Influencers wield remarkable power. At the peak of her cultural influence, Oprah Winfrey could send book sales skyrocketing with her endorsement. Today, social media influencers use their platform to advance social causes or earn commissions through paid partnerships (Olivia Tiedemann will have you sold on stainless steel pans).

Modern CFOs, who’ve moved from being tactical number-crunchers to more strategic thinkers, can serve as influencers in their organizations. But CFOs didn’t dive into strategy waters immediately. Years ago, they got their feet wet by “reporting out progress against strategic initiatives,” Myles Corson, EY’s global and Americas strategy and markets leader, said during a recent CFO Brew virtual event.

“Increasingly, CFOs had a seat at the table,” Corson said. “Now, that seat at the table is much more in helping to set and define strategy.”

Speak up. In assuming the role of organizational influencer, CFOs need to effectively communicate, according to Corson.

“Whether that’s internally within your finance organization, whether it’s across your organization, or it’s externally to investors and broader stakeholder communities, you have to be able to tell stories,” he said.

Click here for more on how CFOs can be influential in the C-suite.—AZ

What the heck is an un-webinar? We’re glad you asked.

It’s a quick 15-minute virtual talk, and it’s the format for Undisclosed, a new series for accounting operators hosted by Leapfin. Join the first *live* session, A Spectacularly Bad Job: How the Industry Is Failing Future Accounting Leaders, on Oct. 10 at 12pm PT to learn:

• the two most important things they don’t teach you about accounting and finance leadership
• how to not screw up a $900m fundraise
• accounting and finance’s most valuable teammate outside the team

You’ll hear from Alex MacGillivray, VP of Finance at Clio, on why the industry is failing accounting operators pursuing leadership roles.

And there’s more coming your way, since this is just the first of many from Leapfin’s Undisclosed series of 15-minute “un-webinars.”

Grab your (virtual) seat.

The topic on everyone’s minds at Workiva’s Amplify 2024 event in Denver last week was compliance with ESG reporting regulations, and more specifically, how to possibly prepare for them amid an uncertain political and regulatory environment.

Let’s set the scene: The future of the SEC climate rule is shaky, and hanging over all that is the broader question of the SEC’s (and other regulators’) authority considering the recent Supreme Court reversal of the Chevron deference precedent. Against this backdrop, companies are erring on the side of caution in reporting cyber incidents.

To help make sense of it all, CFO Brew caught up with Steve Soter, Workiva vice president and industry principal, between sessions on Tuesday afternoon.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are you hearing from clients and others about the SEC climate rule in the face of all this uncertainty?

What has come across to me is that companies are still thinking about it, and there is still a level of preparation that’s going on in anticipation [of the rule]. If I were thinking about how to prioritize my resources if I were in a financial reporting team, I probably would think about, “How much do I want to focus on SEC versus other things?” What has been pretty conclusive to me is that as companies make that analysis, they are still prioritizing, if not active preparation, certainly an ongoing awareness of climate disclosure to the SEC. There could be some areas where there’s a little more ambiguity…but the thought of getting your Scopes 1 and 2 emissions into your 10-K assurance requirements and everything that goes along to be ready for that, companies are still thinking about that.

To continue reading, click here.—AZ

Microsoft sees you, investors, and it appreciates you.

The world’s sometimes-largest company knows that you’ve stuck by its side as it spends tens of billions on AI and as revenue growth slowed for the cloud computing services that the company hopes will be boosted by said investments.

So, as a little thank you for having its back (and to tide you over until greater profits flow), the company will buy back up to $60 billion in shares and is boosting its dividend by about 10% (from 75 cents per share to 83 cents), it announced Monday.

Only for a giant like Microsoft could such a sum be considered “little,” but $60 billion is roughly 1.9% of Microsoft’s current $3.2 trillion market cap. The agreement renews an equally large buyback program from 2021, Bloomberg reported; during the fiscal year ending in June, repurchases totaled about $17 billion.

Not that investors aren’t confident in Microsoft’s future. Its share price had already risen 31% in the 12 months before Monday’s announcement, Bloomberg reported, “as investors bet on gains from its push into artificial intelligence,” including its early and continuing partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

For more on Microsoft’s stock repurchase, click here.—GD

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