CMA Management

Browse past and current articles from this publication.

Why deals fail: virtually every private business must deal with the matter of ownership transition at some point. For many owner
Many private middle market business owners considering the sale of their company are concerned that they will spend substantial time, energy, and money on the process, only to reach an unsatisfactor . . .

Certain individuals and companies affected by anti-laundering legislation; Although new anti-money laundering laws have been ins
Post Sept. 11 2001, terrorist financing and money laundering were brought under a more watchful eye. The amendments to the federal anti-money laundering legislation that came into effect on June 23, . . .

Bulking up the c-suite in government: a key recommendation is to place CFOs in government departments and agencies.(government i
In publicly traded companies, the chief financial officer (CFO) is one of the key decision makers and influencers of corporate strategy. Given the unique role of the Public Service of Canada in Cana . . .

New tax-free savings account versus the old, reliable RRSP: on Feb. 26, 2008, federal finance minister Jim Flaherty's third vers
In 1957, the federal government introduced the Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) to encourage Canadians to save for retirement while benefiting from tax deductions. Before RRSPs, only indivi . . .

Acquisitions--a strategic opportunity in a weakening economy: while the current economic climate promises to present significant
Fundamentally, stimulating business growth can be achieved two ways. One is organically, through a developed plan to increase sales and marketing activities. In difficult economic times however, thi . . .

The path to prosperity: report of the competition policy review panel: a new report presents a series of policy recommendations
For several years, CMA Canada has been beating the drum of productivity with the Government of Canada through written submissions, appearances before parliamentary committees, and in correspondence . . .

What gets measured gets done: management support coupled with simple indicators and consistent measurement helped steer a compan
When the company merged two different operational activities in early 2006, the performance of the Ontario and Atlantic division was not as good as expected. However, in 2007, only one year after th . . .

WCS: proof of concept: developing a warehouse distribution centre to accommodate direct selling can bring difficulties and chall
Warehouse Control Systems (WCS) often require proof of concept according to Jerry List, vice-president of QC Software. Management teams in direct-to-consumer distribution centres usually turn to imp . . .

Watching the waistline--the thickening of the Canada-U.S. border: the difficulty of convincing the United States that Canada can
September 11, 2001, was a seminal date in the young 21st century. The attacks on and collapse of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan was the seed from which grew America's preoccupation with the sec . . .

Avoid costly system replacements by modernizing old applications: many companies are still running legacy applications that were
I.T. joke: What's a legacy system? Answer: One that works! As with most good jokes, the reason people smile when they hear this is because they can relate to its underlying message. Companies ha . . .

Paying the price of a carbon-based economy: Ottawa's latest effort to confront industrial GHG emissions builds upon the federal
"Canadians can therefore expect to bear costs under the regulatory framework that are not trivial." This understated five-alarm fire bell is buried deep in the Government of Canada's Regulatory Fram . . .

Pricing power: using price strategy road maps and tools to maximize bottom-line results: CMAs are trained to achieve best-in-cla
More often than not, anecdotes and "gut feel" remain the key drivers for pricing decisions. Consequently, organizations fall short of their potential for revenue and profit maximization (RPMs). In a . . .

Well worth it: building business value: the future is now. While this may be an overused quote, it certainly applies to the succ
According to a BDO Dunwoody LLP/COMPAS Inc. survey of small- and mid-size business owners, 71 per cent intend to sell their businesses within the decade. * Hundreds of thousands of baby boomer owner . . .

Overheard in the lobby: important changes coming to lobbying in Ottawa: the new Lobbying Act does not define lobbying--neither d
"Lobbying public office holders is a legitimate activity." It says so in the preamble to the federal law governing lobbying in Canada. This affirmation of the legitimacy of lobbying has survived eve . . .

Black holes in accounting: black holes--areas of undesirable activities that go unchecked--can destroy an entire organization.
Black holes in organizations can be defined as: "An area of an organization where, unbeknownst to management, an abundance of undesirable activities occur or a lack of desirable activities occur in . . .

Administering horizontal policy issues in the Government of Canada: breaking down organizational silos and thinking and acting c
Managing public policy issues, including hosting a successful Olympic Games, is an increasingly complex business. Managing them well is a significant achievement for government. More often than not, . . .

Canada's electronic reporting receives failing grades: corporate reporting on the Internet is becoming the prime medium for comm
Corporate reporting has changed dramatically in the past 50 years. And, as a new study makes abundantly clear, corporate reporting on the Internet is now becoming the prime medium for communicating . . .

Addressing privacy breaches: informing the privacy commissioner when a breach has occurred is not mandatory--but that could chan
Breaches in personal information security can take many forms. They can be externally driven by hackers or internally motivated by careless, or even cautious, employees who find themselves in unfort . . .

Restoring trust in Canada's government; Prime Minister Stephen Harper's mandate to strengthen auditing and accountability within
Canada's recent political history is littered with the remains of scandal: from the emigration of Iraq's Ambassador to the United States, Mohammad Al-Mashat, in 1991 to the so-called "billion dollar . . .

Global warnings: pandemic planning is essential for business continuity, but many organizations remain complacent. Is your compa
"It's not a matter of if, but when." That phrase is fast becoming the mantra for the potential of an avian influenza pandemic. It's also a line popping up increasingly--and with greater urgency in . . .

Strategic and streamlined: provincial governments in Canada need to encourage small business growth. Here's how two ministries a
The vast majority of businesses in Canada are small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In its federal budget submissions, CMA Canada has regularly championed the cause of support for SMEs. At the p . . .

Calculating a creative niche: Susan Richards, CMA, brings art to strategic management--and boardroom walls.(Cover story)(Company
"Creative accountant" could be considered a loaded description for a chief financial officer. Susan Richards, CMA, CFO of bitHeads doesn't mind it, though, as long as you're describing her strategic . . .

Black holes in organizations: many seemingly successful companies are affected by habits and routines that actually undermine th
Black holes are a powerful force that can cause great harm to organizations. Operating under management's radar, black holes are persistent and difficult to detect, which makes them difficult to era . . .

Sustainable suppliers, sustainable markets.(Company overview)
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REPUTATION AND BRAND VALUE ISN'T NEWS. BUT IT'S NOW CLEAR THAT REPUTATION IS CLOSELY LINKED TO THE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ETHICAL PROFILE OF AN ORGANIZATION'S SPENDING. B . . .

Canadian dollar blues? The strong--albeit now weakening--Canadian dollar has affected Canadian businesses in a variety of ways.
Ask Michael dos Santos, CMA, FCMA, president and CEO of Montreal heavy machinery manufacturer Flextor Inc., how his company has managed to ride the wave of Canada's strong dollar with nary a scrape . . .

Selling a private company--preparing for the sale: succession planning is important, even if a sale isn't in the immediate horiz
This article is the first in a three-part series on selling a privately-held company. Part one deals with pre-sale planning and preparation. Part two will address the business sale process and part . . .

Skating on thin ice: contingency planning to replace top performers.(human resources)
Strategic planning is an accepted best practice in most organizations. Executives have well-defined plans for growing their market share, developing their products and building competitive advantage . . .

Collaborative creation: the Windows Vista Tablet PC.(HIGH TECH)
Toshiba of Canada Information Systems Group (Toshiba Canada) recently announced the Portege R400 convertible Tablet/notebook computer. Highlighted by two world's first technologies, the Portege R400 . . .

IFACnet to expand SME resources.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
IFACnet, the global search engine for professional accountants, is being expanded over the coming months to provide additional resources, particularly for accountants working in small and medium-siz . . .

Holistic management of IT governance essential.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
While most organizations recognize the importance of IT governance, most don't have a holistic view that considers all its dimensions. According to a new study from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), IT . . .

New software.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
Visit www.managementmag.com for more information on the following software and applications packages: * Tenrox's Project Workforce Management Solution, Version 9.1 * New NetSuite E-commerce rele . . .

Companies not hitting goals in emerging markets.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
Despite the size and remarkable growth of emerging markets, a surprising number of companies are falling short of achieving their business goals according to a recent study by Deloitte's Global Manu . . .

Corporate Canada needs innovation: Conference Board.(New and noteworthy information you can use)(Brief article)
Corporate Canada as a whole is not being hollowed-out, the Conference Board argues in a briefing based on its Mission Possible: Sustainable Prosperity for Canada report. "Even as head offices and . . .

Audit committees take on broader oversight.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
As audit committees adapt to the heightened scrutiny and glare of the spotlight created by new regulations, they are also experiencing an evolution of their role to include broader oversight in matt . . .

Organizations overly cautious on cost reduction.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
Almost two-thirds of companies set themselves cost reduction targets of no more than 3% per year, according to a KPMG International sponsored study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Even the . . .

IASB publishes draft IFRS for SMEs.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) recently published for public comment the exposure draft of its International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IF . . .

Living Into Leadership.
It's impossible to manage and regulate ethics. If the CEO of an organization chooses to manage that organization unethically, there may be opportunities to disclose those ethical shortfalls to a thi . . .

Strategic Product Creation.(Brief article)(Book review)
Are you satisfied with your ability to market new products? The effectiveness of your product creation organization? Your product position compared to your competitors? Continuous growth in a busine . . .

Made to Stick.(Brief article)(Book review)
Urban legends stick. The Golden Rule sticks. But the last PowerPoint presentation you saw didn't stick. Why do some ideas stay with you and others you have to struggle to remember? And can we learn . . .

The constancy of change.(from the editor)
A few months back, one of our readers e-mailed to ask if we'd consider writing an article about the strong Canadian dollar--how different companies have been affected by it, and how they're adapting . . .

Sub-Saharan Africa--a bold business opportunity: despite its reputation as a centre of strife, Canadian businesses are finding o
An all-too-common view of the part of Africa lying south of the Sahara desert is of a subcontinent rife with discord: war, famine, AIDS, and genocide. Yet sub-Saharan Africa continues to draw hund . . .

The business of climate change: a recent Ottawa conference highlighted the challenges and benefits of addressing climate change.
In October 2006 a major conference was held in Ottawa sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund and the Canadian Centre for Policy Ingenuity. It made important progress in starting to come to grips with . . .

Packing the perfect HR punch: Great Little Box Company president and CEO Robert Meggy, CMA, FCMA, knows that people make a busin
When I reached Robert Meggy, CMA, FCMA, a couple of weeks before Christmas at his office in Richmond, B.C. he had a confession to make. "I never thought that, running a box company, I'd have to beco . . .

Branding an energy contender: Atomic Energy of Canada has successfully sold its CANDU reactors overseas for years. Now, manageme
In its first extensive report in two years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) in November stated that the world is facing an energy future that's "dirty, insecure and expensive" if governments d . . .

Lean or green?
The way accountants balance the pursuit of profit and the image of corporate social responsibility has been a complex problem for many years. As companies try to gain market share with a greener ima . . .

Mergers and acquisitions--three ways to dodge the pitfalls: while mergers and acquisitions can often seem the ideal solution for
Mergers and acquisitions (M & A) are simply a fact of doing business. They sometimes come in waves, considered a solution for the challenges of globalization, and a relatively easy way to grow quick . . .

Growing pains: expanding your business while keeping your employees happy can be a challenge. But with open communication, and a
Mason, the owner of an established, small and successful IT firm, was very excited last year after receiving news of some big contract wins. His firm had just landed several long-term general mainte . . .

Simply Accounting updated.(HIGH TECH)
Simply Accounting, by Sage Software, is one of the most popular accounting packages for small businesses. Each year, the company updates its system, and this process is driven by customer feedback a . . .

Info management at your office bad? You're not alone.(New and noteworthy information you can use)(Survey)
Middle managers spend more than a quarter of their time searching for information necessary to their jobs, and when they do find it, it's often wrong, according to results of a recent Accenture surv . . .

SEC extends 404 compliance for non-accelerated filers.(New and noteworthy information you can use)
In mid-December, the SEC issued an adopting release to provide for the extension proposed in August to push back the internal controls compliance dates for non-accelerated filers--the date is pushed . . .