Setting strategic goals, tracking progress, marshaling data that's scattered around the enterprise ... Going green sounds like a job for business performance management software.

Many companies that offshore their general and administrative processes, either through a captive offshore operation or a business process outsourcing (BPO) service provider, save 25 percent to 50 percent of their baseline costs, according to new research from The Hackett Group.

For those of you who know the frustration that comes when so-called best practices fail to live up to their flattering handle, the Pragmatist knows your pain.

T-shirts and coffee mugs won't cut it, but gift cards and cold, hard cash just might. More companies are reporting a healthy return from their health and wellness incentive programs.

Pay-for-performance crucially hinges on understanding and optimizing compensation in all its various forms, from hourly pay to stock awards. But gaining an overall view of workforce costs is far from straightforward.

Interviewer Steve Player speaks to legendary costing professor Dr. Charles Horngren of Stanford University, whose market-leading textbook, Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis (first issued in 1962 and now in its 13th edition from Prentice Hall), has been used to train more CFOs and other finance executives than any other.

Whether they're structuring deals to conserve cash, reduce operating costs, or liquidate a business, CFOs have real estate at the front of their minds.