|
The Morning Ledger: Walgreens Turns to Zero-Based Budgeting to Cut Costs |
|
|
| |
|
|
A Walgreens store in Times Square in New York. PHOTO: REUTERS/SHANON STAPLETON
|
|
|
Good day. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. will turn to zero-based budgeting—a cost-management strategy that is coming back in fashion—as part of a plan by the drugstore chain to cut $1 billion in annual costs.
Deeper insights: Walgreens has started a 16-week assessment of its global cost base, with an initial focus on the U.S. and U.K. “At the end of that 16 weeks, we will have enormous transparency and granularity,” James Kehoe, the Deerfield, Ill., company’s finance chief, said Thursday during an earnings call. “We will know who spends what on what.”
|
|
|
|
More discipline: When managers approach operations with fresh eyes, they can reshape their organization by channeling funds to areas that will drive growth, said Steve Player, managing partner at consulting firm the Player Group. For some companies, the exercise can be expensive and overwhelming, and it can reveal undisciplined spending in pockets of the company.
Not frictionless: “ZBB strikes fear in the hearts of some managers,” said Nilly Essaides, senior director of research at the Hackett Group Inc.’s advisory practice. Deploying the practice also is challenging for managers who have spent years investing in and expanding their units, and can cause friction over where those funds are diverted.
|
|
|
U.S. durables goods orders for November are due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect that purchases of long-lasting goods rose 1.3% last month, offsetting the 4.3% decline in October.
The final reading of third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is also due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists forecast the measure of economic growth to remain unchanged at 3.5%.
U.S. consumer spending data are out at 10 a.m. ET, with economists predicting a 0.4% uptick in November, compared with 0.6% a month earlier.
CarMax Inc. is among the companies slated to report earnings today.
|
|
|
PCAOB Adopts Rules for Auditing Estimates |
|
|
Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington. The SEC oversees the PCAOB and approves the board's rule-making activities. PHOTO: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS
|
|
|
The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board on Thursday adopted stricter standards for auditing accounting estimates and strengthened requirements for auditors that rely on the work of specialists.
The new rules direct auditors to pay more attention to addressing potential management bias, create a more uniform approach to substantive testing for estimates, and integrate risk management standards to focus on estimates with greater risk of material misstatements, the regulator said.
The regulator also bolstered requirements for how auditors evaluate the work of specialists, whether employed or engaged by the company, and how auditors supervise auditor-employed and auditor-engaged specialists.
|
|
|
Former Alstom Power Executive Convicted as U.K. Wraps Nine-Year Probe |
|
|
Alstom Power was sold to General Electric in 2015. PHOTO: PASCAL GUYOT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
A former global sales director at Alstom Power Ltd. was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt related to a bribery scheme in Lithuania for contracts worth €240 million ($273.5 million), the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office said Wednesday.
The conviction of Nicholas Reynolds, who is scheduled to be sentenced Friday, follows guilty pleas by two former Alstom Power executives—John Venskus in October 2017 and Göran Wikström in June—for the same charge in a case that dates back to 2009, report Risk & Compliance Journal's Samuel Rubenfeld and CFO Journal's Nina Trentmann.
The trial of Mr. Reynolds was the last of an SFO probe into suspected bribery across several companies.
|
|
|
|
An image from Tencent’s ‘Honour of Kings’ mobile game. PHOTO: JUSTIN CHIN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
Shares of Tencent Holdings Ltd. climbed Friday after a regulator was quoted in Chinese media as saying the first batch of new videogames would be given the green light soon, signaling an end to a crippling approvals freeze.
Altria Group Inc.’s $12.8 billion investment for a 35% stake in Juul Labs Inc. gives the e-cigarette maker a benefit that would have been unthinkable from a cigarette company in the past: an easier path to Washington’s approval.
Campbell Soup Co. on Thursday named food-industry veteran Mark Clouse as its new chief executive.
Conagra Brands Inc. is losing momentum in the freezer aisle, calling into question its recent $8.2 billion purchase of Pinnacle Foods.
Eight months after pulling its self-driving cars off the road following a fatal accident, Uber Technologies Inc. is putting the vehicles back into service.
Huawei Technologies Co., whose products have been targeted as a national security risk by the U.S. and other governments, faces a new hurdle: reduced access to the global financial system.
|
|
|
|
|
Carlos Ghosn was indicted on Dec. 10 on charges of underreporting his compensation over a five-year period ended March 2015. PHOTO: KIMIMASA MAYAMA/EPA-EFE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
|
|
|
-
Nissan Motor Co. former Chairman Carlos Ghosn’s chances of bail were derailed Friday when prosecutors cited new suspicions that he shifted personal losses to Nissan, in a move that keeps him behind bars longer.
-
The Trump administration has given Iraq permission to buy Iranian natural gas without penalty for at least three more months, after pledges from Baghdad to buy American technology.
-
A German court Thursday found Apple Inc. infringed on a Qualcomm Inc. patent and must stop selling some older iPhones, the second time in weeks a court has ruled against the iPhone maker.
-
The European Commission suspects Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group AG, Crédit Agricole SA and another global bank of colluding to manipulate a multi-trillion-dollar government-backed bond market, escalating a long running probe.
-
U.S. bank regulators on Thursday faulted Barclays PLC, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG and UBS Group AG for shortcomings with their “living will” plans for winding themselves down in a crisis.
-
U.S. food companies must label products containing genetically engineered ingredients by 2022, federal regulators said, a victory for manufacturers who pushed for more time before disclosing use of the controversial crops.
|
|
|
|
President Trump with Xi Jinping last year. The two leaders agreed this month to a tariff truce to allow trade negotiations. PHOTO: DAMIR SAGOLJ/REUTERS
|
|
|
-
Fresh U.S. accusations of cyber thieving by China add to friction between the countries, though both sides show signs of trying to contain the damage while trade talks are under way.
-
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that market reaction following the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting this week has been completely overblown, and he suggested the central bank may not need to raise rates at all next year if inflation remains low.
-
London’s Gatwick Airport partially resumed flights after unauthorized drone activity forced it to take the highly unusual action of grounding planes for more than a day, but disruption at one of Europe’s busiest airports was set to continue.
|
|
|
Every weekend we select a handful of in-depth articles we think are worth a bit of your time, either because they peel back the layers on a compelling business story, or somehow make us look at business in a different light.
-
Management teams are responsible for making sense of complex questions. One popular approach for navigating these is turning to the “wisdom of crowds”—asking many people for their opinions and suggestions, and then combining them to form the best overall decision, writes Harvard Business Review.
-
For older Americans, the last few years of work can be a vital chance to patch up thin savings or pay down debt to ease their way into retirement. Many aren’t getting that opportunity, reports The Wall Street Journal.
-
By the middle of this century, climate change is likely to punch a hole through the busiest stretch of rail in North America, writes Bloomberg Businessweek.
|
|
|
|
|