Highlight Friday Oct 27 on your calendars for some valuable pointers from Greta Davis and Laura Smith, I have heard these ladies present and  believe me, I pick up my pen and start taking notes, you will too, check out the attached.

10-1:30

Job search

Job networks

Resume writing

Job interviewing-what to wear

and a Free Etiquette Lunch

Such a deal!

Register at studentdevelopment@unt.edu 

Dennis Elam

I continually emphasize how global business is becoming.  Check out this news release in the British
CIMA  webiste, that’s the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.  The bulletin is about the increase in demand for internal auditors. What is an internal auditor, hey look that up on the CNN site .  Better yet, why not bookmark that CNN glossary to help in all your business courses?

Dennis Elam

No doubt SARBOX and the fast rate of change at GM by Jerome York have both spurred Boards to finally take action on CEOS.  For years many have been showered with bonuses even in the face of non performance.  Now Page D1 10/1/06 of the Dallas Morning News reports that ‘some 1400 will get the boot in 2006, up form 1322 in 2005 and just 663 in 2004.  For example the Bristol Meyers Board with nine independent directors just gave their CEO the boot for botching a deal to keep a generic Plavix off the market.

However I suspect there is another dynamic here suggested by Socionomics.  Bull markets are inclusionary, rife with happiness and inclusionary moves.  An example would be Oprah’s recent decision to fly all 1,100 of her employees to Maui for a week long vacation.  At the same time as markets are approaching tops, however we are seeing this evidence of bear market behavior-firing CEOS that Boards are unhappy with.  Firing is a negative and exclusionary event.  And that wold typify the start of a bear market, not the continuation of a bull.  Indeed, John Murphy of Stockcharts.com notes that only a few DOW Industrial stocks are making new highs. Yet the news makes it sound as if they all just hit new highs.  This wold be a non confirmation of what is what is heralded as a new market top.

In the latest Forbes issue Garry Shilling suggests that homeowners have replaced saving with tapping into their home equity.  He thinks that is coming to a screeching halt, by this December no less.  He is predicting the recession will start by the end of this year for that reason.

A rash of negative feelings is no coincidence, the markets reflect negative as well as positive mood.  Look for the mood to grow increasingly negative in the near term. 

Dennis Elam

Laura Smith of the Student Development Office has crafted an excellent series of speakers for the UNT Dallas Fall Leadership Series.  You can access the line up by clicking here. The lead off speaker is Grant Teaff, Coach of twice SW Conference Champs Baylor Bears and currently Director of the American Coaches Assoc.  This is an honor to have a speaker of this reputation here.  In that regard any of my students will obtain a ten point quizz grade by attending or obtaining notes from an attendee and submitting a written paper bout the leadership thoughts of Coach Teaff.  Note that we will also have two other business speakers, Oct 10 and Nov 7 from 4-6 PM in room 224. 

Coach Teaff will speak at 11 AM – 2 PM Sat Oct 7 in Room 224. Tickets for students are ten bucks including lunch, such a deal!

Despite all the predictions of a new era for the Soviet Union, it pretty much looks like the old eras, which is to say lots of violence orchestrated by brutal bosses and dictators.  Peter the Great  did not have much luck linking Russia to Europe.  Nikita K never buried us.  Gorbachev found that there is no such thing as ‘ a little openess.’  And so discovering that ‘other folks don’t live like this’ a consumer revolution (my opinion) brought down the Berlin Wall and the Old Communist Regime. But instead of spawning a new consumer entrepreneur culture the whole place, as JIm Rogers  observes, has plunged into a lengthy civil war.  On Sept 13 Russian Central Banker Andrei Kozlov  died of a Mafia style hit, no one has been arrested.  The killers of American journalist Paul Klenbnikov, shot two years ago in Moscow, have not been found.

Russia spans some twelve time zones but no consumer zones.  This post WW II semi power has yet to produce a single popular consumer good, other than vodka and the AK 47.  Worse, Putin seems to be just what he always was, a KGB operative who only understands central control.  We’ll pass on Moscow investing.

DLE

Obviously accounting has been in the headlines the last few years for the wrong reasons-to say that Ken Lay et al were ethically challenged is an understatement.  What amazes me is how often people lie when the truth might well serve them better, here are two cases in point.

Recently the President of Radio Shack resigned. It seems he had claimed he possessed two college degrees from Heartland Baptist Bible College of all places.  It turns out he never graduated.  He had been hired at R/S because of his innovative ideas.  Wouldn’t it have been a better idea to find a school in the DFW area and finish as an incentive to his employees?  Or point out that one can rise to accomplishment with out a degree, though having one is a great idea? And while I am on the topic, if one is engaging in an outright lie, why like about a  college that few people have ever heard of anyway?

As you are working and paying for your degree, I trust I do not have to outline just how maddening it is for someone to falsify their record to match yours if in fact you have a degree. R H Donnelly Corp boss

Here is another example from the latest Forbes magazine.
David Swanson does not have th degree attributed to him on the company website.  HE claimed  a BS from Minnesota St Cloud State University, another minor league school quite frankly.  Donnelley did not resign bu issued a statement taking "full responsibility" for the regrettable situation.  He made $4.5 M in 2005 and the stock is up 85% while he has been CEO.

Well Radio Shack was not doing so well when the truth came out about Edmondson, while apparently Donnelley is in good shape.  But the R/S Board issued a statement that it was a matter of ethics and integrity, apparently the Donnelley Board did not feel the same way.  Now thought questions.

What does it mean that Swanson ‘takes responsibility’ I mean he is the one who perpetrated the lie, how does ‘responsibility make it any less of a lie?

What do you think of someone who does this and then shrugs it off as, regrettable, or like Swanson, initially blamed outside contract publicists?  If they lie about their degree knowing it to be a lie, where does their line of ‘thou shalt not go’ stop and start? Is there such a line in this person’s life?

I teach the Accounting Ethics class or did at A & M San Antonio.  We discuss such topics in the class. You will note I have made an effort to include ethics cases in the cost and intermed and statement analysis course as well.

Which Board showed the better judgment?  Do such transgressions matter? Do you think it matters to shareholders? Should it?  What standard is each Board broadcasting for the employees?  Would Swanson put up with an employee who lied to him on his or her resume? I wonder….

DLE

The latest issue of B/W features an article on Fisker Design

Fisker is famous for designing the BM Z8 as well as the Aston Martin V 8, He quit those jobs to start his own coachbuilding firm.  Back in the heyday of the Dusenburg, rich individuals would buy a chasis from Duzy and then have a coach builder make a custom one off design for them, a unique car.  And these coachbuilders also specialized in their own designs.  Well wealth being what it is, the super car market is now a $6 BILLION business.  So Fisker went out on his own.  In classic fashion his first two cars are built on a Mercedes AMG chasis and a BMW coupe chasis.  I mean who wants a run of the mill $100 K BMW or Aston when a $200K that has a limited production run is available?

How does this relate to Chapter 3 and 4 in the cost class?  Well this would be a combination of job order costing and process costing. The chasis will have to be negotiated at a known cost. The very expensive carbon fiber bodywork will require careful cost control so as not to exceed the budget.  Interestingly spare fenders are made in case of a collision.

THis also points out how the market for really expensive items continues to expand worldwide.

DLE

A continuing topic in Acct 3270 is customer satisfaction- the cornerstone of Deming’s TQM, CQM, and Six Sigma.  Now Procter and Gamble and Target are looking for  who is in their customer base, supply chain, and field of influence.  Check out labs.dig.com.  Here are visualizations of what people are bookmaking on their computers. 

I think the best example of this is amazon.com.  After you make a purchase, amazon will e mail you with other suggestions to buy in much the same category.  Clever, and all done by computer, no human intervention necessary.  Do you see that is a way to reduce the cost of marketing and zero right in on the customer preference.

Attention entrepreneurs, this would allow a niche player in say embroidery to target folks interested in that topic.  Success on the internet is all about finding your audience.

The recent covers of Automobile, Men’s Journal, and Fast Company all featured issues on Design.  I am seeing more and more on this topic.  The current 9/25/06 issue of Business Week has a 41 page insert on Innovation, I would not be surprised to see it spun off as a separate publishing piece. It is now a quarterly feature.   The ads at the back of the magazine feature schools that highlight design as their mainstream focus. Indeed I have suggested that UNT Dallas make Design a focus of its efforts.

In class last week one student made the point that her family had an iPod and a competitor’s model, and yes the competition was less expensive but the family was much more smitten with the IPod. The Innovation section highlights the iPod noting its materials, fit and finish, lack of screws, and no sticker with the serial number, instead it’s elegantly etched on the bottom of the back side.’

I suggest you check it out at B/W Innovation.   Just click on the hyper link.

DLE

The current Business Week points out that unemployment in the US is 4.7% compared to Germay at 8.2% and France at 8.9%.  Now remember that unemployment never goes to zero.  People are always between jobs, moving, students come and go from the workplace, and frankly some folks don’t want to work. The 4.7% is as low as it has been for some time.  So from the standpoint that say 4% might be as low as one could go, the unemployment rate in Europe is staggeringly high. How come?

The same issue details that McDonald’s has a new program to allow its 2225,000 European workers to get jobs anywhere in the EU.  THe rpoblem is the lack of labor mobility.  Only 1.5% of Europeans live and work outside their own coutnri3es.  60% say they would not make such a move even if they were jobless.  uch a conclusion would be impossible without of course the extensive welfare benefits in the EU countries.

Add to this the fact that there has been no net job creation in Europe since the 1970s, the US has created millions of jobs and lost less than created. I think the difference is in the tax system, here is you make money you get to keep a lot of it, that is not the case in Europe.  France in particualr has really obnoxious laws that harrass small business.  This was detailed in B/W in a recent issue.

So it’s no wonder that U Haul is thriving and doing well in the US, we are on the move.

DLE