Rupee Plunge Spotlights Trade-Credit Currency Risk

The large recent drop in the value of the Indian rupee relative to the U.S. dollar is causing worries among American companies that sell products to businesses on the subcontinent. More broadly, however, the rupee’s relatively sudden dive is bringing currency volatility overall into the spotlight...

By David Katz • Oct. 7, 2013

Property Insurance Premiums Flatten

“The $64,000 question here,” Al Tobin was saying, “is what type of event is a market-changing event?”Tobin, national property practice leader at Aon Risk Solutions, was talking about the market for commercial property insurance. His point?  Devastating as SuperStorm Sandy was, it didn’t have a lo...

By David Katz • Oct. 1, 2013

Explore the Trendline➔

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

Risk Chiefs Scramble to Curb Insurance Hikes

For Tri-Marine International, a global tuna-fishing company, the price of protection-and-indemnity insurance — a kind of seagoing workers’ compensation coverage — has been rising relentlessly the last few years.In its upcoming insurance renewal in Feb. 2014, Tri-Marine is looking at a 5 percent r...

By David Katz • Oct. 1, 2013

Tencent’s Worth

Is Tencent one of the world’s greatest internet firms? There are grounds for skepticism. The Chinese gaming and social-media firm started in the same way many local internet firms have: by copying Western success. QQ, its instant-messaging service, was a clone of ICQ, an Israeli invention acquire...

By Economist Staff • Sept. 26, 2013

What U.S. CFOs Can Learn from Emerging-Market Multinationals

Mexican bread maker Bimbo. Chinese electronics brand Haier. Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer. A decade ago, those companies were largely dismissed by their larger, U.S. competitors. Now, they have taken over the lead in global market share in their respective industries.These companies all ha...

By Marielle Segarra • Sept. 24, 2013

Business Outlook for 2014

A lot of key priorities for CFOs are currently revolving around emerging trends, new regulations and other variables that will continue to take shape next year. Please take our quick, 20-question survey on your expectations for 2014. You will help inform your peer financial executives and, while ...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 23, 2013

General Solicitation of Investors Begins

The day has finally arrived: companies may now solicit investors using public advertisements. In July, the Securities and Exchange Commission lifted its ban on general solicitation of private placement deals, allowing companies to market private placements publicly as long as they only sell equit...

By Marielle Segarra • Sept. 23, 2013

U.S. Companies Refocus on Competition

Does U.S. business believe that the economy is finally starting to turn the corner? The latest results from the quarterly Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook Survey may provide at least a foundation for building on business confidence.After shooting above 60 last quarter, the U.S. Busines...

By David W. Owens • Sept. 10, 2013

Lawyers Warn of Risks of Cyber Counterattacks

On June 5,  Microsoft announced that, along with leaders of the financial-services industry, other information-technology firms and the FBI, it had “successfully disrupted more than a thousand botnets that are responsible for stealing people’s online banking information and personal identities.”T...

By David Katz • Sept. 10, 2013

CFO Leaves Banking for Growing Ad Company

You’re a finance star, you land at a large firm in a vibrant, expanding industry, and you think you have it made. What do you do when business starts to contract? If you’re Joan Lavis, you make the leap to a growth company in a (relatively) new industry. Lavis, former managing director at UBS and...

By Marielle Segarra • Sept. 9, 2013

Boards, CFOs Out of Whack on M&A Goals

If CFOs and boards of directors can align their thinking or are already aligned on how to approach mergers and acquisitions, deals have a chance to be more successful.But a study released in August by Deloitte, “Bridging the Gap: M&A,” shows that CFOs and board members can have significantly ...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 9, 2013

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

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