might offer similar or better opportunities than China once their appetite for mergers and acquisitions returns. Ernst & Young’s M&A Maturity Index highlights some unexpected candidates.
Companies must do a better job of evaluating and updating their cybersecurity policies as data breaches grow in number and sophistication, PwC says in a new report. To shore up their defences against cybercriminals, companies should institute three lines of defence.
Just a few years ago, social media barely registered among the enterprise risks that concerned executives. But a recent survey shows that social media is emerging as one of the top risks to companies.
The significance of “black swan events” in the financial crisis has prompted many organisations to use premortems to identify potentially disastrous issues. Learn the merits of thinking the unthinkable.
Fewer than two in 10 businesses have integrated enterprisewide risk management into their business strategies despite risks that are growing in volume and complexity, according to a survey performed for the AICPA.
In an effort to help audit committees make informed decisions, the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) released a 26-page report describing how its inspections of audit firms work and how to gather information from audit firms about those inspections.
Internal audit is evolving from a strict compliance function, but its strategic alignment with business strategy has yet to be formalised and documented in many organisations. Here are four steps to develop a formal strategy document for the internal audit function.
Corporate boards can better prepare for their role in enterprise risk management oversight with a framework aimed specifically at them. A framework produced by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants describes a nine-step process for effective board oversight.
Former US Sen. Paul Sarbanes and former US Rep. Michael Oxley say the regulations they sponsored and saw signed into law a decade ago are not perfect, but led to changes in the corporate culture in the United States and abroad.
More scrutiny during audits, transfer-pricing issues and rapid changes in international tax legislation top the list of global tax challenges in a survey of multinational companies. A global consortium of consultants takes a look at the tax issues and offers advice.
How do leading finance chiefs measure and tackle risk within their organisations? We quiz David Horan, CPA, CGMA, the CFO at Dealer Services Corporation; Atul Patel, group FD at IT security firm NCC Group; Jeff van der Eems, COO of United Biscuits; and Jackie Hunt, CFO at Standard Life.
In recent years, according to an International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) report, internal control has come to be viewed as an integral part of risk management and governance rather than a separate concept unto itself.
Management should begin control-related activities before an organisation contracts with a cloud-computing service provider (CSP), according to guidance provided in a recently released thought paper.
Three senior finance professionals talked with CGMA Magazine about what transparency means to them, and how they aim to improve it at their organisations.
Manufacturers are optimistic that they can combine product and process innovation with customer and supplier collaboration to create sustained but modest growth in an uncertain world economy.
