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

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

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

The ROI of Doing the Right Thing

In its early days in 1980s Chico, Calif., independent brewing company Sierra Nevada had to employ practices that were friendly to the environment because “we didn’t have the resources to be wasteful,” said Bill Bales, the company’s finance chief, at CFO’s Playbook West conference on Tuesday. So c...

By Vincent Ryan • June 7, 2013

In Recovery

Ready, set, grow? Such is the mind-set of finance executives around the world as they shift from a cash-hoarding mentality to preparing to blaze new paths to expansion in a slowly reviving economy. It’s an unmistakable, if unevenly distributed, sentiment that emerged from the sixth annual “Global...

By David W. Owens and Matt Surka • June 5, 2013

CFO Optimism: Growing Strong

Mirroring the mood of the economy, CFO confidence is on the upswing in the United States. “With consumer sentiment strong, the market booming, and some of the other indicators up, CFOs feel like there’s a recovery happening,” says Tom Fitzsimmons, CFO of TMP Worldwide, a digital recruitment-adver...

By David W. Owens • June 5, 2013

How To Prevent a Shareholder Blowup

In February, Greenlight Capital brought a lawsuit against Apple, demanding that it return some of its then-$137 billion in cash holdings to its shareholders. Although the hedge fund dropped the suit in March, its president, David Einhorn, has continued to pressure the tech giant. Apple isn’t the ...

By Marielle Segarra • June 4, 2013

Economic Recovery Is on Thin Ice: Buchholz

The U.S. economic recovery this time around is “darn difficult and confounding,” said Todd Buchholz, speaking to a roomful of CFOs in San Francisco Monday. By that he meant it defies the thinking about economic cycles that had worked for decades and had driven government and central bank policies...

By Vincent Ryan • June 4, 2013

Are Private Companies Gearing Up to Borrow?

Private companies in the United States may be in a good position to borrow. They are less likely to default, on average, than they were last year, according to data from financial-information company Sageworks, making them more creditworthy. The average probability of default among thousands of p...

By Marielle Segarra • May 30, 2013

How Well Do Banks Serve Small Businesses?

Do banks provide what their small-business customers need? One viewpoint is that they focus too much on loans and not enough on other potentially useful services.  “The most profitable products banks have are the loan products,” says BC Krishna, president and CEO of online payment tool provider M...

By Marielle Segarra • May 28, 2013

E-Payments Growing, But Still Bring Risks

Electronic payments are becoming more popular among small and midsize businesses. In a recent report by consulting firm Greenwich Associates, 43% of small companies and 55% of large middle market companies said they expect to increase the number of e-payments they make over the next 12 months.Gre...

By Marielle Segarra • May 22, 2013

How Chris-Craft Weathered the Storm

The last few years haven’t exactly been smooth sailing for Chris-Craft, the boat-building company founded more than a century ago and long revered for its quality and craftmanship. In 2000, its parent company, Outboard Marine Corporation, filed for bankruptcy. The following year, private-equity g...

By Marielle Segarra • May 20, 2013

How to Avoid Organizational Mood Swings

Companies that adhere to a CEO mantra of “spend aggressively for growth” can be exhilarating places to work. Yet they can also become environments of gloom, dragged down by debilitating managerial mood swings. When growth falls short of plan, as it often does, the climate can shift rapidly from b...

By Robert Sher • May 16, 2013

Counting the Cost of Living

In recent years inflation has been one of the few economic indices that has not caused much trouble to Americans. Contrary to repeated warnings, it has neither rocketed higher nor turned into deflation. But policymakers now face a different sort of inflation problem: determining which of many com...

By Economist Staff • May 15, 2013

CFOs Benefit from Shared-Services Shakeup

For CFOs, the world was once a simpler place. The role of the finance function was clear: To keep costs down and allocate funding for growth while closing the books in an accurate manner. Working largely within their own borders and dealing with predictable markets, CFOs centralized and consolida...

By David Axson • May 13, 2013

Drug Abuse Hikes Workers’ Comp. Risks

CFOs worried about mounting workers’ compensation costs at their companies should look closely at how freely — and chronically — doctors are prescribing narcotics to injured workers in states where the companies operate.The differences among states can be striking. At the top end, one in six inju...

By David Katz • May 13, 2013

Small Business Loan Process Could Ease

The Small Business Administration is hoping to make it easier for small businesses to secure loans. Earlier this year, the SBA proposed several changes to its loan programs designed to “expand program accessibility for more small businesses and streamline the paperwork burden,” says Jeanne Hulit,...

By Marielle Segarra • May 9, 2013

Weathering the Weather

Since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, catastrophes like the massive floods in Thailand and Pakistan, a prolonged drought in the Southwestern United States, and the one-two punch of hurricanes Irene and Sandy seem to be occurring with more frequency, with expensive consequences f...

By Russ Banham • May 8, 2013