Under pressure

Glenn Cheney talks about Hurricane Katrina, rising fuel prices, military infractions and why the US economy is under considerable pressure.

The US is an extraordinary country, often in extraordinary situations, and these days, its economy is suffering extraordinary pressures from extraordinary forces. Interminable military actions drain its treasury. Hurricanes have ruined key ports.

Gyrations in fuel prices have consumers wondering how they?ll stay warm this winter and whether they can afford to drive to work. The federal deficit swells to unimaginable proportions, the trade deficit soars out of sight, and the almighty dollar is circling the drain.

Rick Telberg, a columnist and CEO of Bay Street Group Ltd, a consulting firm to public accountancy firms, has been monitoring economic forces acting on not only the country but also on the accounting profession.

‘Finance directors and accountants in the US are dealing with a wave of economic issues they hadn?t foreseen a year ago, and they?re getting increasingly worried,’ Telberg says. ‘The central bank is jacking up interest rates to suppress inflation. A housing bubble seems ready to pop, which could seriously crimp consumer spending. The federal deficit has financial professionals fearing setbacks in financial markets and increased borrowing costs, along with a sudden drop in consumer demand.’

Within the profession, Telberg says, finance directors and accountants are dealing with huge new costs created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, uncertainties about the standards-setting hierarchy, weakness in the profession?s reputation and political clout, spiralling health care insurance costs for labour, and an uncertain tax situation after major crackdowns on big accounting and law firms that had promoted dubious tax shelters.

Enter Mother Nature. Back-to-back hurricanes ? named Katrina and Rita ? devastated New Orleans and a number of other ports.

Katrina has been said to equal ‘one war in Iraq’, not in terms of destruction but in cost. The financial toll of the war has reached US$200 billion, running an average of US$1.5 billion a week. The financial toll of the hurricanes may tally up as high, though it depends on how the money is counted. Several cities must not only be rebuilt but decontaminated of environmental hazards.

Since New Orleans is the ocean port of the Mississippi River, farmers in the national breadbasket to the north have been unable to ship their crops. Scores of cities, denied revenues from property and business taxes, may default on bonds.

Katrina affected accountancy, too. CPA firms had to flee New Orleans, and those that have returned find their clients swamped, swept away, or otherwise bereft of personnel or infrastructure.

Bill Balhoff, partner with Postlethwaite & Netterville, has offices in New Orleans and in the state capital, Baton Rouge, just to the north. His New Orleans staff spent weeks working elbow-to-elbow in a training room at the Baton Rouge office, and many had to bunk in the homes of their peers. It took more than a month before the New Orleans office could be re-opened.

The only good news for the firm: its technology subsidiary has lots of business helping clients recover records and reconstruct information systems.

Meanwhile, accounting firms across the country offered shelter from the storms, promising temporary jobs to any CPA who needed work away from home. They even promised to return the evacuees as soon as their home offices were back in operation ? quite a gesture in a country suffering a chronic shortage of accountants.

‘The response within the profession around the country has been awesome,’ Balhoff says. ‘In many cases, tragedies bring out the best in people, and that has certainly been the case in response to Katrina.’

Barry C. Melancon, president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs, and a former resident of the New Orleans area, says the hurricanes did more than disrupt a commercial ecosystem. The damage to oil rigs and refineries has aggravated a national fuel shortage.

‘The impact on oil is affecting everyone?s pocketbooks, though that will subside as facilities return to operation,’ Melancon says. ‘But the high price of gas has minimised people?s disposable income, and the ripple effect will be seen across the economy. Demand-driven construction material costs will also have a ripple effect for two or three years. So even though the damage was in just one region, Katrina is having far-reaching effects.’

The hurricane was also a blow to the federal budget. To cover the cost of Katrina, President Bush is pressing to reduce overall spending ? and refusing to desist from his efforts to reduce taxes. To some, that?s a silver lining. To others, it?s a dark cloud. Those of the silver lining persuasion say reconstruction will boost economic activity. Those who see an unlined dark cloud fear a budget slashed of social programs and still operating in the red.

With the federal government already operating in a fiscal abyss ? US$7,932,709,661,723.50 as of 30 September ? all these extraordinary expenses must be paid for under deficit spending. The total recovery cost may be only 1 per cent of the national GDP of US$12 million million, but the interest on the national debt will add US$12 billion a year for many years to come.

Congressman Jim Saxton, chair of the Joint Economic Committee and a patriotically optimistic Republican, says the economic impact of the hurricane will be transitory.

‘The extraordinary resilience and flexibility of the US economy fostered by positive monetary and tax policies, so far have proven to be more powerful than the unusual negative forces [such as Katrina, fuel prices, the deficit, etc.],’ he says.

Saxton says though the price of oil may slow the economy in the short term, conserving by consumers and increased energy efficiency will restrain demand. The decline of the dollar is not a concern, he says, as long as the Federal Reserve continues to keep long-term inflation under control. Deficit spending signals the need for a tighter federal budget, he says, ‘but as a percentage of GDP, the deficit still remains well below historic highs reached in previous decades.’

The Government Accountability Office is less optimistic. It identifies social entitlement programs as all but dooming the economy.

‘GAO?s simulations lead to an overarching conclusion: current fiscal policy is unsustainable over the long term,’ a recent GAO report warns. ‘Absent reform of federal retirement and health programs for the elderly … federal budgetary flexibility will become increasingly constrained. Assuming no changes to projected benefits or revenues, spending on these entitlements will drive increasingly large, persistent, and ultimately unsustainable federal deficits and debt as the baby boom generation retires.’

Sustaining the US economy is a massive influx of capital from abroad, resulting in huge offshore reserves in dollars. That helps hold interest rates down, but as the balance worsens, an uncontrollable collapse of the dollar could do a financial Katrina on the whole world.

‘We are skating on increasingly thin ice,’ Paul A. Volker, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Committee, wrote in a Washington Post editorial in April. ‘On the present trajectory, the deficits and imbalances will increase. At some point, the sense of confidence in capital markets … could fade. Then some event … could come along to disturb markets, with damaging volatility in both exchange markets and interest rates.’

Meanwhile, corporate scandals have rattled investor confidence. A jittery reluctance edges the securities market upward only to let it stumble back down, resulting in a kind of dangerous stagnation.

Barry Melancon says that investor confidence has been extensively restored.

‘If you look at confidence in the American capital market system today, it has recovered pretty well,’ Melancon says. ‘Even though people don?t always understand everything that was done, they understand that something was done.’

But the connection between corporate scandal and investor confidence isn?t quite so simple. The cure may have created a problem. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act had the laudable intention of making corporate officers more responsible, tightening internal control, and intensifying audits. Though it has improved accounting and accountability, the improvement has come with a cost: by some estimates a total approaching US$35 billion.

Jeffrey Thompson, vice president of research and practice development at the Institute of Management Accountants, says the cost of implementing Sarbanes-Oxley has been steep, but that represents only part of its economic effects.

‘The hard-dollar cost ? make no mistake about it ? has been a huge drain on the economy,’ Thompson says. ‘What?s less understood, less documented and less quantifiable, however, is the opportunity cost: shifting resources from business development and innovation.’

Sarbanes-Oxley and a host of other financial and environmental regulations, Thompson says, may be countering some of the confidence they were meant to bolster. Citing a recent report, he says that ‘regulatory risk’ is widely seen as the most significant threat to businesses, ahead of political, market, and credit risk. And the US had the highest perceived risk.

IMA chair-elect William Brower, a vice president of finance at the Johnson & Johnson company, says sustainability will affect the US economy as companies are increasingly required to report on the environmental impact of corporate actions. ‘Over time, in order to meet the requirements of international standards, US corporations will be forced to change not only their accounting but also the way products are produced,’ he says. ‘That will potentially impact the economy.’

Despite the onslaught of economic woes, the US can still count on its greatest and most sustainable asset: its legendary ability to innovate.

Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), sees that capacity as a force to be reckoned with.

‘When we look at the new technologies coming down the pike, we see a continuation of the very vibrant productivity gains we?ve had over the last 10 years,’ Heesen says. ‘This will help the current economy despite a lot of issues that have come up, the biggest being energy.’

Heesen says NVCA members are describing today?s internet technology as ‘just the tip of an iceberg’. At the same time, the health sciences are expecting huge gains in efficacy. Digital technology, the internet, and healthier baby boomers will combine to create a new driver of the economy: oldsters who have computers in their homes, time on their hands, and cash in their pockets.

Heesen even sees good things in the energy crisis. The high price of oil is on the verge of inspiring new technologies in energy production and conservation. ‘There are other things that people won?t talk about because they?re putting them together in their garages,’ he says. ‘They don?t want to give away their secrets. That?s the heart and soul of the venture capital industry.’

That irrepressible urge to innovate may also be the economic force that trumps all others. If anything explains the persistence of the American economy, that?s it.

http://cpaaustralia.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3F57FEDF-95A966AD/cpa/hs.xsl/724_16749_ENA_HTML.htm
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Posted on December 31, 2005
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Expect Continued Growth from the Channel in ‘06, Analysts Say

December 28, 2005

By John Hazard
Financial research firm Raymond James & Associates found little change in the channel for the fourth quarter of 2005 and expects little change in the forecast for 2006.

ADVERTISEMENT IT distribution through the channel continued growing at 6.9 percent in the last three months of 2005, similar to the 5 percent to 9 percent growth seen in the previous four quarters, the firm reported this week.

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Distribution worldwide slowed to 2.2 percent growth, due to a weak currency rate, Raymond James said.

Distributors and VARs should expect to see similar numbers throughout 2006, as the trends and motivations remain the same, said Brian Alexander, senior vice president and IT hardware and distribution analyst at the St. Petersburg, Fla., firm.

The strongest sectors for distributors and resellers should continue to be notebooks, storage, networking and software, Raymond James reported. Desktops, servers and printers will remain weak.

In its own predictions event last week, IDC estimated worldwide IT spending growth of 5.6 percent for 2005 and forecast 5.5 percent for 2006.

“The strong categories remain consistent,” Alexander said.

“The driving factor behind IT decisions remains improving business productivity,” he said. “It’s not just ‘get me stuff,’ it’s ‘help my stuff work better.’ It’s all about becoming a productivity enhancer. That’s been the case for some time, but it will only increase.”

The trend is causing a blurring of the lines between volume and value added distributors, with volume distributors, such as Avnet Inc. and Arrow Electronics, receiving and pushing for more vendor authorizations.

“On the VAR side, it could mean lower prices, as they are able to source more from volume distributors who have a lower cost structure,” Alexander said. “The real impact will be on the [distributors]. It is an opportunity for the volume dealers, a threat to the value added dealers.”

Productivity enhancement is also driving consolidation, as businesses try to shrink their IT footprint, with smaller more efficient servers and storage devices, Alexander reported.

Voice over IP is a growing as a force and driving revenue in the network space, Alexander said.

“When I talk to VARs, I hear about VOIP more and more,” he said, “and as opposed to three and four quarters ago, when it was talk about the excitement, I think it is finally here and finally a factor. There is a lot of activity in this sector.”

The potential of managed services looms on the horizon, but it remains less a factor in the channel than a concept, Raymond James reports.

“It’s definitely the next big business model change, but it isn’t here yet,” Alexander said. “Everyone is still trying to figure out how to play it.”

Copyright (c) 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Posted on December 30, 2005
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Are You Playing Checkers or Chess with Your Staff?

Good Managers Focus on Employees’ Strengths, Not Weaknesses

Marcus Buckingham knows enough about good management to know he’s not a good manager, according to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Before his career as a management consultant, Buckingham headed The Gallup Organization’s “strengths management” practice. He was a manager, and he wasn’t much good at it.

“I wasn’t terrible, but I had no appetite for it,” said Buckingham, who spoke about management and leadership at the Wharton Leadership Conference.

The best managers share one talent — the ability to find, and then capitalize upon, their employees’ unique traits, according to Buckingham, author of such books as “First, Break All The Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently” and “The One Thing You Need to Know…About Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success.”

“The guiding principle is, ‘How can I take this person’s talent and turn it into performance?’ That’s the only way success is possible.” And yet not everyone has that knack, Buckingham said.

What’s he learned from his years spent interviewing the best minds of the business world? Just this: The really great managers, and really inspiring business leaders, are a rare breed.

“Some of you in this room may not have that talent,” he said. “If not, management can become a thankless task.”

How to tell a good manager from a bad manager?

According to Buckingham: Bad managers play checkers. Good managers play chess. The good manager knows that not all employees work the same way. They know if they are to achieve success, they must put their employees in a position where they will be able to use their strengths.

“Great managers know they don’t have 10 salespeople working for them. They know they have 10 individuals working for them …. A great manager is brilliant at spotting the unique differences that separate each person and then capitalizing on them.”

It boils down to this: Focus. Focus on ONLY those things that ONLY you can do. Drop or delegate the rest. Too many finance and accounting professionals we meet are trying to do too much because they can’t, or won’t, follow this simple rule.

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Posted on December 28, 2005
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52 Proven Stress Reducers

——————————————————————————–

1- Get up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning. The inevitable
morning mishaps will be less stressful.

2- Prepare for the morning the evening before. Set the breakfast
table, make lunches, put out the clothes you plan to wear, etc.

3- Don’t rely on your memory. Write down appointment times, when
to pick up the laundry, when library books are due, etc. (”The
palest ink is better than the most retentive memory.” - Old
Chinese Proverb).

4- Do nothing which, after being done, leads you to tell a lie.

5- Make duplicates of all keys. Bury a house key in a secret spot
in the garden and carry a duplicate car key in your wallet, apart
from your key ring.

6- Practice preventive maintenance. Your car, appliances, home,
and relationships will be less likely to break down/fall apart “at
the worst possible moment”.

7- Be prepared to wait. A paperback cam make a wait in a post
office line almost pleasant.

8- Procrastination is stressful. Whatever you want to do
tomorrow, do today; whatever you want to do today, do it now.

9- Plan ahead. Don’t let the gas tank get below one-quarter full;
keep a well-stocked “emergency shelf” of home staples; don’t wait
until you’re down to your last bus token or postage stamp to buy
more; etc.

10- Don’t put up with something that doesn’t work right. If your
alarm clock, wallet, shoe laces, windshield wipers - whatever -
are a constant aggravation, get them fixed or get new ones.

11- Allow 15 minutes of extra time to get to appointments. Plan
to arrive at an airport one hour before domestic departures.

12- Eliminate (or restrict) the amount of caffeine in your diet.

13- Always set up contingency plans, “just in case”. (”If for
some reasonseither of us is delayed, here’s what we’ll do…”
kind of thing. Or, “If we get split up in the shopping center,
here’s where we’ll meet.”).

14- Relax your standards. The world will not end if the grass
doesn’t get moved this weekend.

15- Pollyanna-Power! For every one thing that goes wrong, there
are probably 10 or 50 or 100 blessings. Count ‘em!

16- Ask questions. Taking a few moments to repeat back
directions, what someone expects of you, etc., can save hours.
(The old “the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get,” idea.).

17- Say “No!” Saying no to extra projects, social activities, and
invitations you know you don’t have the time or energy for takes
practice, self-respect, and a belief that everyone, everyday,
needs quiet time to relax and to be alone.

18- Unplug your phone. Want to take a long bath, meditate, sleep,
or read without interruption? Drum up the courage to temporarily
disconnect. (The possibility of there being a terrible emergency
in the next hour or so is almost nil).

19- Turn “needs” into preferences. Our basic physical needs
translate into food, water, and keeping warm. Everything else is
a preference. Don’t get attached to preferences.

20- Simplify, simplify, simplify.

21- Make friends with nonworriers. Nothing can get you into the
habit of worrying faster than associating with chronic worrywarts.

22- Get up and stretch periodically if your job requires that you
sit for extended periods.

23- Wear earplugs. If you need to find quiet at home, pop in some
earplugs.

24- Get enough sleep. If necessary, use an alarm clock to remind
you to go to bed.

25- Create order out of chaos. Organize your home and workspace
so that you always know exactly where things are. Put things away
where they belong and you won’t have to go to through the stress
of losing things.

26- When feeling stressed, most people tend to breathe in short,
shallow breaths. When you breathe like this, stale air is not
expelled, oxidation of the tissues is incomplete, and muscle
tension frequently results. Check your breathing throughout the
day, and before, during, and after high-pressure situations. If
you find your stomach muscles are knotted and your breathing is
shallow, relax all your muscles and take several deep, slow
breaths. Note how, when you’re relaxed, both your abdomen and
chest expand when you breathe.

27- Writing your thoughts and feelings down (in a journal, or on
paper to be thrown away) can help you clarify things and can give
you a renewedperspective.

28- Try the following yoga technique whenever you feel the need to
relax. Inhale deeply through your nose to the count of eight.
Then with lipspuckered, exhale very slowly through your mouth to
the count of 16, or for as long as you can. Concentrate on the
long sighing sound and feelthe tension dissolve. Repeat 10 times.

29- Innoculate yourself against a feared event. Example: before
speaking in public, take time to go over every part of the
experience in your mind. Imagine what you’ll wear, what the
audience will look like, how you will present your talk, what the
questions will be and how you willanswer them, etc. Visualize the
experience the way you would have it be. You’ll likely find that
when the time comes to make the actual presentation, it will be
“old hat” and much of your anxiety will have fled.

30- When the stress of having to get a job done gets in the way of
getting the job done, diversion - a voluntary change in activity
and/or environment - may be just what you need.

31- Talk it out. Discussing your problems with a trusted friend
can help clear your mind of confusion so you can concentrate on
problem solving.

32- One of the most obvious ways to avoid unnecessary stress is to
select an environment (work, home, leisure) which is in line with
your personal needs and desires. If you hate desk jobs, don’t
accept a job which requires that you sit at a desk all day. If
you hate to talk politics, don’t associate with people who love to
talk politics, etc.

33- Learn to live one day at a time.

34- Everyday, do something you really enjoy.

35- Add an ounce of love to everything you do.

36- Take a hot bath or shower (or a cool one, in summertime) to
relieve tension.

37- Do something for somebody else.

38- Focus on understanding rather on being understood, on loving
rather than on being loved.

39- Do something that will improve your appearance. Looking
better can help you feel better.

40- Schedule a realistic day. Avoid the tendency to schedule
back-to-back appointments; allow time between appointments for a
breathing spell.

41- Become more flexible. Some things are worth not doing
perfectly and some issues are well to compromise upon.

42- Eliminate destructive self-talk: “I am too old to …,” “I
am too fat to …,” etc.

43- Use your weekend time for a change of pace. If your work week
is slow and patterned, make sure there is action and time for
spontaneity built into your weekends. If your work week is fast-
paced and full of people and deadlines, seek pace and solitude
during your days off. Feel as if you are not accomplishing
anything at work? Tackle a job on the weekend which you can
finish to your satisfaction.

44- “Worry about the pennies and the dollars will take care of
themselves.”That is another way of saying: take care of the todays
as best you can and the yesterdays and the tomorrows will take
care of themselves.

45- Do one thing at a time. When you are with someone, be with
that person and with no one or nothing else. When you are busy
with a project, concentrate on doing that project and forget about
everything else you have to do.

46- Allow yourself time - everyday - for privacy, quiet, and
introspection.

47- If an especially “unpleasant” task faces you, do it early in
the day and get it over with; then the rest of your day will be
free of anxiety.

48- Learn to delegate responsibility to capable others.

49- Do not forget to take a lunch break. Try to get away from
your desk or work area in body and mind, even if it is just for 15
or 20 minutes.

50- Forget about counting to 10. Count to 1,000 before doing
something or saying anything that could make matters worse.

51- Have a forgiven view of events and people. Accept the fact
that we live in an imperfect world.

52- Have an optimistic view of the world. Believe that most
people are doing the best they can.

=================================== end ================================

From: NATIONAL HEADACHE FOUNDATION
Formerly National Migraine Foundation
5252 N. Western Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60625
(312) 878-7715 —
In Illinois 1-800-523-8858 —
Outside Illinois - 1-800-843-2256

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Posted on December 25, 2005
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Bruce W. Marcus Joins with Bay Street Group LLC

Renowned author and marketing consultant to accounting and law firms partners with strategic business development advisors.

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. ? Bay Street Group LLC, advisors in business development strategies, is pleased to announce that Bruce W. Marcus has agreed to partner with the firm as Senior Advisor At Large.

Marcus

?Bruce brings a lifetime of wisdom and experience to our professional services,? said Rick Telberg, principal, Bay Street Group. ?He is internationally recognized for new and innovative solutions to contemporary marketing and firm management problems. It is a pleasure and an honor to be working with him.?

A pioneer in professional services marketing, Bruce Marcus will continue as the editor of The Marcus Letter (www.marcusletter.com), read worldwide by more than 22,000 accountants, lawyers, and the marketers who serve them. He has also written 15 books on professional firm marketing and investor relations, as well as hundreds of articles. His latest books are Competing for Capital, (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), and Client At The Core (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), co-authored with August Aquila. He has developed and executed insightful and effective marketing programs for many of the major accounting and law firms.

?I look forward to working with Bay Street Group to help firms address and resolve marketing and management problems, particularly those that don?t respond to traditional strategies in a highly competitive and rapidly moving economic environment, and to pursue marketing and management opportunities that help keep a firm relevant to the dynamic changes in the world served by professionals.? Marcus said. ?I look forward as well to working with Rick Telberg and his unique ability to analyze and resolve the problems of the professional firm today.?

With Bay Street Group, Marcus will focus on:
? Tailored strategies for successful growth in a highly competitive and dynamic environment
? Strategies to improve and sustain profitable client relationships through the intricacies of today?s practice
? Effective marketing and firm management organization
? Maximizing and managing firm and professional knowledge for improved professional efficiency, productivity and profitability.

Bruce Marcus? work has been praised for his vision and knowledge of professional services, and cited by many of the luminaries in the professional services field, including: Gerry Riskin and Patrick McKenna of Edge International; David Maister, author and consultant; Richard Levick Esq., Levick Strategic Communications LLC; Ronald Baker, ?The Professional?s Guide to Value Pricing;? Gale Crosley, Crosley+Company; Larry Bodine; Law Marketing Portal, and many others.

To serve Bay Street Group clients, Marcus has developed a series of white papers that probe in depth the state of the professional services market. They are available upon request.

Marcus photo and all logos available upon request

BAY STREET GROUP LLC
Bay Street Group provides actionable information, strategic insight, and results-driven solutions to the professional tax, accounting and finance communities — and the vendors who serve them.
Services include:
? Business development planning
? Interactive marketing
? Strategic communications
? Custom publishing and media property development
? Market research and business intelligence
? White papers and case studies
? Conference and speaker services
? Executive meeting facilitation and partner retreats

Rick Telberg is president and chief executive of Bay Street Group. He is a veteran analyst, commentator, publisher, editor, and media professional. As Editor At Large for the AICPA Insider, he is the profession?s most widely-followed commentator serving the accounting profession and those companies seeking to serve the profession. He is also editor of [CPA TRENDLINES] at www.Telberg.com, which provides current Bay Street Group news and analysis.

CONTACTS:
Rick Telberg
Bay Street Group LLC
rtelberg@baystreetgroup.com
914.674.4531
www.baystreetgroup.com

Bruce W. Marcus
The Marcus Letter
marcus@marcusletter.com
203.459.2993
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Posted on December 21, 2005
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Ha ppy New Year, you’re fired

16 Dec 2005 | Nic Paton

It will be anything but a happy New Year for many U.S workers, with more than a quarter of businesses saying they plan to lay workers off and even more intending to do so without providing any severance pay, a new study has said.

The survey of 500 firms by WorldatWork and Aon Consulting is at odds with a study from Manpower earlier this week suggesting U.S firms were likely to continue hiring, rather than firing, in 2006.

The WorldatWork/Aon survey suggested 28 per cent of companies were planning layoffs next year, while 26 per cent were unsure if reductions would be necessary.

Worse from the employee’s point of view was the finding that 30 per cent of the 500 did not have a formal severance plan in place.

“The job market is more volatile than ever, with the competition for top talent extremely fierce,” said WorldatWork president Anne Ruddy.

“To attract and retain the best employees, companies need to offer key rewards like severance plans, which may be a make-or-break deal for those employees,” she added.

Of those employers offering a severance plan, 85 per cent used the number of years served as the basis for determining the amount of severance provided.

Nearly one-third offered one week’s salary per year of service, while approximately a quarter of employers provided two weeks of pay for every year served.

Other factors considered in determining severance include an employee’s position and compensation.

Annual reviews of non-executive severance plans were rare, according to the study. In fact, 63 percent of organisations had not reviewed their severance plans in at least the past 12 months.

Specifically, for 22 per cent of employers, a severance plan review had not occurred during the past 12 to 24 months.

For 29 per cent of companies, it had been more than 24 months since they examined their severance plans, while 12 per cent of organisations had never reviewed their plans.

Of those that did assess their severance plans on a regular basis, 61 per cent reported making no changes during the most recent review, while 11 per cent decreased the pay provided and another 11 per cent increased it.

“Change is the norm in today’s corporate environment, so companies should review their severance plans at least annually, to ensure alignment with their current business objectives,” said Pete Lupo, senior vice president with Aon Consulting.

“For example, we’re beginning to see an increase in merger and acquisition activity. M&As require significant focus from employees, whether these workers are asked to complete the terms of the transaction or remain steadfast in their traditional job requirements.

“It would be difficult for employees to accomplish their goals without knowing what it ultimately means for them. In this type of situation, a well-developed and well-communicated severance plan is essential,” he added.

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Posted on December 20, 2005
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Small Business Sets the Pace in Innovation

Small Biz Online Advertising Racing Ahead at 49% Annual Growth Rate: Are You Keeping Up?

The Boston-based Yankee Group, in a series of new studies, says the market for online marketing and advertising was $1.3 billion at small- and medium-sized businesses and growing at a very high rate of 49%.

More benchmarks:

? The 2005 spending on IT solutions ranged from $16,500 for two to 19 employee companies to $821,000 for mid-market enterprises with 500 to 1,000 employees.

? In 2005, the US SMB and mid-market-focused web hosting market was $4.4 billion and growing at a rate of 6%. The market for online marketing and advertising was $1.3 billion and growing at a very high rate of 49%.

? Software-as-a-service is rapidly gaining ground in the business applications market. More than 60% of SMBs attribute lower expense rates and increases in productivity as driving factors for adopting software-as-a-service.

? Security and backup are the top two most challenging IT issues facing SMBs. The primary obstacle to addressing these IT issues is price. Other major obstacles are high implementation time, lack of IT staff and concern that one upgrade will trigger other upgrades.

? SMBs are in need of security protection as complements to their broadband service, as more than 60% manage their own messaging needs because of privacy and data security concerns. Read more

Posted on December 19, 2005
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2006: What You Need to Know Now

Finance and accounting professionals are casting a wary eye on next year. Get the forecast, with key benchmarks, when you join the new survey.

by Rick Telberg

Finance and accounting professionals are closing the books on a tumultuous 2005. They are going into the New Year with moderate confidence in the economy overall, but stronger confidence in their own organizations, not to mention themselves and their families.

So we consulted our favorite economic prophet, Professor Rosie Scenario. To be sure, Ms. Scenario isn’t always right, but we’d rather talk to her than her arch rival, Dr. Doom.

As the last month of 2005 dawned, economic prognosticators and stock market investors were buoyed by clues that the economic gloom following hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the surge in energy prices was brightening. Instead, 2006, predicted to be a year of slowdown just three months ago, began to take on brighter prospects. If Professor Rosie is right again, it’ll be the fifth year in a row of economic growth, at a rate nearly on pace with this year. Read more

Posted on December 19, 2005
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Happy Holidays . . Now Get Back to Work!

Finance and accounting professionals aren’t alone in feeling overworked. It’s a national epidemic. See how you stack up by taking the survey.

by Rick Telberg

First, the bad news: Your workload as an accountant or finance professional won’t let up any time soon.

The good news? You’re not alone.

In fact, current reports show that about 33 percent of college-educated male workers are regularly booking 50 or more hours a week working. That’s up from about 20 percent a quarter century ago.

Wait, it gets worse: About 40 percent of Americans are sleep-deprived - getting less than seven hours of zzz’s a night; and that’s up from about 33 percent just four years ago.

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Posted on December 15, 2005
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6 Deadly Marketing Mistakes

Shannon Curtis of Grunt Marketing reveals the

90% of small businesses make that stop them from reaching the next level.

(I-Newswire) - According to industry feedback each year approximately 4 out of 5 new businesses fail to make a profit and shut their doors. This amazing attrition rate is nothing new and is typically a reflection of the bad patterns of behavior within the small business marketplace?

This percentage begs the question: Why do so many people ?fail? in business when the majority of the time they deliver a ?quality? product or service? Says Shannon Curtis, a Geelong based marketing consultant. ?The real issue is a lack of good marketing. Most people just don?t understand how to attract and retain customers. You can have the best product or service but what good is this if nobody knows about you, or the reason why they should purchase from you.

Shannon says most businesses become ?me too? businesses. ?They usually end up slugging it out in a price war, because there is nothing unique about them to establish value in the minds of their prospects?.

To have an outstanding business that delivers the wealth and lifestyle you seek, ensure you don?t make the following 6 Deadly Small Business Marketing Mistakes.

1. Working in your business instead of on your business. 50-60% of your time should be spent on income producing activities, 20-30% of your time on marketing activities with 20% or less time spent on everything else.

2. Failure to create & use a marketing plan. Studies have shown that businesses that consistently use a marketing plan are 70% more likely to be in business in 7 years time.

3. Failure to implement systems. Optimize & automate every potential area of your business. If you?re managing around people not systems read the best seller The E-Myth by Michael Gerber.

4. Forgetting to market to your existing clients. 60-70% of your marketing budget should be directed to your existing clients. Each month you fail to communicate with your customers their propensity to do business with you drops 10%.

5. Not testing or tracking your marketing efforts. If you don?t know where your new business is coming from you can?t quantify your marketing, or your return on investment. This leads to many small business owners becoming advertising victims. Whatever you measure, you can improve.

6. Not following up with your prospects. Marketing studies indicate that the average sale happens after the 5th attempt. Successful businesses have a process in place that automates the follow up process ensuring they are following up with prospects regularly.

Shannon Curtis is the principle of Grunt Marketing. Small Businesses who are struggling to attract new customers use his ?5 Steps to Business Success? program to quickly and easily improve their sales and profits. He offers a FREE lifetime subscription to his ?Explosive Marketing for Real Results? newsletter at www.gruntmarketing.com.au and can be contacted on 61 03 5245 7107.
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Posted on December 15, 2005
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7 Small Business Marketing Tips

by Bob Leduc

Here are 7 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.

1. Don’t Advertise Like a Big Business
Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business can’t afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales …now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

2. Offer a Cheaper Version
Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.

3. Offer a Premium Version
Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service …or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

4. Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods
Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

5. Trim Your Ads
Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.

6. Set up Joint Promotions with Other Small Businesses
Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost.

7. Take Advantage of Your Customers
Your customers already know and trust you. It’s easier to get more business from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Take advantage of this by creating some special deals just for your existing customers …and announce new products and services to them before you announce them to the general market.

Also, convert your customers into publicity agents for your business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper.

Each of these 7 marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for any small business to find customers and generate sales quickly.

Copyright 2005 Bob Leduc

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Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant. For more information about *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper, visit his web site at http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 after 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

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Posted on December 14, 2005
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10 quality questions

My Groups | Dans_CCCemails Main Page

“It is not enough to do your best, you must know what to do and then
do your best”.

“Does experience help? No! Not if we are doing the wrong things”.

“Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival”.

“We should work on the process, not the outcome of the process”.

Some insightful quotes from Deming.

==============================================================

1. An amazing web site (& more below).

http://www.nqi.ca/

2. You should study megatrends occasionally to ensure you are
focusing your efforts on the right (possibly) long term environment.
This new paper “The Seven MegaTrends of Professional Services”
provides some thoughtful identification of key trends and what to
do - to prepare and participate in them.

http://searchCIO.com/r/0,,50215,00.htm?track=NL-257&ad=538429

3. Another megatrend (at least in my view) is the adoption of
quality and continuous improvement efforts (in general) as the key
mantra for long term business success.

Quality management systems have been around for over 30 years. Six
Sigma practices has been in place for over 20 years. Lean
manufacturing has been adopted world wide for over 15 years (in many
organizations). Quality awards continue to grow - Are you ISO
certified?; Are you accrediated?; Do you have a certified quality
system?; Does your product or service met the market’s quality
standards?; and on and on.

4. Provided below is a 20 question “warm up” test from the National
Quality Institute (of Canada)’s Quality Fitness Test (QFT) regarding
your preparedness for continuous improvement efforts and where your
gaps and opporutities might be.

5. Finally, check out NQI’s long term efforts to improve quality.

www.nqi.ca

Enjoy,

Dan

=================================================================
NQI’s Twenty-question warm up quiz - (re continuous improvement).
=================================================================

1. Is a strategic plan in place, reflecting quality principles and
incorporating improvement objectives, and have we communicated it to
all levels.

2. Are the trends in key measures of performance positive?

3. Do we gather, anayse, and evaluate information to determine the
neds of clients and stakeholders?

4. Do we full agreement at all levels on the important of client and
stakeholder satisfaction?

5. Is it easy for clients to provide input on their needs, to seek
assistance and to complain?

6. Are the levels and trends in client and stakeholder satisfaction
good?

7. Do we identify, prioritize, and measure issues, and set
improvement goals?

8. Do we conduct formal quality assessments?

9. Are systems in place to recruit, develop, recognize and assess
people, and do we take steps to minimize the effects of any
restructuring?

10. Do we identify training and development needed to meet goals in
our improvement plan, and do we respond to these needs?

=========================================
Please just let me know if you want to
receive the other ten warm up questions.
=========================================

——————————————————————————–
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS

Visit your group “Dans_CCCemails” on the web.

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Dans_CCCemails-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

——————————————————————————–

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Posted on December 14, 2005
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Whatever Happened to the Paperless Office?

In Fact, While You Weren’t Looking, the Paperless Office Has Arrived.

The demand for paper used to outstrip the growth of the US economy, but the past two or three years have seen a marked slowdown in sales - despite a healthy economic scene.

“Old habits are hard to break,” says Merilyn Dunn, communications supplies director for InfoTrends/CAP Ventures, a market research firm in Weymouth, Mass. “There are some functions that paper serves where a screen display doesn’t work. Those functions are both its strength and its weakness.”

In the early to mid-’90s, a booming economy and improved desktop printers helped boost paper sales by 6 to 7 percent each year, according to the Monitor. The convenience of desktop printing allowed office workers to indulge in printing anything and everything at very little effort or cost, the paper said

But now, the growth rate of paper sales in the United States is flattening by about half a percent each year, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Between 2004 and 2005, Dunn says, plain white office paper will see less than a 4 percent growth rate, despite the strong overall economy. A primary reason for the change, says Dunn, is that for the first time ever, some 47 percent of the workforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices.

“We’re finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the workplace,” says John Maine, vice president of RISI, a pulp and paper economic consulting firm in Charlottesville, Va. “More information is being transmitted electronically, and more and more people are comfortable with the information residing only in electronic form without printing multiple backups.” In addition, Maine points to the lackluster employment market for white-collar workers - the primary driver of office paper consumption - for the shift in paper usage.

The real paradigm shift may be in the way paper is used. Since the advent of advanced and reliable office-network systems, data storage has moved away from paper archives. The secretarial art of “filing” is disappearing from job descriptions. Much of today’s data may never leave its original digital format.

But the paper-makers aren’t sitting still. For example, Xerox Corp. is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that respond to a stylus, like a pen on paper. Notations can be easily erased or saved digitally. Anoto Group is working on a system to allow notations made with a stylus on a page printed with a special magnetic ink to simultaneously appear on a computer screen.

But, keep in mind that videoconferencing was expected to cut down on business travel. So far, at least, it hasn’t. Business travel is up. Read more

Posted on December 14, 2005
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