The headlines seem ripped from a yet-to-be-produced HBO crime caper: Millions of stolen goods found in warehouses across the country. While there’s no movie yet, the issue is hitting companies in the pocketbook: In 2023, cargo theft incidents were up 57% compared to the previous year, according to data from CargoNet, a Verisk company.

That amounted to almost $130 million in stolen goods, per the theft prevention company, but the true total is likely much higher since reporting isn’t mandatory. And that’s part of the trouble for CFOs: It’s hard to know exactly how much money is being lost to cargo theft.

People may write loss off to organized retail crime, inventory mismanagement, or other slight discrepancies, “and it’s because they don’t know where things went missing,” Danny Ramon, intelligence and response manager for Overhaul, told CFO Brew. “They don’t actually have granular visibility into their supply chain.”

Any time truckloads of goods and millions of dollars are being stolen, it’s likely a CFO issue. And that’s why finance chiefs need a quick historical primer on cargo theft before they can really address the issue.

Click here to find out just how pervasive cargo theft is.—NP

Put down those calculators, folks. It’s time to embrace the efficiency (and innovation) that comes with automation.

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Learn how to use this changing landscape to your advantage.

Not to go all Jim and Dwight, but there seem to be some trust issues in the workplace these days. Case in point: Business executives tend to overestimate how much their employees trust them, according to the 2024 PwC Trust in Business survey. Of the executives surveyed, 86% said staff “highly trust” their employers. But only 67% of employees said they actually highly trust the companies they work for.

PwC surveyed 548 business executives, 2,039 employees, and 2,515 consumers in the US in January 2024. It defined an answer of eight to 10 on a one to 10 scale as being “highly trusting.”

Staff at all levels tend to distrust one another, the survey found. Only 52% of employees say they trust their colleagues “to a great extent.” Executives were even less trusting: Only 45% trusted their peers. Just 44% of C-suite members said they trusted one another to a great extent.

Click here to read more about the trust gap.—CV

Tricia Tolivar, CFO of Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain Cava, has seen it all.

Starting in finance at a time when few women held senior leadership positions, she climbed the ranks to hold a variety of financial leadership roles at AutoZone, Ernst & Young, and GNC.

That journey has led to some standout career moments, like ringing the opening bell on the floor of the NYSE for Cava’s 2023 IPO. Here, Tolivar tells CFO Brew about balancing her family life while working in the top tier of finance.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

At one point in your career, you took a break to focus on your family. How did you prepare for your first day back?

For more on how Tricia manages work life balance, click here.—NP

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