Fed Bank Plan Would Trap Capital, Hurt Risk Management

In December 2012, the Federal Reserve published a proposal describing how enhanced standards mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act would be applied to Foreign Banking Organizations. It would be the most significant regulatory development for FBOs since the passage of the International Banking Act of 197...

By Kristina Narvaez and John Bugalla • Sept. 3, 2013

Is Digital Currency Catching On?

American businesses are rarely strictly American any more. A recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch CFO Outlook found that the majority of American CFOs said their businesses had some foreign operations. Alastair Borthwick, head of Global Commercial Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, observe...

By Ariella Brown • Sept. 3, 2013

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Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

NSA Leaks May Delay Cloud Adoption

Companies have historically worried that Cloud platforms may not provide adequate security for sensitive data. Just as many of them are apparently letting go of this worry, they will need to decide whether they feel comfortable stor­ing information that U.S. authorities may be able to access.Edwa...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 29, 2013

Planning in the Cloud

Finance departments have lagged behind some other corporate functions in moving technology systems to the Cloud. But one IT leader suggests that for small and midsized companies, planning, budgeting and forecasting systems as a good place to start.CFO recently sat down with Jerry Irvine, CIO of P...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Aug. 21, 2013

Companies Counterattack Cyber Villains

With worries about data breaches and privacy violations mounting by the day, corporations are becoming more aggressive about preventing physical and financial losses, experts say. In some cases, they add, that can involve counterattacks against hackersIndeed, the trend amounts to a “paradigm shif...

By David Katz • Aug. 20, 2013

Nine Inventory Management Mistakes — and One Easy Solution

Managing excess inventory is a challenge for even the most efficient organizations. Overage issues can be a constant headache for CFOs, draining profitability and taking leadership focus away from core business priorities. When faced with excess inventory, many companies try the following common—...

By Gary C. Smith • Aug. 19, 2013

Wayfair.com CFO Builds a Platform for Hypergrowth

Since Nick Malone joined Wayfair.com as CFO in 2005, the company has taken off. When Malone came on board, the online home goods retailer had about 40 employees and pulled in between $25 million and $30 million in revenue. Eight years later, it has grown to one of the top e-commerce companies in ...

By Marielle Segarra • Aug. 14, 2013

How Government Snooping Threatens the Cloud

Early concerns about data security may have been assuaged at this point, allowing for the exponential growth of the Cloud. But recent leaks about the U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM program and other intelligence-gathering activities in the United States have heightened a new variety of con...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 13, 2013

Lessons from a High-Growth Guru

Joe Busky is a growth company guy. As the CFO of InnerWorkings, a public print management services firm, he has overseen dozens of acquisitions and $650 million in revenue growth since he was hired in 2008. InnerWorkings looks for the best printing prices for its clients, which include big brands...

By Marielle Segarra • Aug. 8, 2013

Firewalls and Firefights

“If someone is shooting at you, the last thing you should focus on is the calibre of the bullet,” says George Kurtz, the boss of CrowdStrike, a young tech company. Seated at a coffee table at Black Hat, a conference for the cyber-security industry held in Las Vegas recently, Mr Kurtz is expoundin...

By Economist Staff • Aug. 8, 2013

How Private Equity Is Driving Value

A new study from Ernst & Young shows that in recent years private-equity-owned firms have outperformed their publicly held peers with the returns they generated for investors — and that organic revenue growth was a big reason. From 2006 to 2012, E&Y found in its recent study of North Amer...

By Vincent Ryan • Aug. 5, 2013

Insurance Price Growth Slows, Brokers Find

Finance chiefs and corporate risk managers have been finding a pause in what has been a steady upward growth in property-casualty insurance prices, according to the results of a quarterly study released Tuesday by an insurance-brokerage association.After steadily growing hikes in average quarterl...

By David Katz • July 24, 2013

Cheap Debt Drives Up LBO Valuations

Despite a lethargic market for mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyout valuations hit their highest level in more than a year in June. In the 79 U.S. LBO deals tracked by S&P Capital IQ last month, acquirers valued the target company at an average 21.4 times trailing 12-month EBITDA (earni...

By Vincent Ryan • July 18, 2013

How the CFO Can Become the CEO’s Collaborator in Growth

Most CEOs who run fast-expanding midsize companies can benefit enormously from a partner-in-growth — a member of the top management team who can help scale the firm. CEOs who are innovative but not process-focused often make a chief administrator their collaborator. CEOs who are focused on techno...

By Robert Sher • July 16, 2013

A Different Kind of CFO

Near the far end along one of the many spectrums that collectively define just what a CFO is dwells Sean Shanahan, a 26-year-old partner (and finance chief) of a small but fast-growing specialty hedge fund.What CFOs at investment firms do with their time is certainly much different from what thos...

By David McCann • July 16, 2013

Property Insurance Glut Forces Prices Down

Property insurers are looking past the devastation wreaked last year by Superstorm Sandy and this year by the Moore, Okla. tornado and see smooth sailing ahead. As a result, they are flooding the market with insurance supply, according to a market update released today by Willis, the big insuranc...

By David Katz • July 10, 2013

The Glamour of a Finance Chief

Most people probably don’t see the role of finance chief as inherently glamorous. But they might make an exception in the case of Jean-Marc Duplaix, CFO of $12.6 billion luxury and sports/lifestyle group Kering, which owns Gucci, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Volcom and PUMA, among other bran...

By Marielle Segarra • July 10, 2013

Is the Talent Wound Self-Inflicted?

Growth companies often talk about the talent war — the increasingly fierce competition they face for skilled workers. Peter Cappelli, professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says their pain is self-inflicted. “So many companies have decided that they need ...

By Marielle Segarra • July 8, 2013

How One CFO Steers Toward Growth

There’s a lot to be said for growth company culture. On the one hand, it can be fast-moving, invigorating and entrepreneurial. But it can also be a bit of a pressure cooker, requiring employees to work quickly and juggle varied responsibilities at the same time.There may be even more pressure on ...

By Marielle Segarra • July 3, 2013

Ten IT-Enabled Business Trends for the Decade Ahead

Three years ago, we described ten information technology–enabled business trends that were profoundly altering the business landscape. The pace of technology change, innovation, and business adoption since then has been stunning. Consider that the world’s stock of data is now doubling every 20 mo...

By Michael Chui and Jacques Bughin • June 24, 2013

How to Tolerate a Multigenerational Workforce

When CFOs and other senior executives evaluate their employees, they should not forget how the staffers grew up, says Tammy Erickson, CEO of business advisory Tammy Erickson Associates. At times employees’ actions can be difficult to understand. But that’s because their upbringing varies by their...

By Kathy Hoffelder • June 14, 2013

How Growth Companies Can Manage Churn

Growing companies, with their steady stream of new ideas, ambitious goals and fresh faces, can be thrilling places to work. But they can also be a revolving door. Turnover is a fact of life for growth companies, says John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger Gray & Christmas, an ...

By Marielle Segarra • June 12, 2013

What Entrepreneurs, VCs Think about CFOs

There’s not much we like better at CFO than having finance chiefs tell us directly what they’ve found to work and not work, including anecdotes detailing how they approached problematic scenarios.But are they the only credible sources of such information? Are they even the most objective sources?...

By David McCann • June 11, 2013

Ten Reasons Why Green Leases Create Value for Tenants and Landlords

Many corporate tenants have heard about green leases, and almost as many might wonder whether they should consider one. The answer, for a variety of reasons, is an overwhelming “Yes!” It is a real-estate opportunity that truly benefits everyone: tenants, landlords and not least, the environment.Q...

By Meaghan Farrell • June 10, 2013

Five Ways Big Data is Useful to CFOs

These days, CFOs are challenged with producing more accurate forecasts of their business, complying with ever-changing regulations and reporting more frequently based on newer streams of data. The business environment today is inordinately more influenced by the events outside the control of busi...

By Phani Nagarjuna • June 10, 2013