May 11, 2006
West Coast CEOs say "SOX isn't a problem. Education is."
Having been through the ramp-up to SOX and already into their Year 2 audits, larger company CEOs don't see SOX as an issue. The learning curve has kicked in. Smaller CEO/CFOs take notice. The following article was posted on CNET News - Blog: Processors and Systems by Michael Kanellos.
Quit complaining about Sarbanes-Oxley, says National CEO. Education the problem
May 10, 2006 4:47 PM PDT
There are three things that never fail to make executives complain in Silicon Valley: commuting, the state of public school system, and Sarbanes-Oxley.
It's time to scratch that last one off the list, said Brian Halla, CEO of National Semiconductor. The first year of complying with the bill was difficult--National spent $7 million and consumed 68,000 hours in work complying with it.
Four years later, compliance only takes about a quarter of the effort. "It was only 25 percent of the slog this year for us," he said.
John Daane, CEO of Altera, concurred. "I don't see it as a significant problem that is hampering our industry," he said.
Instead, the two, who are the front men for the Semiconductor Industry Association this year, say the biggest problem U.S. companies face is creeping ignorance. The U.S. school system isn't emphasizing science and math and allows students to opt into easy grading subjects. This is killing the tech industry.
"We've made it to easy to avoid hard," said Halla. "K-12 is currently broken so the pipeline is gone."
Further, universities are under funded and foreign students may stop coming here for college, the two said. PhDs who graduate here have trouble staying in the states.
- End of Blog by Michael Kanellos -
To both affordably strengthen and streamline your company's internal controls over financial reporting, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, please go to http://www.issuescentral.com/ to learn more about the Compliance Playbook(TM). If you are a Canadian-based company needing to comply with SOX, or MI 52-109, please go to http://www.compliancepartner.ca/ to learn more about Compliance Partner(TM).
Quit complaining about Sarbanes-Oxley, says National CEO. Education the problem
May 10, 2006 4:47 PM PDT
There are three things that never fail to make executives complain in Silicon Valley: commuting, the state of public school system, and Sarbanes-Oxley.
It's time to scratch that last one off the list, said Brian Halla, CEO of National Semiconductor. The first year of complying with the bill was difficult--National spent $7 million and consumed 68,000 hours in work complying with it.
Four years later, compliance only takes about a quarter of the effort. "It was only 25 percent of the slog this year for us," he said.
John Daane, CEO of Altera, concurred. "I don't see it as a significant problem that is hampering our industry," he said.
Instead, the two, who are the front men for the Semiconductor Industry Association this year, say the biggest problem U.S. companies face is creeping ignorance. The U.S. school system isn't emphasizing science and math and allows students to opt into easy grading subjects. This is killing the tech industry.
"We've made it to easy to avoid hard," said Halla. "K-12 is currently broken so the pipeline is gone."
Further, universities are under funded and foreign students may stop coming here for college, the two said. PhDs who graduate here have trouble staying in the states.
- End of Blog by Michael Kanellos -
To both affordably strengthen and streamline your company's internal controls over financial reporting, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, please go to http://www.issuescentral.com/ to learn more about the Compliance Playbook(TM). If you are a Canadian-based company needing to comply with SOX, or MI 52-109, please go to http://www.compliancepartner.ca/ to learn more about Compliance Partner(TM).
