Five Best Practices for Today’s Stay-at-Home Workforce

Addressing the demands of a mobile, virtual, and stay-at-home workforce is not a new topic. Hiring the best talent — regardless of whether or not they reside in proximity to company facilities — is a competitive reality for many organizations. But the global coronavirus outbreak has suddenly ampl...

By Vincent Ryan • March 26, 2020

Moody’s Downgrades Ford Deeper Into Junk

Moody’s sent Ford Motor debt further into junk territory, citing the threat of a severe and prolonged downturn in auto markets due to the coronavirus.The rating agency on lowered Ford’s corporate family and senior unsecured debt ratings to Ba2 from Ba1 and put the ratings under a downgrade watch ...

By Matthew Heller • March 26, 2020

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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

How One Restaurateur is Weathering the Coronavirus Shutdown

The coronavirus crisis has prompted mass layoffs and business closures. Just last week, the number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits rocketed, an indication of how severely the real economy has been impacted.In response to the increased claims number, Goldman Sachs economic forecasters ...

By Lauren Muskett • March 25, 2020

Target Pulls Financial Outlook Amid ‘Unprecedented’ Demand

Target said it was withdrawing its financial outlook and cutting back on plans to remodel stores as it responds to “unprecedented” customer demand in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.Target said it has been experiencing “unusually strong traffic and sales” and has adjusted the timing of strat...

By Lauren Muskett • March 25, 2020

Avoiding the Floor on Negative Rates

Even before the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 and the related impact on financial markets, several developed countries and regions embraced monetary policy incorporating the use of negative interest rates.The rationale for this monetary policy was that each country or region had been impacted d...

By Vincent Ryan • March 25, 2020

Chevron Slashes 2020 Capital Spending by 20%

Chevron said Tuesday it will cut capital spending by 20% to about $16 billion this year as the oil industry reels from the dual shock of plummeting demand amid the coronavirus pandemic and falling prices.The biggest cut will come in the largest U.S. oil field, the Permian Basin in West Texas and ...

By Matthew Heller • March 24, 2020

Uber CEO Asks Trump to Provide Relief to Drivers

On Monday, Uber Technologies chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi wrote to President Donald Trump, asking him to provide financial aid to independent workers affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.“I respectfully and urgently request that the economic stimulus you are consider...

By Lauren Muskett • March 24, 2020

Ford Partners With 3M and GE to Make Respirators and Ventilators

Ford Motor Company said it was working with 3M and GE Healthcare to make ventilators, face shields, and Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PAPRs) for use by first-responders and healthcare workers as a surge of coronavirus patients hits the U.S. hospital system.In a statement, Ford said it planne...

By Lauren Muskett • March 24, 2020

WeWork Investors Will Take ‘Necessary Actions’ If SoftBank Bails on Bailout

The special committee of the WeWork board of directors on Sunday said that it is “committed to take all necessary actions” if SoftBank doesn’t live up its end of the bargain in the bailout deal signed October of last year.“Not only is SoftBank obligated to consummate the tender offer as detailed ...

By Lauren Muskett • March 23, 2020

How to Prevent RPA from Messing With Internal Controls

One of the key benefits of implementing robotic process automation (RPA) is the ability to quickly launch automated processes in limited scope while standardizing the processes as you go. But rapid deployment also presents several potential risks for Sarbanes-Oxley project management teams to ass...

By Vincent Ryan • March 23, 2020

Senate Floats Airline Stimulus Amid Criticism

Senate Republicans announced a stimulus bill that would guarantee $150 billion in loans to companies struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic, including $58 billion in loans and grants to the U.S. aviation industry.Lobbyists for international airlines have said $200 billion in government support ...

By Lauren Muskett • March 20, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending March 20

Adrianne Lee Adrianne Lee will become finance chief at Overstock on March 31. Lee joins Overstock from Hertz where she was CFO of the company’s $7 billion North American Rental Car unit. Before joining Hertz, Lee led financial planning and analysis for Best Buy’s multi-billion-dollar e-commerce b...

By Lauren Muskett • March 20, 2020

Could Warren Buffett Bailout The Airlines?

Warren Buffett has stepped into faltering economies to help prop up teetering companies in the past and made out pretty good by buying low in times of distress. Might the Oracle of Omaha have some interest in some suddenly very turbulent airline stocks?Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is one of ...

By Vincent Ryan • March 19, 2020

More Banks See Recession as Pandemic Unfolds

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are now both forecasting a recession in 2020 driven by the coronavirus pandemic.The downturn is expected to be less severe than the 2008 financial crisis but sharper than the 2001 recession, analysts and economists at the banks said.“While the policy response will...

By Lauren Muskett • March 19, 2020

5 Ways to Address Enterprise Risk Management as a Team

C-level executives, with support from the board of directors, are responsible for establishing and promoting a healthy risk and compliance mindset among employees. But they may not grasp the full benefits of enterprise risk management (ERM) because of the siloed nature of risk management efforts ...

By Daniel Kim • March 19, 2020

Good Controller/Bad Controller

Back in 2012, Ben Horowitz published an article titled “Good Product Manager/ Bad Product Manager.” We borrowed from his format as we assessed a key role in a fast-growing company’s finance organization: the controller. (See our previous column, Good CFO/Bad CFO.) Special thanks to Aman Kothari, ...

By Adam Spiegel and Jeff Epstein • March 18, 2020

Oil Prices Fall to Lowest Levels in 18 Years

Crude oil prices dropped as much as 9% on Wednesday to $24.42 a barrel, the lowest levels since June 2002, as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic hampers demand.The price of light crude oil is down 60% so far this year.At the same time, Russia and Saudi Arabia are failing to limit supply. Russia is ...

By Lauren Muskett • March 18, 2020

Insurer Fields Communicable Disease Claims

Large commercial property insurer FM Global added communicable disease coverage as a standard element of its core product back in 2016, in a response to requests from some clients. But the coverage didn’t really strike a chord with the overall customer base, and there have been few claims.Until n...

By David McCann • March 18, 2020

Apple Hit With Antitrust Violations in France

The French Competition Authority announced it is imposing a fine of €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) against Apple, alleging the tech giant was guilty of creating cartels and placed restrictions in contracts with wholesalers designed to limit competition and influence retail prices.“Apple and its two ...

By Vincent Ryan • March 16, 2020

IEA Sees Drop in Oil Demand

The International Energy Agency said it expects global oil demand to fall for the first time since 2009, citing the impacts of the coronavirus on the economy.The agency said demand fell worldwide by approximately 2.5% in the first quarter of 2020 and it was expected to shrink by 90,000 barrels pe...

By Lauren Muskett • March 13, 2020

10 Key Principles for Effective Capital Deployment: Part 2

On Thursday we published Part 1 of this two-article series, presenting five principles for effectively deploying capital. Read Part 1 here. This article contains five more such principles.First, here is a review of the first five principles from yesterday’s article:The Top Priority Is SurvivalBuy...

By Gregory V. Milano • March 13, 2020

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending March 13

Carol Tomé Former Home Depot CFO Carol Tomé will become chief executive officer at UPS on June 1. Tomé, who spent 18 years as the home improvement company’s CFO, is the first outside CEO hire in UPS’ 112-year history. The delivery giant’s 11 previous CEOs rose through the company ranks. Tomé star...

By Lauren Muskett • March 13, 2020

U.K. Cuts Interest Rates in Response to Coronavirus

The Bank of England cut its main interest rate by half a percentage point to 0.25% on Wednesday, its lowest level on record, as part of the government’s response to the economic fallout of the coronavirus.“Although the magnitude of the economic shock from Covid-19 is highly uncertain, activity is...

By Lauren Muskett • March 12, 2020

Good CFO/Bad CFO

What distinguishes a successful finance executive from an unsuccessful one?

By Rob Krolik and Jeff Epstein • March 12, 2020

10 Key Principles for Effective Capital Deployment: Part 1

This is the first of two articles addressing capital deployment.Capital deployment decisions are among the most important strategic choices facing managements and boards. However, it can be difficult to choose between investing organically or acquisitively in the business versus paying down debt,...

By Gregory V. Milano • March 12, 2020