How Wal-Mart Plans to Build a Greener Chinese Supply Chain

Retail giant Wal-Mart announced new commitments Thursday which the company says will increase the sustainability of its supply chain in China, the U.S. and around the world.The world’s largest retailer — which operates a chain of big-box stores around the globe known for deep discounts – is placi...

By Kristine A. Wong • Oct. 26, 2012

Looming Fiscal Cliff Speeds Mergers

With capital gains and dividend tax rates set to rise in 2013 barring congressional action, dealmakers are rushing to close merger and acquisition transactions by year-end. Acquirers, especially those in industries that are rapidly consolidating, say the impending changes to the tax code — the en...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 24, 2012

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

Middle-Market Business: The Goldilocks Spot

“Pizza,” says Steve Larek, CFO of Home Run Inn, a family-owned restaurant-and-frozen-pizza operation born in Chicago in 1923, “is middle-of-the-road, middle market, Middle America, middle class.”And when the 2007 Great Recession hit, Home Run Inn — like Middle America — was staggered. The number ...

By David Rosenbaum • Oct. 24, 2012

U.K. Pundits’ Views on Election, Economy

Not only is the U.S. Presidential election too close to call, it’s far from clear what impact either candidate would have upon taking office. Whoever wins will face the same economic challenges: “a fiscal cliff, a regulatory mountain, and a jobs depression,” says Gerard Lyons, chief economist wit...

By Andrew Sawers • Oct. 24, 2012

Yahoo CEO Slams “Splintered” Brands

During his first day on the job Monday, spanking-new Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman, formerly CFO of security vendor Fortinet and customer-relationship giant Siebel Systems, touted Yahoo’s “massive loyal audience and very promising products and properties in virtually every major category” during the comp...

By Taylor Provost • Oct. 23, 2012

Small Business Wanted More from Second Debate

No matter who you think won Tuesday’s Presidential debate, the feeling today seems to be that this time it was a fair fight.Small business, however, was not as central to the second debate as it was to the first, when it was mentioned by name 26 times as opposed to Tuesday night’s 21. “We wish we...

By David Rosenbaum • Oct. 17, 2012

The NFL’s Reputational Value Crisis

On a Tuesday morning in late September, a legion of NFL football fans was collectively aggrieved. The night before, Seattle Seahawk quarterback Russell Wilson threw a 24-yard potential touchdown pass to wide receiver Golden Tate on the final play of the game. As Tate went up for the ball, he was ...

By Nir Kossovsky • Oct. 15, 2012

JP Morgan Preps for Fiscal Cliff

Megabank JP Morgan Chase is trying to forecast the possible knock-on effects of the United States’s “fiscal cliff,” when, beginning in January, federal legislation could trigger higher taxes and automatic federal spending cuts to many government programs.During the question-and-answer with analys...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 12, 2012

CEOs Twist Employees’ Arms over Politics

Just what the hell is going on?You may have heard that it’s unwise to discuss sex, religion, or politics in public with anyone other than close friends. If anything, those topics should be avoided even more carefully at work, where strong emotions can interfere with productivity.Apparently, the c...

By David McCann • Oct. 11, 2012

Five Ways a Small Business Can Get Fortune 500 Deals

Large companies have an obvious advantage negotiating with vendors.   After all, if your purchases represent a significant percentage of the supplier’s bottom line, it’s easier to get a good deal.  Big companies also typically have large procurement organizations, with sourcing specialists for ea...

By Scott Drobes • Oct. 10, 2012

Private Exchange Vendors Stake Out Market Niches

This is the final installment of a three-part series on the burgeoning field of private health-insurance exchanges.Private health-insurance exchanges offer a plethora of potential benefits to corporate plan sponsors, as discussed in the first and second installments of this series. The number of ...

By David McCann • Oct. 10, 2012

Healing America’s Economy: Obama vs. Romney

U.S. companies are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Five years after the credit bubble burst and the world settled into a financial gloom, economic uncertainty continues to prevail. The two candidates running for President in November, Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican chall...

By Russ Banham • Oct. 8, 2012

Shaky Ground

In the face of the ongoing euro-zone crisis and slowing growth in Asia, and with the Presidential election looming at home, CFOs are becoming more pessimistic about the U.S. economy, according to the latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey, now in its 66th consecutive q...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Oct. 8, 2012

A Mobile-Payment Revolution

It’s lunchtime in Boston’s financial district and the line at Boloco, a burrito chain, is long. A few people stand with credit or debit cards in hand, but most are holding their smartphones as they advance toward the register. A cashier glances at a customer with his phone at the ready. “Oh, hey,...

By Taylor Provost • Oct. 8, 2012

Growth Culture

Name: Wendy DiCiccoPosition: CFO of Nuron Biotech, a rapidly growing biotechnology company that develops vaccines and biologics for neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. Nuron has doubled in size since last year, from 18 to 36 employees.Previous Positions: Business consultant at The Campbell...

By Marielle Segarra • Oct. 8, 2012

CFOs Can’t Afford to Opt Out of Social Media

Many CFOs and their organizations are ignoring new social-media technologies and networks because they’re “not comfortable with them,” said Cal Slemp, managing director of Protiviti, a consultancy and internal audit firm, speaking on a panel about the risks and rewards of social media at this wee...

By David Rosenbaum • Oct. 4, 2012

Building Brands in Emerging Markets

As the rapid growth of emerging markets gives millions of consumers new spending power, those consumers are encountering a marketing environment every bit as complex and swiftly evolving as its counterpart in developed countries. Product choices and communication channels are exploding; so is the...

By Yuval Atsmon and Jean-Frederic Kuentz • Oct. 1, 2012

Private Companies Invest While Public Companies Punt

Privately held companies are 3.5 times more responsive to investment opportunities than publicly traded firms, and the difference increases in industries where stock prices are more sensitive to earnings news, according to recent research out of Harvard and New York University.“On average, privat...

By Mary Ellen Biery • Sept. 27, 2012

The Evolving Role of the Hospital CFO

Even in the midst of the great national health-care debate, as CFOs parse the enormous impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and businesses begin to alter the ways in which they provide health care to employees, small changes can still make big differences to the quality of care and to the bott...

By David Rosenbaum • Sept. 27, 2012

Gaming the (CRM) System

It’s not news that salespeople don’t like to show their work. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems were designed to not only collect and mine customer data, but also let CFOs and other executives keep a closer eye on their enigmatic sellers.But there’s a problem with CRM systems: many s...

By Taylor Provost • Sept. 26, 2012

Euro Zone 2013: Zero Growth, More Defaults

If you were looking for a euro-zone recovery in 2013, forget about it, says ratings agency Standard & Poor’s. Its previous forecast of 0.3% growth in gross domestic product has been cut to exactly zero. Moreover, 2012 is now looking worse, with euro-zone economic activity expected to contract...

By Andrew Sawers • Sept. 26, 2012

Despite Gloom, Europe’s CFOs See Revenue Growth Coming

Is it any surprise? CFOs across Europe have lower hopes for the economy and their companies’ prospects than they did three months ago. The latest Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey shows that fully 46% of CFOs are less optimistic about their nations’ economies and only 20% are more ...

By Andrew Sawers • Sept. 25, 2012

Ex-PayPal CFO Joins Industry Upstart

YapStone, a small payment-systems vendor that’s in a powerful growth phase, has scored a coup by hiring PayPal’s former CFO, Mary Hentges, as its finance chief. She is set to join the company on October 1.Hentges led PayPal’s finance team for seven years until 2010, when she became CFO of CBS Int...

By David McCann • Sept. 21, 2012

The eBay of Waste: Rubicon Helps Corporations Cut Costs, Trash

It stinks, it contaminates and pollutes and it’s increasingly expensive to get rid of. Garbage stands as a glaring, fetid symbol of unsustainability in our modern supply chain.Repurposing end-of-life materials is simultaneously the most important and most overlooked aspect of sustainability in ma...

By Mike McCullough • Sept. 20, 2012

Shocker! Small-Business Owners Favor Obama

According to a new study conducted by The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, 39% of more than 6,000 small-business owners surveyed said President Obama is “more supportive of small business” versus the 31% who believed that of Republican Presidential candidate...

By David Rosenbaum • Sept. 19, 2012