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The evolution of information technology has shaped the working lives of senior financial executives, changing what it means to be a CFO. When it is managed well, technology connects finance [...]

When you ask CFOs to tell you about their commercial banking relationships, the responses cover the spectrum from love (strategic partner) to hate (active antagonist). And just as there is [...]

Ask a group of CFOs how their companies selected their commercial banks, and you're likely to hear a chorus of responses along the lines of 'It was complicated.' That's why [...]

CFOs are collaborating with other functional areas in their companies as their role expands enterprise-wide. Increasingly, senior executives within the finance function are contributing data, analysis, strategy, and insights that [...]

* Governing a defined benefit (DB) pension plan and its investment strategy has always been challenging. Over the past decade it's also become increasingly complex, not to mention costly, spurring [...]

For a growing company, pursuing and achieving the goal of international expansion can be fraught with challenges--especially for firms unaccustomed to navigating the legal, regulatory, and cultural terrain of an [...]

Recurring revenue business models, also known as subscription or usage-based models, are opening up new opportunities across many industries--even in sectors where they haven't traditionally. For example, the subscription model [...]

If there's a phrase to describe the marching orders of finance departments, it's 'adapt as fast as you can.' Not only are finance chiefs and their teams trying to accomplish [...]

CFOs understand the importance of financial planning and analysis (FP&A) solutions that allow their finance teams to develop budgets and forecasts quickly and accurately. They need confidence in their numbers [...]

As organizations face an onslaught of fast-moving, high-impact technological advances--artificial intelligence and blockchain, to name two--it falls to finance leaders to lay the groundwork for their companies' transformations to fully [...]

Among the many effects on corporate finance from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a greater motivation to address problems with defined benefit (DB) employee pension plans. Thanks also [...]

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may be getting a lukewarm reception from consumers, but CFOs are clearly over the moon about the lower corporate income tax rate and other [...]

Happy days are here again? For U.S. finance chiefs, it seems, they are. At least that's the prevailing mood since Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the biggest [...]

Like it or not, CFOs frequently find themselves cast in the role of pension managers, dealing with a host of economic, regulatory, and environmental factors outside of their control. Faced [...]

Investors, consumers, regulatory bodies, and the media are putting heavy pressure on boards of directors. They are being held accountable for a whole range of strategic missteps, risk management errors, [...]

The U.S. labor market continued to tighten, causing companies to pass up valuable investment projects, according to the results of the third-quarter Duke University/ CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. [...]

For several decades, corporate America had been looking for ways to shed the increasing costs and performance risk of sponsoring traditional, defined-benefit (DB) pension plans. Freezing plans by halting the [...]

Middle-market companies are struggling to attract and retain technology employees--and looking to managed IT services providers and the cloud for help in meeting the talent shortfall. A recent CFO Research [...]

Uncertainty about U.S. regulatory and trade policies is prompting some companies to put business expansion plans on hold, according to the second-quarter Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey. More [...]

A CFO who can accurately report on the financial position of his or her organization with great detail and insight--and on a timely basis--is empowered both immediately and in the [...]

Check the news. The consequences of a data breach can be devastating to a company's finances and its brand reputation. And there's no single way to block virtual intruders, whose [...]

Senior finance executives in the United States are concerned that President Trump's off-the-cuff Twitter posts and public comments may affect business, specifically by causing market fluctuations and uncertainty. Finance chiefs [...]

More than a third of U.S. CFOs say political uncertainty will slow their spending plans beyond the presidential election, according to the latest Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook survey of [...]

DASHBOARD APPLICATIONS are proliferating as a key management tool, bringing realtime operational performance monitoring to executives' desktops. Evolving from balanced scorecard activities, these cost-effective technologies compare an organization's actual performance--often [...]

IAN IS THE DIRECTOR OF AUDIT for NewMedTech (NMT) Inc., a privately held biotechnology firm with revenues around US$200 million. Based in upstate New York, NMT also has three legal [...]

HEADQUARTERED IN THE MIDwest, Old Retail Co. does business in 29 states, has about 18,500 employees, and reported sales revenues of $850 million last year. To support its retail efforts, [...]

Finance executives' efforts to manage benefits risks and costs, while trying to enhance benefits outcomes, will be critical to their companies' ability to succeed in the future. This is the [...]

CFOs around the world increasingly recognize that the standards for their finance functions' responsiveness and credibility are being raised, and that yesterday's processes and solutions will no longer be able [...]

Political uncertainty is altering the spending plans of U.S. companies, according to the latest Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey. Worried by the upcoming presidential election and continuing Washington [...]

* Excellence in post-sales service can be a boon to a company's attempts to bolster the bottom line and support business growth. These are key findings of a recent CFO [...]

Around the world, senior finance executives believe that their companies need to find more skilled or specialized workers in order to meet business growth targets. Most are focusing more on [...]

* Tomorrow's business world will look different from today's. And it logically follows that tomorrow's finance teams will look different as well. Professionals joining the world of finance can look [...]

A recent report from CFO Research documents the value that faster, more accurate cash reporting and forecasting has for growth ambitions. Cash management and forecasting are more difficult than ever, [...]

The business environment, infused with uncertainty, has muted the growth of business confidence, according to the results of the Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook survey for the fourth quarter [...]

For many strategic business planners, corporate real estate (CRE) is little more than an afterthought. But that may be beginning to change, judging from a recent survey of senior finance [...]

Most senior finance executives--76%--believe that meeting business performance targets is going to become more challenging over the next two years, according to a recent CFO Research survey on performance management [...]

Senior finance executives are increasingly treating employee benefits as an opportunity for competitive advantage, as they seek to balance their core fiscal-responsibility mandate with the need to support their companies' [...]

[The CFO] 'Before we begin our monthly call, I have a question for you all. Who the heck is 'iPhone5' and how did he download our pro forma financials last [...]