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| COVER STORY |
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SHOCK
VALUE
Japanese companies,
already suffering from ten years of recession, have taken
an extra blow with the global economy's downturn. This,
coupled with changes to Japan's corporate law requiring
more accurate accounting, has sent them into panic mode.
Defensive measures the companies are taking include massive
write-offs and even restructuring. But in Japanese fashion,
the changes are coming at a lumbering pace, and the question
remains whether they will be enough to turn things around.
read the entire
story |
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| FEATURE |
FLYING
TANDEM
China Southern is a publicly listed
company that also falls under the control and ownership of
China's bureaucratic government-run Civil Aviation Administration
of China. China Southern's CFO sees moves by its largest shareholder
to consolidate the industry as ultimately in the best interest
of all shareholders. But other obligations, coupled with the
mergers, could overstretch the company. Mounting debt is one
inevitable result. |
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| FEATURE |
CLASS
ACTION
Asian companies are beginning to
see talent development and retention as a necessity, not a
luxury. Across Asia, companies are putting more emphasis on
training and developing their most-valued employees as a way
to retain them for succession planning purposes. Other companies
send their most talented managers back to school as a way
to help them to do their jobs more effectively. In fact, companies
doing the best job of managing their talents deliver far better
results for shareholders and achieve competitive advantages
over their rivals. |
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| BUDGETING SOFTWARE |
AN ACQUIRED
TASTE
The latest generation
of web-based budgeting and planning software can help companies
radically speed up the planning process, even as they allow
many more people to participate. They combine budgeting, forecasting,
analytics, business intelligence and collaboration, and can
import data points with ease, whether from within an organization
or without. About the only thing the latest budgeting software
can't do is make people use it. |
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| ACCOUNTING |
THE NAKED
TRUTH
With Singapore requiring
quarterly reporting in 2003, and the Stock Exchange of Hong
Kong considering a similar move, CFOs are less than happy. But
the right tools, with a little discipline, can ease this necessary,
painful task. |
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| MONEYWATCH |
CASH
CALLS
Finance chiefs in the region are
taking advantage of low interest rates to refinance maturing
debt. But in some cases a complete transformation of the credit
profile would be better. 
Globe was the only Asian telecommunications company to tap
the global high-yield bond market this year - and it did so
with success. |
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| DEALWATCH |
WINNING MARKETS,
NOT FRIENDS
Of all Asia's former telecom stars,
only SingTel maintains some momentum and a semblance of a
growth strategy. But what SingTel also has is a withering
share price - investors think it has spent too much on certain
acquisitions. |
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| TECHWATCH |
| SOFTWARE: RAY
OF HYPE?
Windows XP, the most recent dramatic
overhaul of the Microsoft desktop, is being hailed as the
company's most stable and secure OS ever.
Blade servers can be rapidly reconfigured, and offer reductions
in data center and office occupancy overheads
New software helps banks ferret out terrorists and criminals.
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