May 9, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook: Prevent Fraud in Your Organization

Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

There have been several high profile cases of fraud in the news in recent years. How do you take the steps to reduce the opportunity for fraud in your organization?

The most common methods of discovering fraud were tips and by accident, followed closely by internal audits, investigations, and internal controls. Tips from employees, vendors, and customers made up over one-third of the discoveries.

The most effective method of reducing fraud in your organization is by creating a culture of integrity and high ethics among employees at all levels. This is initiated by the senior executives/owners setting the tone at the top. Create the expectation that fraud will not be tolerated. Develop a code of ethics and conduct that employees are required to sign and adhere to.

Review your antifraud processes and internal controls and develop a strong oversight process. These two activities go hand-in-hand in sending a strong message to potential perpetrators that you are doing everything you can to reduce the opportunity for them to commit fraud upon your company.

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May 8, 2008

Accountingweb Article on Presentations

As you know, I make several presentations a year to many different audiences. I just read a great article on Accountingweb from Jack Downton, an entrepreneur in the U.K. about making a good presentation.

I wanted to share the article with you because no matter how many you do there’s always room to tweak your style. We all have to make presentations, whether it is to a room of 200 or 2. It’s always good to see what others are doing, to stay relevant and fresh.

Highlights take into account include:

  • PowerPoint – how it dramatically reduces your impact
  • What does your audience need to hear?
  • It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it
I’m definitely going to be using some of the tips in my next presentation. What have you found to be successful when making presentations? Do you incorporate music or video? Have you found a tried and true way to engage the audience?

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May 5, 2008

Microsoft/Yahoo...No Merger, What Next?

Over the weekend Microsoft dropped its bid to take over Yahoo!. This is an interesting development in what initially appeared to be an inevitable take-over.

This brings up a few questions:

  • Who can compete with Google?
  • What does this mean for Microsoft in terms of the next step to compete in Web 2.0?
  • Where does Yahoo! go from here? They’ve been playing second fiddle to Google for quite some time.

CNN/Fortune has an interesting article that speculates about the above questions.

What are your thoughts? What do you see as the next steps for these companies? What can companies do to make a dent in Google’s seeming invincibility?

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May 2, 2008

A Conversation with Michael Dell

It’s not often you get a chance to hear one of the country’s foremost experts in information technology. Earlier this week we (myself and several colleagues at PKF Texas) were treated to one of the best, “A Conversation with Michael Dell”, founder, Chairman and CEO of Dell – and a native son of Houston.

On April 30th, Dell was the guest speaker on a panel for the Houston Forum. Also on the panel, Walter Ulrich, CEO of the Houston Technology Center, Leonard Rejcek, President and CEO of Manhattan Construction Co., moderated the session.

Dell took questions from Walter, Leonard, and the audience. 

Some of the most interesting points I took from the presentation include:

  • 1 billion people are currently on the internet
  • 500,000 new users log on every day
  • Use of the internet is expected to double in the next five years creating opportunities for
    • Mobile
    • Online
    • Bandwidth

He also commented on his company, Dell, giving valuable insight into one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs:

           

  • 10 years ago Dell’s revenues were $6 billion and they are currently at $61 billion
  • In the past year (before he took over again as CEO) they experienced an annual growth rate of -11% and this year they are currently at a +21% growth rate
  • Dell stresses keeping things simple for his people and customers alike
  • He encourages conversation with your customers
  • Dell (the company) recently launched www.dell.com/earth to address the company’s green initiatives
  • Dell’s key target markets are outside the U.S. He refers to them as BRIC +10. BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China. The +10 is several other countries where the technology sector is booming or has the potential to grow exponentially in the next few years.

A few other thoughts I noted about the technology growth:

  • China currently has several of the worlds most visited websites
  • Due to the fact that the internet does not have borders, social networks, collaboration are pushing content all over the world.

Great stuff, and I was glad I was able to hear him speak. If you get the chance to see one of his presentations, I would highly recommend it.

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May 2, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook: Preparing Budgets - Why?

Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

Ask any four people in an organization about their budgeting process and you are likely to get four different answers. Some of those answers would include: “We did it last year,” “its part of the manager’s bonus calculation,” “We are trying to control expenses,” “It shows us our cash flow.” Truly successful organizations know that budgeting is one of the significant foundations for developing a high performing organization.

See if this sounds like your company:  Round 1 of the budget process starts with departmental levels submitting their guesses for obtaining next year’s financial results. Senior management usually knows what they want these numbers to be, but they don’t share it with the first line department heads.   The first round is usually returned with changes. Now armed with better financial information the departmental manager can guess at the numbers their superiors want and budget for it. Then the departmental budgets are consolidated and submitted further up the line for a second round of guessing.   

The problem with this process is that we now have a numbers guessing game going on, instead of a business plan. And we have given the departmental managers a way out of their estimates since the estimates weren’t theirs anyway.

Budgeting should be part of a performance management process. Budgets need to be linked to corporate strategies. How well is your budget and corporate strategy linked?

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April 29, 2008

Envision08 Wrap-up

Friday morning’s panel on the Top 10 Accounting Mistakes at Envision 08 went very well. It was one of the best attended workshops this morning. Thanks to Jason Ferguson a Partner at Calvetti, Ferguson & Wagner P.C. and Lee Prillaman a Partner at Ernst & Young, it was a pleasure sitting on the panel with you.

The top ten mistakes we presented are below in no particular order:

  • Valuation
  • Revenue Recognition
  • Infrastructure Governance
  • Budgeting
  • Internal Controls
  • Information Management
  • Development of the Plan
  • Tax Structures
  • Not understanding what an Angel or VC wants
  • The Team

To those who attended, thanks for coming to our session. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or the other panelists. We would be happy to respond.

A huge round of applause goes to Richard Scruggs and Lenae Huebner! The conference was great. Thanks for allowing myself and the others at PKF Texas to participate. We’re already looking forward to next year!

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April 28, 2008

Texas Companies Top Fortune 500 List

The annual Fortune 500 list is out. Texas pulled ahead of New York this year for the state with the most corporate headquarters with 58. 

Houston’s number of companies grew from 22 to 25 (26 including the 10 county area) this year. It’s good to see that businesses recognize that Houston’s business community is worth joining. We’re second only to New York City. Dallas follows us in the #3 spot jumping up from #5 last year. 

Not surprisingly, the majority of headquarters located in Houston are related to the energy and oil and gas industries. That said Continental and Waste Management are right up there.

What did you think of this year’s list? Any surprises?

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April 25, 2008

Stephen Covey Presents at Envision08

This morning’s presentation by Stephen Covey was outstanding. He spoke about the companies and workers of today versus the “industrial” age, which he put at pre-1980.

He discussed how companies need different things to be successful than they did 30 years ago. Organizations need to be able to change and adapt to today’s information based society. He called the current workforce “information” workers as opposed to our parents and grand parents who were “industrial” workers.

Of course he referenced his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He was able to show how the seven habits tie into today’s work force and made many excellent points throughout the presentation.

If you get the chance to see him speak, I would highly recommend it. He’s a very dynamic speaker and there’s a lot of substance to what he has to say. I’m hoping he’ll return to Envision next year. 

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April 25, 2008

PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook: It's Easy Being Green

Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the Entrepreneur's Playbook page of the PKF Texas website.

Companies around the world are now “going green” for a number of reasons. No matter the size of your contribution your business can make a difference. Consider putting together an internal committee to advise on activities that would make sense for your business.

It may seem obvious, but many companies do not recycle plastic water bottles, cans, office paper and newspapers. And recycling programs can include more than just paper and plastic. Many nonprofit organizations will gladly accept electronic equipment, including older computers, printers, copiers and fax machines. 

Contact a local recycling center that will remove useful parts and then break down the rest of the materials. The centers also can safely remove hazardous materials.

Companies can minimize costs in their workplace by encouraging positive habits, such as turning off computers and power strips when you leave for the day or an extended portion of the day. Energy is still burned when a power strip is turned on.

By implementing just a few initiatives you can improve your environmental footprint, and you may be surprised about how well it aligns with your overall strategy and positively impacts your business.

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April 21, 2008

Envision08 is This Week

It’s finally here. This week I’m heading to San Antonio for the Envision08 conference. As of right now I’m planning on updating you during the conference, sort of a modified version of my Rice Business Plan Competition live blogging. I’m not quite sure when I’ll be able to make updates, so keep checking back.

The panel that I’m on, The Top Ten Accounting Mistakes, is scheduled for Friday at 10 AM April 25, 2008.

This is going to be a great conference. I’m looking forward to the attendee interaction between the sessions and at the scheduled networking events. Also, I’m curious to hear what Guy Kawasaki has to say. I'll let you know.

A big thanks goes to Richard Scruggs, Director and Lenae Huebner, Asst. Executive Director at the CNVE for all their hard work putting this conference together. See you in San Antonio!

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