I recently read an interesting blog entry from Thomas Davenport who co-authored “Competing on Analytics” (Harvard Business School Press, 2007) and works as a professor at Babson College.

In his blog, Davenport makes a compelling case for ignoring our universal “information overload” problem. He identifies some surprising benefits of information overload as well as one crippling obstacle: the fact that few, if any of us, are willing to regularly invest our time “to save our attention” (i.e., change our information consumption habits).

Instead, I believe we can make greater process improvements in business, as well as in our lives, by focusing in the assumptions we make about all the information we use. Far too often, our assumptions range from “outdated” to “dead wrong.” (more…)

For several weeks, Senator Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) has been expected to introduce a bill that addresses several of the stickier issues surrounding OTC derivatives. Over the past month, he has been working with Senator Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) to come up with a bipartisan plan. Other legislators who’ve been working on the bill are Jack Reed (D., Rhode Island) and Judd Gregg (R., New Hampshire).

The most contentious issue continues to revolve around “the end user exemptions,” says Luke Zubrod, director of U.S. public real estate advisory practice with Chatham Financial, a consulting firm specializing in managing interest rate and foreign exchange risk. That is, will businesses that use derivatives to hedge their risks be treated differently than financial institutions that participate in the market to a much greater extent? (more…)

Here’s IBM’s rationale: Value integrators are skilled at navigating uncertainty, and on every measure that IBM examined – revenue growth, EBITDA, and return on invested capital – their enterprises outperformed their peers’. They do so in large part because they excel at integrating information company-wide, analyzing it, and converting it to a competitive asset – new intelligence.

Pretty heady stuff, until IBM adds: “Our study also shows that too many finance organizations have yet to seize this opportunity – or meet their own [or maybe IBM’s] expectations.” Let’s take a look at some of the key findings. (more…)

A peppery interview with “Madoff whistle-blower” Harry Markopolos recently appeared in the decidedly mainstream publishing environs of the New York Times Magazine.

In the Q&A, Markopolos (who conducted a lengthy, and nearly fruitless, effort to persuade the SEC that Bernard Madoff was a fraud), provides a mass audience with some unflattering inside baseball.

As someone who has for years heard diss-y opinions about SEC commissioners and staffers (in strictly off-the-record conversations with regulatory insiders) it is, well, kind of wild to see Markopolos describe the following SEC officials to millions of readers in these words:

• James Donaldson: “Too tough on Wall Street, so he got the ax.”

• Christopher Cox: “He wasn’t going to do his job. That’s why he got the job.”

• Mary Schapiro: “Coldly polite.” And

• David Becker: “Ready to come across the coffee table and strangle me.”

Becker is current SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro’s general counsel. (more…)

BF: Tell us how your finance organization inside BNY Mellon Asset Management operates today …

Lipiner: The organization has about 135 people today. There are 15 investment management boutiques under the BNY Mellon umbrella, and our team is spread out globally to support each of these boutiques. From early on, the philosophy has been to get as close to the customer as possible, and when I say “customer,” from a finance perspective I mean our internal customers, individuals who run our lines of businesses. (more…)

Seven states increased their standard rate in 2009 (also a record).

More worrying, perhaps, for the companies that have to collect and remit these funds, is the fact that tax authorities are levying more and more new sales and use taxes, and they’re changing the ones they’ve already established more frequently. (more…)