While I don’t want to divert us from the pressing business challenges of the day, I’d like to take just a moment to welcome you to the new and improved CFO. With this issue we introduce dozens of changes big and small all intended to make CFO more essential to your professional success than ever before. These changes run the gamut from what you see (note the new cover logo, the much more readable typeface, the greater use of color) to what you learn (each issue will now feature more CFO profiles, more data from our research team, and deeper coverage of more core concerns of senior finance executives) to how you connect, both with us and with one another (each article will direct you to related stories on our website, relevant sessions from our robust calendar of conferences and webcasts, and a look at the reader dialogues that are becoming a hallmark of cfo.com).
We think that the redesigned version of CFO does an even better job of capturing the entire world of corporate finance, and we hope you feel the same way. Drop me a line and let me know.
And now to the issues within this issue. Our cover story, “Like It or Not, You’re in the Euro Zone,” takes a look at a critical facet of the CFO’s world: the world. Well, to be more precise, Europe, but as contributing editor Randy Myers makes clear, it’s almost pointless to think of the world as a collection of discrete regions. We are now so interconnected that even companies that don’t think the current European debt crisis affects them would do well to rethink that assumption. While the national GDP of Greece may amount to, as one executive quoted in the story says, “a rounding error relative to total worldwide GDP,” the ripple effects of Europe’s woes will touch all shores. Myers explains how you can assess your exposure and develop the best contingency plans.
We also take a look at risk management from a different perspective. In “How to Direct a Risk Team,” contributing editor Alix Stuart provides an action plan for CFOs who are driving improved risk management within their organizations. By many estimates, that includes almost every CFO, and yet CFOs are often unsure how to gain control of this critical function. To be frank, some don’t even know where to begin. “What do you mean by risk?” one asked Stuart. That interview didn’t last long.
We hope you enjoy this issue. (And tablet users will be glad to know that our digital edition reflects this new design as well; subscribe at no charge by visiting www.cfo.com.)