Goldman Sachs Evaluates Bitcoin as Client Demand Rises

Goldman Sachs Group is currently evaluating how to own and invest in Bitcoin while making sure it is regulated in its approach, according to recent statements from the bank’s COO.What Happened: According to Reuters, John Waldron, president and chief operating officer at Goldman, said that the ban...

By Lauren Muskett • March 11, 2021

5 Leadership Traps to Avoid Post-COVID

No more excuses.The pandemic’s first year gave leaders some slack: The situation was novel, the challenges unique. Everyone was flying blind.Those days are over. We’re still confronting the crisis, but the adrenaline has worn off. If you’re leading a team or a company, you may have gotten a pass ...

By Chris McChesney • March 10, 2021

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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

CFO Exits Can Trigger Positive Changes

President John F. Kennedy once commented that the word “crisis,” as written in Chinese calligraphy, involved two brush strokes — one representing danger, the other opportunity. “In a crisis, be aware of the danger, but recognize the opportunity,” Kennedy advised.His point is useful advice for CFO...

By Mark Partin • March 9, 2021

CFOs Can Shape the Post-Pandemic Workplace

The pandemic-mandated shift to remote work has forever changed how we do business by encouraging CFOs and leadership teams to rethink physical office spaces.The question remains: to what extent will these changes linger once we settle into a “new normal?”Margulies Perruzzi and Kotter recently rel...

By Lauren Muskett • March 8, 2021

AT&T Charged With Improper Calls to Analysts

Three AT&T investor relations executives have been charged with sharing nonpublic information with analysts to get them to lower their revenue forecasts so the company would avoid a third straight quarterly earnings miss.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said AT&T violated Regul...

By Matthew Heller • March 8, 2021

New SEC Task Force to Police Climate Disclosure

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has unveiled a new Climate and ESG Task Force in another move to step up enforcement of disclosure of climate risks.The task force will “develop initiatives to proactively identify ESG-related misconduct” and coordinate the effective use of Division res...

By Matthew Heller • March 5, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending March 5

Drew Vollero Reddit hired Drew Vollero as its first finance chief. Vollero joins Reddit from U.S. security and facility services firm Allied Universal, where he was CFO. Vollero previously served as Snap’s first CFO, where he led the social media company through its IPO. Earlier, he worked at Mat...

By Lauren Muskett • March 5, 2021

Holding Bitcoin Still Risky

At least a couple of technology companies have invested in Bitcoin to widespread wonder. Last year, MicroStrategy adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve, buying 38,250 in Bitcoin for $425 million between August and September 2020. Digital payments company Square, which supports Bitcoin b...

By Vincent Ryan • March 5, 2021

Noodles & Company CFO Discusses Longer-Term Outlook

Casual fast food chain Noodles & Company reported fourth-quarter results on Feb. 25 and discussed a three-year strategic growth plan.On Monday, Benzinga had the opportunity to chat with Noodles & Co. CFO Carl Lukach about the company’s outlook one year after the coronavirus pandemic first...

By Lauren Muskett • March 4, 2021

Elizabeth Warren’s Wealth Tax: What You Should Know

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is spearheading a Democratic wealth tax proposal this week that could potentially generate $3 trillion in tax revenue from the wealthiest Americans over a decade.The Numbers: Warren has proposed a 2% wealth tax on Americans who have at least $50 million in wealth. Under...

By Lauren Muskett • March 3, 2021

Biden’s SEC Pick Warns of Crypto Fraud Risks

Gary Gensler Gary Gensler, President Biden’s pick to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, suggested Tuesday he would continue the agency’s crackdown on cryptocurrency to protect consumers from fraud and manipulation.The SEC has intensified its scrutiny of digital assets since finding...

By Matthew Heller • March 3, 2021

Square Commences Operations as an Industrial Bank

Fintech company Square has officially commenced banking operations, nearly a year after receiving conditional approval to operate a bank.What Happened: Square, historically known for its card reader and point-of-sale solutions, said Monday that its industrial bank has commenced operations after c...

By Lauren Muskett • March 2, 2021

CFOs: The Architects of Enterprise Transformation

The CFO’s role is critical to transformation acceleration and success, and yet the CFO has not been a central character in that effort to date. Sure, some CFO’s may have been charged with owning the digitally-enabled overhaul of the finance department (on top of their already ambitious day jobs)....

By Nick Leopard and Junaid Samnani • March 2, 2021

Strategies for Mid-Market Success Post COVID-19

The middle market, traditionally defined as covering those companies with revenues of $10 million to $1 billion, is large and diverse in the United States, comprising about 200,000 companies across a host of industries. For these companies, along with the rest of the global economy, 2020 provided...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 26, 2021

CFOs On the Move: Week Ending February 26

Matthew Field Joby Aviation hired Matthew Field as finance chief of the electric air taxi company. Field is currently CFO of North America at Ford Motor Company. Field has spent more than two decades working at Ford, in roles including general auditor, where he led the modernization of internal a...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 26, 2021

A Data Scientist Becomes a CFO

John Collins, CFO, LivePerson John Collins likes data. As a special investigator with the New York Stock Exchange, he built an automated surveillance system to detect suspicious trading activity. He pioneered approaches for transforming third-party “data exhaust” into investment signals as co-fou...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 25, 2021

Will Cryptocurrencies Play By The Rules?

Nearly seven years ago, CFO asked finance chiefs an accounts receivable question: Would you allow a customer to pay in bitcoin? Now, the issue is one of cash management: Would you allow your treasury team to invest excess corporate cash in Bitcoin?Tesla and MicroStrategy have. In early February, ...

By Ramona Dzinkowski • Feb. 24, 2021

They Don’t Teach Pandemics in Business School

When COVID-19 hit, no business or working household was spared. All of us had to quickly adjust to the new reality of working from home and keeping ourselves safe. It was a monumental challenge, and many struggled, even contending with personal loss, financial hardship, and depression. As a firm ...

By Jim Peko • Feb. 24, 2021

10 Vital Roles for CFOs

If CFOs have learned anything in the past year, it’s that they must be agile and innovative leaders skilled at predicting and planning for a future that is anything but predictable. The essential skills for CFO success go far beyond mastery of the financial basics, the ability to adopt popular ma...

By Sandra Beckwith • Feb. 24, 2021

What Elite CFOs Are Doing

The CFO’s role has been evolving for years, becoming more and more central to the strategic direction of the enterprise. Aneel Delawalla According to new research, this transformation is being accelerated by the global pandemic. CFOs have increasingly moved beyond their traditional role as econom...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 23, 2021

SPACs vs. Traditional IPOs

The rise of SPACs was one of the big stories for investors in 2020. Based on the record number of SPACs filed and money raised in early 2021, the trend looks primed to continue.Bank of America analyst Michael Carrier shares the positives and negatives of the SPAC market for both investors and pri...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 22, 2021

Tech Groups Sue Maryland Over Online Ad Tax

A coalition of tech industry organizations have sued the state of Maryland to block a first-of-its-kind tax that they called a “punitive assault” on digital advertising.The tax imposes a charge on the annual gross revenue from digital advertising services provided in Maryland. The state’s House o...

By Matthew Heller • Feb. 19, 2021

A New Platform for Strategic CFOs

“Iron Man suit” for the modern CFO. A “strategic finance” platform. A rebuild of the CFO software stack. Mosaic, a new software platform from the company of the same name, has earned some impressive labels.What’s clear is that it is one of the more interesting pieces of software to come along for...

By Vincent Ryan • Feb. 18, 2021

CFOs Want FP&A to Marshal Value Creation

Can financial planning and analysis (FP&A) groups keep up with the rapid, profound changes in many companies?Consider, for instance, what’s shaking up the media industry. Consumption patterns have changed as traditional television viewing’s share shrinks, digital streaming rises, and content ...

By Michael Heric, Steve Beam, and Anup Juneja • Feb. 18, 2021

Think of Digital Transformation as Modular and Nimble

Today’s CFOs have navigated significant technology changes throughout their careers, but even some of the most seasoned finance executives dread the prospect of digital transformation. This is understandable, given the painful history of enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementations, ...

By Lauren Muskett • Feb. 16, 2021