Chicago Law School, The John Marshall Law School, Chicago Illinois -- legal education THE TRUTH ABOUT TAXES: High Rates On Rich People Do Not Hurt The Economy Aardvark and the Synaptic Web | ScribeMedia.org Pawns via Creative Commons/Flickr. “It’s overwhelming, fantastic, and like all technological marvels,” says Damon Horowitz, “just a little bit amusing.” Just a week ago Google bought Horowitz’s social search start-up Aardvark for a reported $50 million. The price is one the company co-founder will neither confirm nor deny. If you’re familiar with Aardvark let your imagination run for a moment and consider how the platform can turbo-boost Google Buzz which was also, and perhaps serendipitously, released last week. If you’re not familiar with Aardvark — and since it only launched a public beta last October, there’s no reason you should be — a basic primer runs something like this. Aarvark is a free service that lets those of us puzzled about life’s quandaries ask our social network for answers to our questions. More often than not, a response comes within a few minutes. Like Twitter, Aardvark should be thought of as a utility rather than a Web application or destination site.
SuperCFO Group News There are two primary types of financial leadership within top organizations: the CFO and the Controller. Many growing organizations do not have a clear understanding of the two positions, often overlooking the value that a CFO could bring to their business. This article looks at the differences in skill sets and duties between a CFO and a Controller with an eye to helping determine what level of financial leadership an organization requires. A table identifies and assigns 27 responsibilities to either the CFO or the Controller to support clarification of the differences. Reviewed is the strategic vs. tactical value that each brings to an organization including the manner by which a CFO acts as a member of and trusted advisor to the executive leadership team. Also mentioned is the manner by which a growing business may engage a part-time or outsourced CFO when it cannot afford or may not require the services of a full-time CFO.
Our Lady of Good Counsel High School - Olney, MD Why America Needs More Immigrants Corante Media Hub Financial Ratio Tutorial When it comes to investing, analyzing financial statement information (also known as quantitative analysis), is one of, if not the most important element in the fundamental analysis process. At the same time, the massive amount of numbers in a company's financial statements can be bewildering and intimidating to many investors. However, through financial ratio analysis, you will be able to work with these numbers in an organized fashion. The objective of this tutorial is to provide you with a guide to sources of financial statement data, to highlight and define the most relevant ratios, to show you how to compute them and to explain their meaning as investment evaluators. In this regard, we draw your attention to the complete set of financials for Zimmer Holdings, Inc. Among the dozens of financial ratios available, we've chosen 30 measurements that are the most relevant to the investing process and organized them into six main categories as per the following list:
The Brico Fund - Grant Making Priorities Grant Making Priorities Below are brief descriptions of The Brico Fund’s four focus areas. Use the menu on the right to get more detailed information on each program area. Women and Girls The Women and Girls grant making program focuses in two specific program areas: girls out-of-school programming; and reproductive health, justice and rights. Environment The Environment grant making area focuses in two specific program areas: improving the water quality and quantity of Lake Michigan and surrounding waterways; and building a healthy, locally sourced food system in Southeastern Wisconsin. Just and Equitable Society The Just and Equitable Society grant making program focuses on strengthening the capacity of and building leadership in organizations that advocate for fair policies and a better quality of life for Wisconsin families. Culture and Community
Pulling the Capex Lever - Utilities Article Companies across all industries have room to grow in optimizing "return on capex." The fundamental questions of how much to spend, what to spend it on, and how to transform the investment into real returns must be answered in a radically different way. Capex spending—never far from a CFO's agenda—has been getting more than its usual amount of attention lately. One reason is its sheer size. While internal liquidity and external capital market pressure increases, recent A.T. Evaluation techniques widely used around the globe revolve around the basic concept of discounting future cash inflows (returns) with an interest rate reflecting the risk-adjusted cost of capital to compare the resulting cash value with the required cash outflow (expenditure). That's the theory. Spend volume: How much should be spent? Given the challenges and the potential opportunities, it is more than time for companies and CFOs to "pull the capex lever." 1. In a recent A.T. Disposition of capex. Funding of capex.
The Skills that Inbound Marketing Agencies Need to Have The HubSpot partner team spends a lot of time helping marketing agencies develop their inbound marketing skills and their businesses. There's good ones, there are bad ones, and there are good ones in the making. It might make sense for you to hire a new inbound marketing agency, unencumbered by the old ways of marketing . But, you should be vigilant as you interview new firms. If you're hiring an agency, you should test for the aptitudes below. Sales If they don't know how to sell in the right way, they should forget about starting a marketing agency. Ironically, these sales skills seem to get lost somewhere along the way when agencies get to a certain size. Account Management If an agency isn't strong at managing their accounts by setting expectations, reviewing activities, seeking buy-in, inspiring continued action and reporting results, they'll quickly lose clients. In order to avoid firms like this, ask questions about how they do monthly reviews. Project Management
Viewpoint: Steve Eide on employee stock ownership plans Sometimes business owners who are ready to retire decide to sell their company to the employees who helped make it a success. One way that happens is through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. Steve Eide, an attorney with Gray Plant Mooty in Minneapolis, has advised businesses on how to set up and run ESOPs, a process that can involve changes in the corporate structure. His clients include Border States Electric, a Fargo-based electrical supplier, and Walman Optical Co., based in Minneapolis, both ESOPs. He talked recently to the Star Tribune. Q: If a business owner wants to sell to employees using an ESOP, must they come up with money to buy the company? A: No. Q: Business owners might get more money selling to a competitor. A: They may like the flexibility of selling to an ESOP, where they can sell maybe 30-40 percent of their stock and stay involved with the company, and five or 10 years later sell the rest. Q: In an ESOP, what control do employees have?