The Top Corporate Finance Trends of 2013

What are the trends in 2013 that will define corporate finance?Any decent editor must frequently try to answer questions like that—or at least carry around in his or her brain a constantly updating ranking of the topics readers most want to know about at any given moment. We make our decisions ab...

By David Katz • Jan. 22, 2013

Five Warning Signs That You’ve Cut a Bad Deal

As a finance executive responsible for signing off on large purchases for goods and services, you will inevitably ask, “Did we get a good deal?” And the response will usually be, “Yes.” But the follow-up question — “How do we know?” — may elicit a less confident reply.In fast-growing companies, y...

By Scott Drobes • Jan. 16, 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

How to Create a Net-Zero Office

For homebuilders, the latest iteration of the green building movement are net-zero homes. These structures generate as much energy as they consume and have very small carbon footprints. Improvements in technology have now made net-zero homes a viable option for many homeowners.But the success of ...

By Brent Hardy • Jan. 14, 2013

While Corporates Fiddle, SEPA Compliance Looms

This could be the year of SEPA — whether treasury departments like it or not — because companies will have to accelerate efforts to make their European operations compliant with the new 32-nation single European payments area.A recent survey reveals that many companies still have a long way to go...

By Andrew Sawers • Jan. 9, 2013

Developing Markets: Growing . . . and Dangerous

This year will mark a milestone in the history of economic development, for 2013 will be when emerging-market economies become, in aggregate, bigger than those of the developed world. Just to be clear: measured in terms of purchasing-power parity (PPP), emerging economies will make up more than h...

By Andrew Sawers • Jan. 9, 2013

Gloom Pervades CFOs’ Capex, Hiring Outlook: Survey

Before the nation’s journey over the fiscal cliff was at least temporarily averted, the looming possibility that draconian tax hikes and spending cuts could severely damage the economy topped CFOs’ list of most worrisome risks in the fourth quarter and dampened their outlook, according to the res...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Jan. 8, 2013

Amazon’s Coming after Your Customers

If you were to get a glimpse of my inbox during the past month, you might think I’m close friends with Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com. I get e-mails from Jeff, on behalf of Amazon, almost daily, with recommendations on what I might like to buy.Aside from aggressively pursuing the retail market, Am...

By Shawn Casemore • Jan. 7, 2013

Outsourcing Helps Small Firms Pack Big Punch

Outsourcing was a hot topic in November’s Presidential election, with President Obama slamming candidate Mitt Romney for sending jobs overseas to take advantage of low-cost labor, and Romney (late in the campaign) accusing Obama of having shipped Jeep manufacturing jobs to China (an accusation th...

By Gerry Mendelbaum and Mark Neibart • Jan. 2, 2013

A CFO Questions Business Values

During the three years Barry Rowan served as CFO and treasurer of Nextel Partners, the company’s market capitalization grew from $2 billion to more than $9 billion. In June 2006, telecommunications giant Sprint bought it for $10 billion, becoming Sprint Nextel. One could safely say that during hi...

By David Rosenbaum • Dec. 19, 2012

Marco Polo 2.0: Report from China

A few years ago, I began teaching a cloud-computing class at Tsinghua University, considered one of China’s top schools. Kids who get the best scores on China’s national exams typically choose to go to Tsinghua. But I don’t go to Tsinghua once a year just to teach; I also try to learn as much as ...

By Timothy Chou • Dec. 18, 2012

Diagnosis: Slower Growth

The Presidential election is over, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a fact of life. But despite the complex nature of health-care reform, providers are finding that small changes in health-care operations can make a big difference in quality of care and the bottom line.At 155-bed, not-for-pro...

By David Rosenbaum • Dec. 15, 2012

Gaming the System

A salesperson is playing a video game at work. He’s a lowly squirrel hunter looking to move up the ranks until he reaches his ultimate goal of becoming a top-level whale hunter.But this game isn’t a smartphone download or a time-wasting Facebook application. It’s embedded in his company’s custome...

By Taylor Provost • Dec. 15, 2012

CFOs Are Shaky at the Cliff’s Edge

The U.S. CFO Optimism Index has dropped yet again in the latest Duke University/CFO magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, to 51 out of 100. Down from 52 last quarter and 59 at the beginning of the year, optimism levels among senior finance executives have dipped in part because of mounting con...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Dec. 12, 2012

Europe’s CFOs Betting on Recovery

Keep very quiet or you might scare away the recovery.There are, we can dare to hope, a few signs that the European economic environment is looking just a little bit healthier, with businesses making more positive noises about their own prospects and investment plans. These crumbs of comfort are t...

By Andrew Sawers • Dec. 11, 2012

Software Companies: The Bicoastal Divide

It appears that what many suspected is true: the West Coast is far more aggressive in pursuit of growth, more top-line-focused than the conservative, bottom-line-oriented East Coast, at least when it comes to software companies.In the 2012 Software Benchmarking Industry Report released today by t...

By Taylor Provost • Dec. 10, 2012

What VC Money Buys

BOSTON — When I dropped in last summer on Pingup, a technology start-up that lets people text rather than call businesses (and lets businesses reply in kind), the company’s name was not on the directory mounted in its building’s lobby. Consequently, I spent a while riding up and down the elevator...

By David Rosenbaum • Dec. 10, 2012

Basketball and the Fiscal Cliff

With the fiscal cliff looming, members of Congress are staking out positions and engaging in negotiations that have the feel of a sloppy game of hoops, full of turnovers, technical fouls, and missed opportunities.  Like any competitive sport, basketball is a zero-sum game of us versus them. The c...

By Scott Drobes • Dec. 7, 2012

Strategic Acquirers to Stay Risk-Averse in 2013

U.S. companies aiming to merge, consolidate, or acquire assets or companies next year are in the minority, and that will make for a sluggish M&A market next year, according to an Ernst & Young report.“Macroeconomic ambiguity combined with a continued corporate focus on lower risk, organic...

By Vincent Ryan • Dec. 5, 2012

Prepping for the Big Data Future

BOSTON — Matt Fates envisions a world where no one talks about Big Data anymore. Using the totality of an enterprise’s data to make forward-looking business decisions, develop new products, and improve marketing efficiency will be so common that there won’t be a name for it.But getting to that po...

By Taylor Provost • Dec. 3, 2012

Small-Business Owners Express Epic Pessimism

Small-business owners are more pessimistic about their businesses’ future than they’ve been since the third quarter of 2010, according to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index released Friday.The numbers are “jaw-dropping,” says Doug Case, small-business segment manager for Wells Fargo, cur...

By David Rosenbaum • Dec. 3, 2012

Restarting the U.S. Small-Business Growth Engine

There’s mom. There’s apple pie. And there’s small business. As the U.S. economy struggles to go on climbing out of the downturn and create jobs, no hero stands taller in the nation’s political and business psyche than the small-business owner. With good reason. Small businesses, defined as compan...

By John Horn and Darren Pleasance • Nov. 29, 2012

Black Friday Sales Rose Online, Sank In Stores

The tendency of consumers to buy stuff via their online and mobile devices has been in place for a while now. Indeed, since November 1, folks have spent $13.7 billion online, according to comScore, a business-analytics firm. But it all seemed to crystallize on Black Friday, when online sales topp...

By Taylor Provost • Nov. 26, 2012

Small Biz Whipsawed by Uncertainty

The National Federation of Independent Business’s November Optimism Survey (conducted before the presidential election) reported that small business enthusiasm for the economy rose a tick in October, signifying (according to the NFIB) not very much. That’s because 23% of the over 2,000 small busi...

By David Rosenbaum • Nov. 21, 2012

Adding Sales Staff: What You Need to Know

Not only do your quarterly sales figures look good, your gut is also telling you there’s even more revenue out there waiting to be hunted down, tied to the roof of the car, and carried home. Your product is a hit; your salespeople are making their quotas, so why wouldn’t you hire a few more? If y...

By David Rosenbaum • Nov. 20, 2012

China’s Economy: Two Views, Both Bad for Europe

The political leadership may have changed in China but the fundamentals of its economy haven’t – and while two economists take opposing views on the outlook for the Chinese currency, neither scenario is good news for Europe.Savvas Savouri is partner and chief economist with hedge fund manager Tos...

By Andrew Sawers • Nov. 19, 2012