Features

Co-Creating Strategic Risk-Return Management
By Mark L. Frigo and Venkat Ramaswamy
By focusing on co-creation opportunities, companies can generate superior returns while reducing risk exposure. Facilitating interactions among individuals and with processes helps a company engage all of its stakeholders, and this increased access and greater transparency lead to improved dialogue that helps spur better results, innovation, and opportunities. As a guide, the authors describe a new approach to creating value and managing risk that focuses on harnessing the advantages and benefits of Value Co-Creation and Return Driven Strategy.

Ghost and Zombie Assets
By Alfred M. King, CMA, CFM
Many companies may be surprised to discover they are haunted. Reconciliation between the property ledger and the assets physically on the floor can turn up ghosts (assets that are still on the ledger but not physically present) and zombies (assets that are physically present but no longer on the ledger). With increased emphasis now being placed on the accuracy of the balance sheet, it’s time companies get serious about internal controls over fixed assets and exorcise these supernatural assets from their operations.

How Accurate Are Chinese Costing Practices?
By Raef Lawson, CMA, CPA
The third and final article based on an IMA study of management accounting practices in China focuses on the costing practices employed by Chinese firms. The 2006 adoption of new Chinese Accounting Standards moved financial reporting for companies in China much closer to the methods practiced in other parts of the world, but several unique differences remain.

Where Tax Shelters and Core Values Collide: The Case of XYZ Bank
By Robin Boneck, CPA, and David Christensen, CMA
The IRS has been clamping down on illegal lease-associated tax shelters, much to the dismay of the many big companies that had been using them to reap millions. In this article, the authors examine why a fictitious company similar to those caught in the government’s crosshairs turned a blind eye to its own stated corporate values.

Columns

PERSPECTIVES
Reflections on China

TOP LINE
Unlock Your Membership Value

TAXES
American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009

ETHICS
More Enforcement and Prosecution

FINANCIAL REPORTING
New Views on Lease Accounting

IMA LIFE
From Management Accountant to CMA

Departments

SF BULLETIN
• Sandy Richtermeyer named IMA Chair-Elect
• House likely to press attack on FASB, SEC
• Concerns about Cox IFRS proposal
• Letters: Target a variety of students
• Books: Framework for Success

EXCEL
Reporting if All Records for a Department Are Complete

ACCESS
Creating Relationships Between Tables

XBRL
XBRL Implementation Strategies: The Bolt-on Approach

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
NavTrac RTV10, Nikon D5000, Dell Vostro A90, Kensington Accessories

TECH FORUM
The Next War—Android, Fennec, and the Phones