Small-Business Jobs Act: Not Big Enough?

While CFOs see lots to like in the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act signed into law last month, many complain that its benefits don’t offset the injurious effects of other White House tax and health-care-related policies.“The new act certainly makes a difference by increasing access to lending,...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 18, 2010

More Trouble Ahead?

Roughly 18 months since the collapse of the mortgage market ushered in the worst recession in nearly a century, the economy appears trapped in a vicious cycle. Companies can’t get credit, so they hoard cash and minimize hiring, which in turn slows consumption, which in turn prolongs the downturn....

By Julia Homer • Oct. 1, 2010

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

Skewering SKUs

It isn’t easy for giant companies to make a 180-degree turn in their merchandising strategies. But Wal-Mart US is in the process of doing just that, said Bill Simon, the retail chain’s new president and chief executive officer, at a Goldman Sachs conference two weeks ago.Throughout 2009, said Sim...

By David Katz • Sept. 29, 2010

That Sinking Feeling, Again

Optimism about the U.S. economy has fallen back to recession levels among U.S. chief financial officers, despite the fact that they expect earnings to grow by 12% in the next 12 months and capital spending to increase by 7%.According to the latest quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Bus...

By Julia Homer • Sept. 22, 2010

Game Changer

CFOs are all too familiar with the experience: someone at the company has a Big Idea for an innovative new product or service, or has identified the next great growth opportunity. Money is earmarked and a project is launched with great fanfare. But two years later, what looked dazzling in a Power...

By Russ Banham • Sept. 1, 2010

Beyond the Data Debates

To highlight the virtues of his unit’s new sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, Richard Shields, CFO of Oakley, a maker and distributor of eyeglasses, shoes, and athletic apparel, likes to paint what he calls “a before-and-after picture.”Before the process was installed at Oakley (a ...

By David Katz • Aug. 18, 2010

CFOs See 12% Capex Rise, Deloitte Survey Finds

Buoyed by optimism about revenue and earnings growth, CFOs say their companies will boost capital spending by an average of 12% during the next 12 months, according to the results of a survey of 136 finance chiefs released Wednesday by Deloitte. But a closer look at the numbers reveals that part ...

By David Katz • July 15, 2010

Brazil Is Booming (and Maddening)

As the world’s 10th largest economy and one of the fastest to emerge from the global recession, Brazil is the hot market of the moment, and not just because of its famous beaches. With a stable currency; a growing, consumption-oriented middle class; and a gross domestic product expected to rise a...

By Kate O'Sullivan • July 15, 2010

The Plight Before Christmas

For the first few months of this year, the U.S. economy was moving steadily toward recovery. The Credit Managers’ Index (CMI), a key indicator of corporate economic trends, registered a rise each month from August 2009 until April 2010, and other benchmarks gave cause for optimism.Then came May, ...

By David Katz • July 15, 2010

Stuck on Hold

Finance chiefs remain uncertain about the economy, and their lingering doubts bode poorly for the unemployment rate, according to the findings of the latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. The survey, which polled 1,102 senior finance executives worldwide in late May ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • July 15, 2010

Alternate Realities

For the past five years, finance chief Mona Leung and her fellow senior executives at Alliant Credit Union have gathered annually to imagine how the company would survive various long-shot scenarios. “We don’t just ask, ‘Are we going to be in a recession?'” says Leung. “We try to find scenarios t...

By Kate O'Sullivan • July 8, 2010

The Recovery: Still Jobless

Finance chiefs are still uncertain about the economy, and their lingering doubts continue to hinder employment, according to the latest quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. The survey, which polled 1,102 senior finance executives worldwide in late May and early J...

By Kate O'Sullivan • June 9, 2010

From Adversity, Better Budgets

“When you realize that the net you’re building is 20 yards behind you, it becomes a lot easier to decide to fly without it.”So says Kurt Kuehn, CFO of shipping giant UPS. He’s describing the company’s new view of budgeting, planning, and forecasting. “Normally, we are very obsessive about buildin...

By Kate O'Sullivan • June 1, 2010

Have No Fear, the Consultants Are Here

Over the course of his finance career, Jeff Henderson, CFO of Cardinal Health Inc., has hired consulting firms to offer insight on strategy, outsourcing initiatives, expense-reduction tactics, and large IT projects. While he believes strongly that consultants are an important management resource,...

By Russ Banham • June 1, 2010

Ready, Set, Grow?

Cutting. Tightening. Restricting. Limiting. Scrutinizing. Postponing. And, of course, laying off. Those activities have dominated corporate life for the past two years as companies have endured the endless economic winter known as the Great Recession. Many CFOs now say, however, that a change of ...

By Kate O'Sullivan • May 1, 2010

In Search of the New

After fading during the financial crisis and the recession, innovation has returned to the top of executives’ agendas, according to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group, which surveyed 1,600 senior executives around the world on the topic. Sixty-five percent of finance executives say innova...

By Kate O'Sullivan • April 19, 2010

Slouching Toward Recovery

At last, some good news. For the first time in more than a year, finance chiefs expect double-digit growth in earnings and significant growth in capital spending over the next 12 months, according to this quarter’s Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. Finance executives al...

By Kate O'Sullivan • April 1, 2010

Pep Boys Does Budgeting for Less

With many companies, even large ones, still using spreadsheets for budgeting, planning, and financial reporting, the growth potential for vendors of performance-management software is vast. After all, the software promises to handle the same tasks more efficiently than spreadsheets, while allowin...

By David McCann • March 30, 2010

Accountants Head to the Cloud

Unlike the development curve of many business trends, the use of cloud computing to lower accounting costs has gained an early foothold among smaller companies. There is practically limitless room for growth; what almost everyone regards as the most successful cloud software provider to date, sal...

By David McCann • March 24, 2010

No Longer by the Book

One of the eye-opening lessons of the downturn is just how few industries are truly recession-proof. Textbook publishing, long seen as a dependable cash cow of a business, is not among them, as many in the industry have learned to their dismay. At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), the nearly 200-y...

By Kate O'Sullivan • March 23, 2010

Testing, Testing: The New Innovation Game

Business innovation, once the province of teams in white lab coats doing research and development, is moving into the front lines. Increasingly it derives from continual tiny experiments in such areas as business processes and customer relationships rather than a single, company-transforming idea...

By David McCann • March 15, 2010

Finance Chiefs Look Warily Ahead

According to more than 100 finance chiefs who responded to a survey by CFO at last week’s CFO Rising conference in Orlando, Florida, the worst of the economic downturn is over, but the economy won’t fully turn around anytime soon. Only 6% expect the economy to decline further in the next year, bu...

By Kate O'Sullivan • March 12, 2010

Instead of Best Practice, Next Practice

For the most part, CFOs have forgotten an oft-repeated lesson learned in grade school: keep your eyes on your own work and don’t pay attention to what your peers are doing.Of course, companies can’t afford not to keep tabs on their competitors. However, they may be spending too much time benchmar...

By Sarah Johnson • March 10, 2010

On the Mend

At last, some good news. For the first time in more than a year, finance chiefs expect double-digit growth in earnings and significant growth in capital spending over the next 12 months, according to the Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey for the first quarter of 2010. Fi...

By Kate O'Sullivan • March 3, 2010

Relax, Your Board Loves You

Thanks to the recession, CFOs have been asked to provide their corporate boards with more and better information. Apparently, such demands have triggered CFOs’ penchant for rigorous self-appraisal — perhaps unnecessarily so. In a recent survey of board members and senior finance executives conduc...

By CFO Editorial Staff • March 1, 2010