We only got started in July, but the team at CFO Brew has had a busy year tracking the trends, stories, and key events in the finance space this year. Here’s a look back at the stories that resonated most with our readers over the past six months.
July
Planning ahead is key to surviving an economic downturn
We decided to try to talk to people who had been through a previous recession for any advice about how to brace for impact. Finance veteran Jenny Bloom told us that in 2008, when she was at then-new startup email company Mailchimp, the company took the opportunity to expand its freemium plan to help customers who were struggling with spending and paying bills. “That paid off in the long run,” she said.
The cost-benefit analysis of pushing back on unionization
With so many companies unionizing in 2022, we thought it was worth taking a look at why most organizations push back so hard against labor movements—is it really that costly? Gordon Lafer, economics professor at the University of Oregon, told us that most companies that invest in anti-union consultants consider it money well spent. “I wish I could say, ‘Oh, if only they added up their numbers, they would see that it costs less to settle a fair contract.’ And I’m sure that's true, sometimes. But for the most part, the point of the union is to shift the distribution of profits and to have more of the profits go to the people who are doing the work,” Lafer said.
August
Fractional CFO work can be a significant career boost for some finance professionals
We looked at how hiring a part-time CFO can be a boon, not only for young companies who can’t afford to hire one full time, but for seasoned finance pros to spread their wings a bit and gain experience in different fields.
Recession watch: flexibility during hard times can create advantages
Economist Campbell Harvey knows about recessions and CFOs: he’s a professor of finance at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and founding director of the Duke CFO Global Business Outlook, and also developed the Inverted Yield Curve, a reliable model for predicting a recession. Even he says a potential recession—if one is indeed coming—might be harder to get a read on because there’s so much uncertainty.
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September
How this Gen Z CFO guides a city budget through turbulent times
Eric Mason, 28, started his job as CFO of Quincy, Massachusetts in March 2020, just as the state was going into Covid-19 lockdown. He spoke about what it was like managing a $372 million budget through the pandemic, while launching capital projects and looking to the future.
Buzzword bingo: The keywords to listen for in third-quarter earnings calls
“Congratulations on the great quarter, guys, Joe Analyst here…” When you listen to enough earnings calls you hear the same (often meaningless) buzzwords and catchphrases repeated over and over. Sometimes, they follow a current trend. We decided to make it a game.
Investor relations swing from ESG advocacy to anti-ESG
It started the year as an investor darling, but by the autumn of 2022, the backlash against environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives was in full swing.
October
The business case for the CFO-CIO bestieship
A Gartner survey found that establishing a good working relationship with the IT team was crucial for successful CFOs.
November
Consider the costs and benefits when weighing remote work
We looked at some of the key arguments for and against remote work—including office space sitting empty, security vulnerabilities, and mapped out some of the pros and cons for businesses.
2022 in review: The year of ESG reckoning
To kick off of our year in review series, we homed in on the highs and lows of ESG in the finance space in 2022.
December
Finance chiefs see parallels between the dot-com bust and the current techlash
The headwinds tech companies are facing as 2022 draws to a close are similar in some key ways to the economic downturn of the early 2000s, CFOs told us.
CFO expert Agrawal says talent, uncertainty will top priorities in 2023
McKinsey’s Ankur Agrawal gave us a preview of what he thinks finance chiefs will grapple with in the year to come. Spoiler alert: CFOs will have to keep managing uncertainty.
Thanks for reading CFO Brew this year. We look forward to bringing you more must-read news for finance pros (but with just the right amount of cheekiness) in 2023.—KL