How difficult is it to change course while shod in a pair of chunky platform heels?

Well, if “change course” involves overhauling supply chains in order to avoid promised tariffs on Chinese goods, footwear designer Steve Madden makes it look easy—putting into motion overnight a plan that was the result of years of planning.

Just two days after the Nov. 5 election in which former President Donald Trump regained the White House, Steve Madden CEO Edward Rosenfeld told investors the company will soon source a good portion of the products it now gets from China from other countries.

“We've worked hard over a multiyear period to develop our factory base and our sourcing capability in alternative countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, etc.,” Rosenfeld said during an earnings call on Nov. 7. “As of yesterday morning, we are putting that plan into motion and you should expect to see the percentage of goods that we source from China to begin to come down more rapidly going forward.”

Imports make up about two-thirds of Steven Madden’s business, according to Rosenfeld. About 70% of imported goods are from China, meaning “just under half of our current business would be potentially subject to tariffs on Chinese imports,” he said. The company aims to make that number of goods subject to potential tariffs closer to around 25% over the next year.

For more on Steve Madden’s supply chain moves, click here.—AZ

Home Depot doesn’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Its Q3 earnings were up for the first time in eight quarters, but the improvement in its fortunes may have more to do with the weather than with a shift in consumer sentiment.

Its prospects rose enough in Q3 for it to beat analysts’ expectations and raise its guidance for the full fiscal year.

Sales were up 6.6% over Q3 of 2023, the retailer said in a press release, enough of a bump for it to revise its full-year sales guidance from 2.5-3.5% to 4%. It now forecasts a 1% drop in EPS, compared with the 1-3% decline it foresaw earlier in the year.

“As weather normalized, we saw better engagement across seasonal goods and certain outdoor projects,” chair, president, and CEO Ted Decker said during an earnings call. Dry weather meant that professionals weren’t losing work days to rain, he observed. The retailer also saw a boost in sales as consumers prepared for hurricanes and cleaned up afterwards.

High interest rates and economic uncertainty are still causing consumers to hold off on large home improvement projects, Decker said. Mortgages remain high, he said, dampening the effect of the Fed’s decision to cut rates.

For more on Home Depot’s earnings, click here.—CV

Those AI copilots that tech companies have dispatched to join the office are getting a promotion.

Agents—autonomous systems that can perform tasks beyond the scope of a chatbot—are fast replacing copilots as the buzzword du jour in the race to outfit generative AI for the workplace.

Salesforce has retooled its Einstein Copilot into a new product called Agentforce, which became generally available last week. Microsoft Copilot isn’t going anywhere, but the tech giant recently added a studio to create agents, as well as a cast of 10 pre-built agents to serve functions like sales, finance, and supply chain. Plenty of others, from Palantir to Asana, have thronged to the build-your-own-agent space as well.

“In contrast to now-outdated copilots and chatbots that rely on human requests and struggle with complex or multi-step tasks, Agentforce offers a new level of sophistication by operating autonomously, retrieving the right data on demand, building action plans for any task, and executing these plans without requiring human intervention,” Salesforce touted in its announcement.

A new role: Agents essentially aim to shift the AI from the copilot’s chair to the driver’s seat. Rather than just answering questions or spitting out bits of copy at a human’s behest, they can perform multi-step tasks on their own.

Click here to continue reading Tech Brew’s story on the rollout of AI agents.—PK

The pressure on CFOs to act as strategic advisors, manage tech spend, and oversee operations grows as responsibilities expand. With dwindling resources, how can these teams manage all these expectations? Watch our on-demand event to hear how macroeconomic factors have impacted the office of the CFO and 2025 forecasting. Watch now.