28/04/2017
by GAA Accounting
Comments Off on Five top qualities of a CFO
By Eleanor O’Neill
Financial expertise and top business acumen are the most obvious requirements for a good CFO. But what else makes up the mark of a quality financial executive?
Roles at all levels across businesses are expanding to be cross-sectional and incorporate wider skill-sets and backgrounds. The position of CFO is no exception, with high-quality leadership skills and an altogether more rounded breadth of experience. Continue Reading →
28/04/2017
by GAA Accounting
Comments Off on For the public good
By Marie-Claude Morin
Energy, letter mail and liquor boards were set up as government monopolies for good reasons years ago. But are they now relics of an economic past that’s holding us back?
Although some countries such as Australia have privatized many of their government corporations, such enterprises are still very present in the global economy.
According to a 2016 Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) study, governments control 22% of the world’s largest companies, the highest proportion seen in decades. Some Canadians have been calling for the privatization of government corporations such as Canada Post, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and Hydro-Québec. These critics consider them as relics of the past and a form of government intervention more relevant when the country had a smaller population and fewer structures in place, but no longer necessary in today’s markets. Continue Reading →
28/04/2017
by GAA Accounting
Comments Off on Ad value
By Aaron Watson
What all finance professionals need to know about their marketing colleagues.
“If there is one thing that marketing people do that accountants definitely know about it is that they spend the marketing budget,” says Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing at the London Business School. Beyond that, finance teams tend to be a little shaky on exactly what their colleagues in marketing do, or why they do it. And this can lead to missed opportunities in a business, Barwise says. Continue Reading →
28/04/2017
by GAA Accounting
Comments Off on Nine must-have apps for business travellers
By Andrew Harbison
As new security rules regarding laptops and tablets on planes come into force, here are nine useful apps any business traveller should have on their smartphone. Continue Reading →
28/04/2017
by GAA Accounting
Comments Off on Diversity…is it good for business, really?
Diversity and inclusion initiatives have gained a lot of traction throughout Ireland’s corporate landscape. But do they add tangible value for organisations? EY’s Olivia McEvoy reports.
Although accountants might not be able to bring themselves to agree, it can seem as though there are countless quotations pertaining to, and definitions of, ‘diversity’. Malcolm Forbes describes it as “the art of thinking independently together”, while others draw on an old Muslim saying that “a lot of different flowers make a bouquet”. Despite the overwhelming number of definitions, common ground is reached in the certainty that strength lies in differences. Continue Reading →
28/04/2017
by GAA Accounting
Comments Off on Facial share
By Toby Fehily
A beard tax? Not by the hairs of our chinny chin chins, says the Beard Liberation Front.
A rift tore through the United Kingdom last year, threatening to plunge the country into chaos. It wasn’t Brexit, nor even the English soccer team’s shock loss to Iceland, but a British barber who believed the bearded were skimping on their dues. Continue Reading →