Paying the ‘Attention Tax’ on Automation

As we automate more and more processes within business and commerce, it’s important to bear in mind that “people are not peripherals” and can’t be treated as though they are, as one of my colleagues likes to say. The systems and software we have today are much better than we had 20 years ago, and...

By John Parkinson • Jan. 9, 2014

When You Don’t Want Workers to Be a Class Act

Despite recent Supreme Court and lower-court rulings that have favored employers in class-action lawsuits brought on behalf of workers, there’s no room for complacency among top corporate executives over the potential for such legal actions to wreak financial havoc on companies.That’s according t...

By David McCann • Jan. 8, 2014

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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

One Path to Super-Charged Growth: Video

Ten years ago, sisters Britney Vickery and Ivy Hall were like many other young moms: they wanted to devote lots of time to their kids yet still find a creative outlet, contribute financially to their families and get some much-needed time with adults. Their solution: make handbags and sell them a...

By David McCann • Dec. 13, 2013

A Guarded Employment Diagnosis in a Slow Recovery

Optimism in the U.S. business environment was stuck in something of a holding pattern at year-end, but at least was heading in the right direction, according to the results of the Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook for the fourth quarter of 2013. In this quarter’s survey, we polled 400 f...

By David W. Owens • Dec. 11, 2013

Health-Care Changes to Demand CFO Attention in 2014

Many senior finance executives who aren’t as well-versed on health care matters as they are on other factors that determine financial results are about to get an education.The dawn of the Affordable Care Act’s individual-mandate era and other ACA-related issues, as well as emerging macro trends i...

By David McCann • Dec. 6, 2013

Clouds in the Forecast

Cloud computing — still in its relative infancy but hurtling toward maturity at an ever-faster pace — and the exploding usage of mobile devices for business purposes will dominate finance-department plans for technology investments next year, according to CFO’s September survey of 148 senior fina...

By Keith Button • Dec. 6, 2013

Melding Minds With the CIO

Mike Herring knows a thing or two about leveraging the relationship between CFO and chief information officer. During his time running finance at Adobe Systems, before he became finance chief of Pandora last February, the information-technology department reported to him. In fact, he worked with ...

By Alissa Ponchione • Nov. 27, 2013

Holding On for Tomorrow

It tales a cool head to invest. A firm’s decision to build up capacity or spend cash on research pays out tomorrow but must be paid for today. That makes investment returns uncertain, influenced by factors — from oil prices to politics — that firms cannot control. With rich-world investment rates...

By Economist Staff • Nov. 25, 2013

Predictive Analytics Drives Profitability, Growth

Colin Hare There are several ways in which a CFO can leverage predictive-analytics solutions to manage profitability and enable corporate functions to adopt its principles. CFOs can successfully lead that charge if they know that:1. Analytics must be forward-looking to be truly impactful. A compa...

By Lana Klein and Colin Hare • Nov. 25, 2013

Private Health-Exchange Market Consolidates

The market of private health-insurance exchanges for active employees is quite immature. But a brief consolidation phase may have already been completed with today’s announcement that Towers Watson has acquired Liazon for $215 million.Towers Watson is among several human-capital consulting firms,...

By David McCann • Nov. 22, 2013

U.S. Retail Sales Growth Stalls

Bad news this holiday season: sales growth among private retailers is basically flat this year, according to Sageworks, a financial information company. Privately held retail companies are growing sales at an annual rate of 0.8 percent on average, according to financial statements collected by Sa...

By Marielle Segarra • Nov. 21, 2013

Companies (Almost) Without Borders

The global economy is changing and for businesses to stay competitive, they will have to enter new markets overseas and across the world, according to a panel of finance chiefs assembled Wednesday for a CFO RoundTable event on globalization.To begin, though, companies have to define what global m...

By Alissa Ponchione • Nov. 21, 2013

Sink or Swim: Video

How do you grow an organization that relies heavily on volunteers? Many nonprofits have struggled with this question, and probably few more acutely than U.S. Masters Swimming, a 60,000 member organization that encourages adults to swim. U.S. Masters launched in Sarasota, Florida in 1970. Until 20...

By Marielle Segarra • Nov. 20, 2013

Small Firms at Risk of Health-Plan Cancellations, Too

Individuals whose health plans have been canceled or not renewed because they wouldn’t have complied with the Affordable Care Act come Jan. 1 have been big news. Hardly any talk has been heard about the impact on small companies with noncompliant plans.Some of those companies stand to have their ...

By David McCann • Nov. 15, 2013

The Other Successful Tech IPO: Veeva Systems

Standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Veeva Systems’ CEO Peter Gassner, CFO Tim Cabral and its original 10 employees were feeling excited and a little nervous. Recently, technology companies have become a lucrative investment, and Veeva, whose beginning as a public company started...

By Alissa Ponchione • Nov. 12, 2013

CFOs Still Cautious About Growth: EY

For many global CFOs, continuing economic uncertainty is reason enough to remain cautious, even prudently so, according to an Ernst & Young “CFO: Need to Know” paper.The U.S. government shutdown, the ongoing debt ceiling fight and the Affordable Care Act are holding back companies from aggres...

By Alissa Ponchione • Nov. 11, 2013

Hermès Tops “Most Reputable” List

By the time business professor Theodore Levitt explained in a 1960s Harvard Business Review article how buggy whips comprised an exemplary industry that failed to adapt to changing markets, the former horse-and-buggy supplier Hermès was well into its twelfth decade of innovation. Founded in 1837 ...

By Jonathan Salem Baskin and Nir Kossovsky • Nov. 5, 2013

Have Data Center, Will Travel

Like any company, LexisNexis was looking for ways to expand its business while also delivering better services to its customers without any added cost. The company looked to its data centers, which are the backbone of the online services, data hosting and backup services it provides its clients. ...

By Alissa Ponchione • Nov. 4, 2013

CFOs Should Step in as Strategic HR Leaders

Although it falls outside their traditional job description, CFOs of growth companies must often play the role of human resources strategist. The responsibilities related to HR — managing performance, designing the leadership team for the next stage of growth and creating clear objectives for all...

By Robert Sher • Nov. 1, 2013

Does IT Matter?

When Nicholas Carr wrote “IT Doesn’t Matter” for the Harvard Business Review 10 years ago, he may not have realized the far-reaching effects it would have on information technology. For many, it signaled a shift from focusing on compute, storage, data centers and networks to focusing on packaged-...

By Timothy Chou • Oct. 29, 2013

Data Mining: The Fear Factor

Technology firm Ion Geophysical has been using big data to solve customer problems for 20 years. The company converts seismic wave data into graphs that help its clients know where to drill for oil. Although Ion has been at the forefront of big data for more than two decades, it only recently beg...

By Alissa Ponchione • Oct. 23, 2013

‘Cadillac’ Plans Aren’t Affordable Care

Among the costs of complying with the Affordable Care Act, one potentially big-ticket item is far enough in the future that there is perhaps little cause for alarm. But it may not be a good strategy to sit idle for long, some experts say.Employers that trigger the “Cadillac tax” could suffer seve...

By David McCann • Oct. 21, 2013

Affordable Care Act Architect Says the Law Is Working

[Editor’s note: Opinions attributed to Jonathan Gruber are his own. Those not attributed are the opinions of the author.]CFO’scoverage of the Affordable Care Act has included much scrutiny of new costs companies must bear to comply with the law. We’ve focused relatively little on the purposes of ...

By David McCann • Oct. 18, 2013

Midsize Companies Move to Private Health Exchanges

The market of private health-insurance exchanges got another strong boost today, with human resources consulting firm Mercer announcing that 33 companies will use its exchange for their active employees starting Jan. 1.The announcement comes less than a month after Mercer competitor Aon Hewitt re...

By David McCann • Oct. 15, 2013

Should You Cut Volume or Price?

How many times have you asked your team, “If we cut price, what will be the impact on volume and/or share?” Pricing is the moment of truth in any transaction and often has enormous impact on profitability and shareholder value.There can be very divergent answers to the question, depending on mana...

By Thomas E. Conine Jr. • Oct. 10, 2013