For D&B’s CFO, Being Strategic Means Walking Many Paths

Being a top-flight, strategic CFO is grounded in gaining skills in so many areas, it’s sometimes hard to fathom that anyone is fully qualified for the job. But often, possessing “the right stuff” to act as a key driver of strategy is simply a matter of having sought and embraced new experiences t...

By David McCann • April 23, 2014

Cyber Risk: Are Boards the New ‘Target’?

For any public company, a large data breach, such as the latest Target hack, could be material enough to warrant the filing of a Form 8-K. According to the Consumer Bankers Association, the Target data breach has cost banks more than $200 million.Target already faces dozens of claims, including c...

By Kevin Kalinich and Michael Becker • April 22, 2014

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from CFO.com

From CPA licensure changes to undergoing a digital transformation, these are the most popular stories CFOs are reading. 

By CFO.com staff

Treat Employees Well, See Stock Price Soar

There are, seemingly, about as many Best Places to Work lists as there are, say, Starbucks outlets. It would be understandable if that ubiquity created jaded views of the lists’ significance. But is there anything important to learn from them?It depends on the list, certainly. They have different...

By David McCann • April 21, 2014

How CFOs Can Curb Insurance Costs

For many companies, property-casualty insurance represents a large cost, and thus strategies for renewing their policies can be a crucial matter. We were both brokers in the past, and we know from working with insurance underwriters that an organization’s risk management practices don’t often fig...

By Kristina Narvaez and John Bugalla • April 18, 2014

New York Racing Association Lures Customers Online: Video

The New York Racing Association (NYRA), the not-for-profit organization that operates the three largest thoroughbred horse-racing tracks in New York, is bringing in roving musicians, better food and picnic tables, all to lure new customers to the races. But NYRA also needs to boost its online pre...

By Marielle Segarra • April 16, 2014

Is the Terrorism Insurance Logjam Finally Broken?

With corporate terrorism insurance policies said to be hanging in the balance, four U.S. Senators introduced a bill yesterday to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act for seven years.Sen. Charles Schumer In the absence of congressional reauthorization of the seven-year federal reinsurance progr...

By David Katz • April 11, 2014

CVS Settles with SEC Over Accounting Violations

CVS Caremark will pay $20 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating federal securities laws. The SEC has charged the pharmacy company with “misleading investors about significant financial setbacks and using improper accounting that artificially boosted its...

By Marielle Segarra • April 8, 2014

The Search for Suspect Accounting

Financial analysts and regulators know a lot about how companies falsify accounting and misrepresent earnings. For example, if a company is moving items off the balance sheet or reporting earnings that move in the opposite direction of cash flows, it’s time to pay close attention. They also know ...

By Vincent Ryan • April 8, 2014

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending April 4

John Shrewsberry has been promoted to finance chief at Wells Fargo, effective May 15. He replaces Timothy Sloan, who will lead the wholesale banking group. Shrewsberry now heads Wells Fargo Securities.Health-care firm Humana has selected Brian Kane to lead the finance function, effective in June....

By David McCann • April 4, 2014

EU Enacts 10-Year Auditor Rotation

The European Parliament today enacted new rules requiring public companies to change auditors after a maximum of 10 years.EU member countries can decide to extend the 10-year auditor rotation period for up to 10 more years if companies tender the audit contract out but choose the incumbent firm. ...

By David Katz • April 3, 2014

Revamped Audit Report Seen Launching ‘Wave of Litigation’

To avoid “a wave of litigation against issuers and auditors” that could result from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s proposal to revamp audit reports, the PCAOB should provide legal protection for auditors, a lawyer who represents the insurance industry contended this morning.“I an...

By David Katz • April 2, 2014

The CFO Candidate Pool Is Shrinking

First, a disclaimer: If all CFOs were replaced by internal successors, I would be out of business. That said, a trend that’s played out over the last several years could be problematic for mid-career finance executives who aspire to the CFO’s chair.The problem is this: The gaps between organizati...

By John Touey • April 1, 2014

R&D Tax Credit Can Help High-Growth Companies

In 2010, U.S. businesses reported research and development tax credits exceeding $8.5 billion. Therefore, it’s not surprising that a recent survey found that “Tech CFOs Anticipate Boost in Revenue This Year,” 19 percent of CFOs in the technology sector were most apprehensive about the expiration ...

By Chris Bard • April 1, 2014

Fulfilling Relationships

In the management of a supply chain, what goes out is as important as what comes in. Just how important was demonstrated in December, when, swamped by last-minute orders and beset by bad weather, United Parcel Service and FedEx failed to deliver many gifts in time for Christmas. Also drawing atte...

By Russ Banham • March 31, 2014

CFOs on the Move: Week Ended March 28

Merck has named Robert Davis to the top finance spot, effective April 23. He takes over from Peter Kellogg, who will leave the company on May 16 after a transition period. Davis is currently president of the medical-products division at Baxter.Business consultancy AlixPartners has appointed Kevin...

By Joan Urdang • March 28, 2014

VCs Pour Money Into Hadoop Big-Data Players

Can an open-source framework for the storage and large-scale processing of data on clusters of commodity hardware help an organization save the millions of dollars it spends on traditional databases? Venture capitalists believe so, as they are pouring money into tech startups that will enable tha...

By Vincent Ryan • March 27, 2014

How Will Cisco Get Back on Growth Track?

Cisco Systems has endured its share of problems over the years, but it’s been through a particular slog lately. Among other stresses, the company, along with those in related businesses like IBM, Juniper Networks and Ericsson, has been hurt by poor sales in emerging markets, especially China, des...

By David McCann • March 26, 2014

Why Employee Turnover Hits the Bottom Line

John Boudreau Most financial systems are good at measuring the transaction costs involved in separating a departing employee, finding and acquiring a replacement, and developing the new employee to a performance level at least equal to that of the one who left. Indeed, in our book, Investing in P...

By John Boudreau • March 26, 2014

Special Report: Making Sustainability Pay

Many companies would agree that sustainability can help the bottom line. Relatively few would want to sign a declaration committing them to sustainable business practices, particularly if those initiatives cost money in the short-term. But more than 900 companies are doing just that by getting ce...

By Marielle Segarra • March 25, 2014

The Sustainability of Big Data

When people think about corporate sustainability, the word “green” is very likely to spring to mind.To be sure, organizations like the United Nations think that corporate sustainability reports should include information about human rights issues, labor relations and corporate governance. Neverth...

By David Katz • March 25, 2014

Capping Hours to Avoid ACA Costs Could Violate ERISA

From a purely dollars-and-cents perspective, most companies would save money, and quite a bit of it, by opting to pay the penalties stipulated in the Affordable Care Act for failing to provide health-care coverage for employees.But even the vast majority of companies that are expected to comply w...

By Craig Martin and Nary Kim • March 24, 2014

Tech-Savvy CFO Rides the Big-Data Wave

Sometimes, you need to think smaller in order to think bigger. After almost six years as CFO of global information technology at $3.5 billion stock-exchange operator NYSE Euronext, Krish Venkataraman hopped to a new employer that may presently be only about 2 percent of that size.Sound crazy? Not...

By David McCann • March 21, 2014

Lease Accounting Standard Inches Forward

Rather than going back to the future, the Financial Accounting Standards Board apparently moved closer to the completion of a final new standard governing lease accounting by stepping forward to the past.At the conclusion of a meeting of FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board that ...

By David Katz • March 20, 2014

FTC Urges Data-Breach Penalties

Target’s recent series of data breaches inflicted a nasty bruise on its brand reputation, but the retailer’s pain would have been even worse had it been subject to civil penalties over the fiasco.And that’s just what the Federal Trade Commission would have preferred. FTC deputy director Daniel Ka...

By David McCann • March 19, 2014

Is Your Budget Process Stuck on Last Year’s Numbers?

Remember your last budget meeting? If you’re like many CFOs, it was a long, exhausting process that was not particularly effective. As the presenters showed you their plans, you probably challenged every number and explored every assumption. In the end, you may have raised their targets a little,...

By Olivier Sibony and Dan Lovallo • March 19, 2014