Book Reviews.

• Author: Targosz, Deanna
• Position: ECFO: Sustaining Value in the New Corporation - Brief Article

Publications reviewed in this section are new acquisitions of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Government Finance Review publishes with each citation the name and address of the publisher/distributor. Requests for copies should be addressed to the publisher/distributor, not to GFOA.

eCFO: Sustaining Value in the New Corporation

Cedric Read; Jacky Ross; John Dunleavy; Donniel Schulman; and James Bramante

West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2001 (384 pp)

Reviewed by Deanna Targosz, senior consultant, GFOA Research and Consulting Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Although organizations are now approaching e-strategies with caution, there is no question that technology has and will continue to change the way businesses and governments operate. In fact, the authors of eCFO: Sustaining Value in the New Corporation (eCFO) assert that all of the companies interviewed for this book agree that the Internet will have a fundamental and positive effect on their businesses, and that their focus is not whether to invest in e-business, but how. The authors have an impressive list of contributors to support this assertion--each of the 11 chapters begins with an editorial from a top CFO, representing companies such as Procter & Gamble, Dell, American Airlines, Amazon, and Shell.

As a follow up to CFO: Architect of the Corporation's Future, eCFO focuses specifically on the impact and benefits of e-business on the finance function. Organizations have attempted a number of strategies, both successfully and unsuccessfully, to develop B2B, B2C, B2Employee, and B2G infrastructures. This book explores how finance departments can analyze these strategies and how CFOs can adopt a fresh mindset to strategic financial planning and management in light of the e-business revolution.

The book begins with an excerpt written by Procter & Gamble CFO Clayton Daley, who stresses the importance of adding value from the CFO's office and discusses how this has been achieved at his company. It then explores the transformation from old world (old economy) disciplines to the new economy mindset, and how the finance function can successfully adapt to this shift. Specifically, how does the finance department revise its reporting and valuation models to coincide with the shift from an economy driven by physical assets to an economy driven by intangible assets? One challenge facing CFOs in this new business environment is the creation of an e-business model that...