Big Fat Finance Blog

About This Blog Updated daily by members of the Business Finance Expert Network, The Big Fat Finance Blog is intended to arm finance professionals with innovative ideas and best practices that help finance organizations create value.

Archive for April, 2010

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Prudential’s CFO Carbone Says Liquidity Crisis Resembled Yet Another Hollywood Remake

By now it’s widely accepted that economic instability is a large contributor to CFO turnover. In fact, in recent years research has shown that the average tenure of a CFO has gone from 5 years to 3 years.


It was with this statistic in mind that I recently reached out to Prudential Financial Inc. in the hope of landing an interview with their CFO of 13 years, Richard Carbone. We were quite pleased that Prudential’s CFO accepted our request and subsequently served up some sturdy guidance regarding what it takes for a CFO to enjoy a lasting tenure. While we look forward to sharing the entire interview with you in an upcoming Business Finance article, I wanted to pull out a few memorable comments that Carbone made in regard to the recent economic crisis. more

IRS Releases Draft of Schedule for Uncertain Tax Positions

The IRS is looking to save itself some work by having companies describe their uncertain tax positions upfront on their returns (as I mentioned here and here). The agency has released a draft showing what the proposed new statement might look like, together with nine pages of instructions for completing the form. Comments are invited through June 1. ###


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A Love Letter from the IRS

Well, OK, it’s actually a postcard, but it does spread some lovin’ to America’s small businesses and tax-exempt organizations — some 4 million of them, according to the IRS. The agency wants to make sure these organizations don’t overlook the new health care tax credit, which takes effect this year. more

RiskChat: “Internal Audit 2.0″

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released its 6th annual “Global State of the Internal Audit Profession” survey. I chatted with Brian Brown, PwC’s IA advisory services leader, to get a taste for the survey results and to have him describe “Internal Audit 2.0.”


Eric Krell: What do you see as some of the key qualities, capabilities, and/or characteristics of Internal Audit 2.0?

Brian Brown: We use an analogy with Internet 2.0 as the logical next generation for internal audit. Internal Audit 2.0 it is more aligned, collaborative, and technology-enabled. By that we mean more aligned with critical risks and stakeholder expectations, more collaborative with other risk and compliance functions, and better able to leverage technology to drive efficiency in the audit process. more

Coach Landry’s Planning Wisdom

Last weekend’s implosion of Texas Stadium (which took place just down the road from Beyond Budgeting Round Table [BBRT] North America headquarters) made me think of something highly respected Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry once said about planning:


“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”


I wholeheartedly agree.


In practice, I find that many organizations commit two common planning errors when it comes to setting their target goals. more

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