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The article focuses on the cause-and-effect relationship between quality control efforts and financial performance, referred to as the cost of quality (COQ). The article defines COQ as a tool for determining optimal level of investment in activities that yield the benefit of customer satisfaction without failure costs. The article presents a list of questions that will suggest whether or not a given company should implement a COQ system.

The article discusses the importance of creating and measuring value in private firms. A firm's value rises and falls at the height of its capitalization, or the return it earns on its capital and the market's perceptions of its future. The practice known as market-based valuation is highlighted. This method allows private firms to be valued as if they were public without gaining the associated burden. Creating value requires free cash flow that grows in a consistent and predictable manner or in correlation with commensurately high returns.

In this article the author examines various myths and realities about returns on information security investments (ROSI). Some of the areas discussed include accounting and economic rates of return, an evaluation of ROSI, some objectives of information security investments, measurement of actual performance of information security investments and the level of corporate investments in information security.

The article outlines strategies to help companies manage their employees' 401(k) plans. Tips for passing the Average Deferral Percentage (ADP) test are presented, as well as some ways to get nonhighly compensated employees (NHCEs) to increase their savings rate. The effect of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (SBJPA) and its revisions of the definition of highly compensated employees (HCEs) and ADP testing is discussed.