Tomato Newsletter "News 'n Views" No. 137 – April 2011

Introduction
From all your news sources, is this the most unusual newsletter with its mix of German and English?  Well, we have many English-speaking readers. Also, by bringing you so many articles in English means that you get to read about issues that you won't get from another source. And it's a compliment to you: You're professionally fluent in English and German and more.

Anyway, social media is starting to play a big role in the collection of pieces for the newsletter. Now that I'm following various publications on Twitter, I'm finding as many good news there as I do in email newsletter subscriptions.

If you or your company have a Twitter account and you post news that our readers would be interested in, please let me know. I'll become your follower and will share information. rspottl@triad.rr.com. Also check our latest postings at www.twitter.com/tomatokloten.

Enjoy!
Regula Spottl
 
In Today's Issue

TOMATO UPDATES

FINANCE AND BANKING

IT

MISCELLANEOUS


Financial Flow Management Article New on tomato.ch
A client called us recently because he remembered Martin Schneider's Financial Flow article published a few years ago in gtnews but couldn't find it on our website. He was correct, we didn't have it posted even though the topic is still one of Martin's favorite topic. Well, it's up now and it is as current as it was when Martin wrote it.
Financial Flow Management: Gains through Inter-Departmental Efficiencies appeared in gtnews on April 6, 2004.

Die deutsche Version "Financial Flow Management: Was ist Financial Flow Management, und wozu dient es? Erzielen Sie mehr Rendite durch aktives Steuern der Geldflüsse" erschien im KMU Magazin Nr. 2, März 2004. PDF

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Plan for CFOs to Help Audit Committee Be more Effective
Providing audit committees with better briefing binders can make the committees more effective.
In the CFO.com article "A Three-Step Plan for CFOs," Robert Pozen, chairman emeritus of MFS Investment Management and a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, explains that

  1. "The binder should describe any set of transactions…
  2. The binder should identify any material item where the accounting literature allows alternative methods of presentation…
  3. Perhaps most important, the binder should explain the rationale for any material differences in significant accounting policies between the company and its four or five main competitors…"

(Full story...)

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Managing Commodity Price Risk
Commodity price risk management can be complex. Also, the impact of financial risks such as FX risk or interest risk is often more obvious than the risk of commodity price risk. Still, a skilled corporate treasurer can add substantially to the transparency of organizational risk and make sure that it is effectively monitored and managed.

In his first risk management blog Managing Commodity Price Risk: Are Pass-through Strategies Sufficient? Kevin Lester, gtnews contributing editor, examines how companies are managing the commodity risk challenges they face and what they need to consider when they look at it as part of their overall risk management strategy.
(Full story... registration required, free)

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Maintaining Global Payments Data A Challenge for Corporate Treasurers
In the gtnews article The Growing Challenge of Global Payments Data for Corporate Treasurers, Malcolm Taylor of Accuity examines how treasurers can make certain that they are receiving up-to-date bank information from their suppliers and others so that their payments data infrastructure runs smoothly. Taylor explains how to

  • Gather timely bank information from suppliers and employees
  • Gather bank code information from local issuing authorities
  • Establish a global policy on IBAN conversion and payments data maintenance

(Full story... registration required, free)

If you have any questions, please contact Martin Schneider. He holds a commodity and financial futures license from the US Commodity Exchanges. martin.schneider@tomato.ch

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Mobile Payments Heading towards a Disruptive Phase
Rumor has it that Google will team up with MasterCard and Citigroup to enter the mobile payments market. This is not just about payments; the technology brings mobile payment together with mobile marketing and loyalty programs, says Forrester's Thomas Husson.

Google isn’t the only potential entrant to the mobile payment space; and it's not even about purely online firms. Husson describes in his blog Mobile Payments Enter a Disruptive Phase that "banks like Rabobank and Sanpaolo Bank are becoming telecom operators, while telecom operators like SK Telecom and A1 Telekom Austria have acquired banking or eMoney licenses…"

Adding new players and technologies is a recipe for disruption in many forms that will occur over time. However, this is not a time to wait and see for consumer product strategists at banks, card networks, device makers, and operators. While they all face different issues, they will have to make decisions about the role they want to play in the "evolving mobile payment ecosystem." They need to anticipate the different disruptive scenarios and determine which ones may well happen.
(Full story...)

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Leading Practice for Operational Risk Scenarios at Banks Worldwide
Scenario analysis gives senior managers a tool with which they can consider systematically the risk of extreme but plausible evens such as a rogue trader or system failure. Using this type of analysis allows them to assess the risks and proactively consider how to react quickly when the worst happens.

The report Preparing for the Unexpected: Leading Practice for Operational Risk Scenarios by KPMG UK explains the progress some leading banks have made in applying scenario analysis to operational risk.

(Headline Findings in pdf format...)

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Kurse Treasury Management in der Praxis
Intensiv-Lehrgang für Finanzfachleute, Controller und Quereinsteiger
ZfU: Finance & Controlling-Academy
Financial Risk Management
Module 1 – 4: 10. – 13. Mai 2011 / 08. – 11. Mai 2012
Details inkl Detailprogramm und Anmeldung
Finanzierung und Cash Management
Module 5 – 6: 14. – 15. Juni 2011 / 12. – 13. Juni 2012
Details inkl Detailprogramm und Anmeldung

Die Kurse finden in Pfäffikon, Schwyz statt.

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Integrating Social Media in Enterprise CRM still Hard
CIOs who would like to bridge the gap between social media and their enterprise CRM so that marketing and sales have richer and more complete data about customers have one problem. How can they integrate Twitter and Facebook with the company's CRM applications and databases?

The “social CRM” software market is still immature. In the CIO.com article Integrating Social Media Is hard to do, Kim Nash explores what the major vendors have been developing.
(Full story...)

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Vendor Management Groups: Opportunities
Almost 50% of companies have a centralized vendor management office (VMO) in place and 11% are planning to set up a group this year. Recent Forrester data reveals that businesses consider expanding strategic relationships with vendors a high priority. However, less than a third are completely able to assume their responsibility once the VMO team is set up.

Patrick Connaughton, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, explains in the in CIO.com article "Inside the Next Generation Vendor Management Office" the main drivers for a business to invest in a VMO; and he explains how the group can do more for the business.

(Full story...)

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Is Putting a Monetary Value on Data Wrong?
In contrast to other experts' arguments, Rob Karel maintains that putting a monetary value on data and information is the wrong path.
Karel suggests in his Forrester blog that the only value data and information have is "in the context of the business processes, decisions, customer experiences, and competitive differentiators it can enable." For example, "a customer record doesn’t have value unless you can sell, market, or service that customer," he elaborates.
(More on Karel's argument…)
Has this idea come up in your organization? Let us know what the consensus is?

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Forrester's 2011 Security Strategy Recommendations
In the article Forrester's 2011 Security Strategy Recommendations, by Khalid Kark explains how to take a more systematic approach to governance and data protection as the computing landscape continues to change. The recommendations for security strategies that address the broad security trends in the current market cover three major themes: 1) better governance structures; 2) more mature security processes; and 3) improved analytics and reporting capabilities.
(Full story...)

Take a quiz that draws questions from the vast spectrum of security options, including authentication, cryptograpy, firewalls, VPNs and more. Keep track of your score and see how well you do at the end. Quiz: Do You Know IT Security?

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Hazel McCallion: A Remarkable Leader
We previously wrote how we admire people who keep sharp and influential at an old age. Peter Drucker for example! Hazel McCallion is an amazing political leader in Canada. Last fall, she won her 12th term as mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, at age 89. She still has more work to do for the city, she says.
Watch an interview with Ms McCallion!
Lesen Sie einen Artikel im Weltspiegel!
Besuchen Sie ihre wikipedia page!

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From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, North Carolina

The American Dream has been interpreted in all kinds of ways: a family with two kids, a house, a dog and bar-b-cues on the back porch being one that was widely held until the 1990s. However, a more profound aspect of the American Dream is the belief in "upward mobility". It is rooted in the belief that individuals can accomplish anything; that ambition, hard work and education will give them control over their economic destiny. Mobility is more about individual opportunity rather than reducing inequality, more about inherited values than about inherited wealth.

I'm taking a class on Film and the American Dream. Each week, we watch a movie that depicts the American Dream in one way or another. Along the way, I've been wondering if there is such a thing as the Swiss Dream. What drives us Swiss? If you have a suggestion, I can't wait to hear it. rspottl@triad.rr.com.
Interesting Article in Time Magazine: How to Restore the American Dream

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