Search

Examines accounting fraud in Fortune 500 companies. Penalties for accounting fraud; Use of fraud in managed earnings reports; Scrutinization of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) by Arthur Levitt, chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission; Response to Levitt's speech, `The Numbers Game' given in New York in September 1998; List of suspect accounting tactics; Prosecution of accounting fraud by United States attorney Mary Jo White; Cases against Livent and Bankers Trust. INSETS: McKesson Again;Put Bite Into Audit Committees;Put Bite Into Audit Committees.

Discusses employment advertising on the Internet, or e-recruitment. Types of jobseekers visiting Websites such as Monster.com; The July 4, 1999 scheduled launch of Monster Talent Market, which will be a human auction for people seeking employment; The low cost, high speed and wide reach of hiring online; How job candidates post their resumes and search a database for job openings; Disparities that could affect companies' pay structures. INSET: Get Your Resume Ready for the Web.

Presents an overview and history of America Online (AOL). Profile and background of AOL founder Steve Case; Surge in use and resulting problems; Hiring of various executives; How the company has rebounded since 1996; Interest of online advertisers; Questions as to what could stop AOL's increasing profits. INSET: Why AOL is cool, by Sarah Gunther.

Focuses on the music company Motown Records. Appointment of George Jackson as chief executive officer of the company; Career history of Jackson; Failure of Motown to withstand emerging technologies, deep-pocketed competitors, and the changing dynamics of the music business; Information on film projects of Jackson.

Reports on the growth of Hewlett-Packard (HP) to become the third largest computer company, behind COMPAQ and IBM, in 1997. How the company has had to change; How Hewlett-Packard will have to succeed in all the industry's segments in order to maintain its status; Steps HP must take in order to do this; HP's work in personal computers (PC); How laptops are a growing concern; Price competitions.

Presents a discussion between two financial advisors concerning the state of the U.S. stock market as of August 1998. View of Barton M. Biggs, chairman of the company Morgan Stanley Asset Management, on the future of the stock market; Advise of Robert J. Farrell, senior investment adviser at Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc., on investments; Expectation of a rise in the small growth companies.

Focuses on the reorganization of Royal Dutch/Shell, which led the Global 500 in 1997 in total profits. Average annual return on Shell stock; The lackluster return on Shell's invested capital; Cash reserves as of 1997; Soul searching to discover what Shell should be in the future; Power struggles within the company; What Shell Chairman Cornelius Herkstroter wants to do with the company. INSETS: It's not easy being green.;The $12.4 billion problem..

Ponders what made Geoffrey Bible, chief executive officer of Philip Morris, negotiate a settlement with tobacco foes. The agreement among tobacco executives not to speak publicly about the deal; The concerns of Bible about the outcome of the negotiations; The question as to whether the settlement will back fire on the industry.

Examines the future of Microsoft with their software for corporate networks called Windows NT. Microsoft's operating system, Windows NT, as taking over in the computer industry; Sales figures for NT software; Comparison of NT with Windows 95. INSET: Bill gets testy..

Discusses the tumultuous nature of the United States stock market in the spring of 1997. Unpredictability; Possible reasons for the turbulence; Advice for success on the market regardless of its performance; Momentum stocks or stocks with a high price to earnings ratio; The value of technology stocks; Companies that are restructuring; International investment; Preferred stock and convertible bonds; Treasuries investment.

Discusses management and financial problems facing Apple Computer during the tenure of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gil Amelio. Return of founder Steve Jobs, after Apple's purchase of Jobs' firm Next Software; Question of whether Jobs wants to take over Apple himself; Amelio's lack of experience in the personal-computer (PC) market; Delay of the firm's next-generation Macintosh operating system; Apple's corporate culture.

Opinion. Looks at corporate raider Carl Icahn's failed attempts to buy RJR Nabisco. The methods and strategies he and sometime partner Bennett LeBow have used; The assertion that the era of the corporate raider is over, because funds are much more difficult to raise in the 1990s than they were in the previous decade; How RJR Nabisco CEO handles Icahn's attempts; The effect of tobacco legislation on the company; Other details.

Describes the relationship between businesses and customers. The importance of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) designed by the University of Michigan's business school and the American Society for Quality Control (ACSI); Measuring the quality of economic output; The results of the ACSI; How ASCI provides insights into the nature of the game; Other assessments of customer satisfaction. INSET: WHAT'S A LOYAL CUSTOMER WORTH?.

Lists `Forbes' magazine's Products of the Year for 1994. Wonderbra, by Sara Lee Corp.; Olds Aurora luxury car; RCA DSS, a trash can lid size dish; The Baby Think It Over doll, invented by Richard Jurmain; Black and Decker's SnakeLight; Mighy Morphin Power Rangers; More.

The article focuses on the changes being made at General Motors (GM) Corp. under the leadership of President and CEO John F. Smith. Those are only some of the minor changes at the world's largest industrial corporation since GM's board of directors booted out the top management a year ago and replaced it with a revolutionary cadre of younger executives. Top management even claims to be moving the immovable object, the United Auto Workers union, toward a more cooperative relationship, though the results are hard to see in the new three-year contract up for ratification in November. INSET: `There is a helluva lot of work involved'..

Discusses how Volkswagen (VW), Europe's No. 1 automaker, aims to overcome terrible productivity, sagging sales, skimpy profits and the Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua scandal. Allegations that Lopez stole documents from General Motors (GM) and brought them to VW; VW Chairman Dr. Ferdinand Piech's decision to let Lopez go as a result of the scandal; Inefficiency of VW factories; VW's future desires; More.

Presents information on Ford Motor Co.'s development of its midsize car Mondeo. Performance of Ford in 1992 and first quarter of 1993; Plan by Ford to launch a new or substantially updated car line after about every three months from now through 1995; Promotion of Mondeo in Europe by Ford CEO Harold Poling.; Features of the Mondeo.

Focuses on the success of General Motors Corp. (GM) in Europe, led by the president of the company Louis Hughes, and examines some of its techniques that the U.S. operation could use. Performance of GM in the auto market hit by a deep recession; High-visibility executives that have been part of GM Europe; Expected sales slumps in European countries during the year 1993.

Examines the changes AT&T Corp. has made since its divestiture in January 1984. Claims that the government aided AT&T by making it change its ways; Details of yearly revenues and stock values; Efforts of CEO Robert Allen in modernizing management; Discussion on the mandated goals of the company's business units; Competition with IBM through purchase of the computer company NCR in 1991; Investment by AT&T in other companies with critical technologies or attractive market positions.

Discusses the reasons to control prices in the drug industry in the U.S. Significance of the drugs in the improvement of patients' health; Management of health care that encourages lower drug prices; Ways of generating the earnings by the drug companies; Expectations of pharmaceutical companies to thrive in a competitive environment.

Reports on the rise in American Indian enterprises across the country. Example of the Choctaw Indian Reservation in Mississippi; Gambling the most profitable Indian-owned business; Profitable power plant owned by confederation of tribes in Oregon; Farming enterprises of the Ak-Chin tribe of Arizona; How private enterprise is affecting American Indians and Alaskan natives; Thriving Yavapai tribe of Arizona, under the leadership of Patricia McGee; More.

Examines the ways Boeing must cut costs to fight price wars with other airplane manufacturers. 1992 drop in orders for new planes; Expected decline in commerical aircraft sales by 1995; Competition from Europe's Airbus Industrie; Efforts of Boeing CEO Frank Shrontz to avoid the problems of General Motors and IBM; Where Boeing will find $5 billion in needed cuts; Inventory-cutting campaign; Changes planned for design methods for new aircraft; More.

Asserts that US businesses must stop shortchanging research and capital investment if they want to grow or even survive in the coming decades. Characteristics of dynamic factories; Power of equipment spending as an economic catalyst; Evidence that US industry still isn't ready to increase capital investment or research spending; Cutbacks on innovative research that lead to new products at companies like Du Pont; What companies can do; More.

Presents information on the pentagon scam. Investigation of Operation Ill Wind; Insights of Ill Wind into how they may at least be discouraged; Focus on Mel Paisley, young pilot of the Army Air Corps; Installation of the Aegis weapons system on small cruisers; Contract for a system of short-range, unmanned planes used to gather combat intelligence and known as remotely piloted vehicles.

Announces that in just a year, new CEO of Compaq computer, Eckhard Pfeiffer, transformed its product strategy, marketing, and manufacturing, and looks to the future. Annual advertising budget up; Prices down; Method of designing and building computers rethought; Strict cost consciousness; Strategy produced impressive results; Expanded line introduced; Risk involved; Competitors retaliation; Pfeiffer's goal; Meetings involving top managers world wide.

States that Hells Angels are considered one of the nation's largest organized criminal networks--after the Mafia and Asian gangs. Earn $1 billion a year worldwide from drug dealing, prostitution, gunrunning, theft, extortion and murder; Memberships and chapters; Management structure; Sophisticated communications systems; Paramilitary discipline; Origins in 1940s; Other clubs; Accusations; Denials. INSETS: FOUR OTHER CLUBS THAT ARE GAINING GROUND;WEEKEND WARRIORS: JUST FOR FUN.

Reports that the United States has the most companies on `Fortune' magazine' s Global 500 listing with 157, followed by Japan at 119. Why Britain is disproportionately represented with 43; The 33 companies of the far larger German economy; Contention that the Italian economy is under represented.

States that giant US corporations still dominate most industries, providing 14 of the top-ranking companies in the 26 industry groups surveyed by `Fortune' magazine. Why this doesn't mean that American firms were standout performers; Industries which posted small profits.

States that `Fortune' magazine's unique listing of the world's 500 largest industrial companies shows that with few exceptions, 1991 was a bad year for business everywhere. Total sales, measured in dollars; Why profits took a sickening dive; How the total number of employees dwindled for the third straight year.