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CFO Brew helps finance pros navigate their roles with insights into risk management, compliance, and strategy through our newsletter, virtual events, and digital guides.

CFO Brew

Courtney Vien

cfobrew.com

M&A is poised for a resurgence this year

A slow 2023 left PE firms with lots of dry tinder.

Natasha Piñon

Person walking up a set of stairs symbolizing the path of corporate growth strategy

Growth strategies: The basic playbook

Tried-and-true strategies are tried-and-true for a reason. 

Intuit’s AI bet is paying off

CFO Sandeep Aujla outlines AI’s role in the company’s strategy.

Two dots and an arrow connected by a curving line denoting CFO strategy

Strategy

And considering the amount of teamwork needed to craft a coherent narrative about your company’s 

, you’d be excused for modifying the classic adage. There’s an “I” in investor relations, 

The one mistake you can make when it comes to investor communication is focusing only on the first half of that modified adage: Sure, you play a role as CFO, but this is a team sport.

For a crash course on best IR practices, we talked with Cava CFO 

, who joined the company in 2020. She walked CFO Brew through her team’s typical investor communication workflow ahead of earnings, which she calls “a pretty well-oiled process.”

Spoiler: Effective IR communication takes a lot of careful planning and coordination.

Several weeks ahead of earnings day, Tolivar, along with the company’s CEO, the VP of marketing communications, the investor relations team, and “many others on the strategy team” all get together to develop a standard “cadence of communication,” she explained.

“We align on messaging and how we want to communicate externally, and then we just set up a regular cadence of communication,” Tolivar said. “It’s not a one week prior [situation]. It’s a thoughtful process throughout the quarter, and making sure that how we’re thinking about the business is clearly articulated to the community within Cava as well as externally.”

The key is keeping all relevant parties in the loop. Team sport, remember. “Also, part of the process ahead of time is making sure our executive team is fully involved as well, so the messaging is communicated,” Tolivar added. “We get feedback from them around what’s driving the business and how that may inform our communication and the messaging that we want to deliver.”

She also stresses the “I” in investor relations in a literal sense, recommending that CFOs talk to “as many investors as possible.”

“Not only talking to them, but listening [to] understand what they’re hearing in the market,” she continued. “I think it’s sometimes better to even ask them questions instead of having all the questions being asked of us, and you’ll be surprised at what you can learn through that process.”

Outside of building an open, ongoing dialogue ahead of earnings, Tolivar also recommends CFOs acknowledge the importance of keeping internal and external communication consistent. At Cava, that task is “a partnership with [the C-suite/finance team] and communications.”

One thing that’s been working: When earnings are posted, Cava CEO Brett Schulman “shares a communication not only on his LinkedIn page but also internally to our team members,” she noted.

“We then support that with cadence and communication throughout all of our departments, and then at least once a quarter, our messaging on our town halls often reflects on what it is that we’re focused on from a strategic standpoint in the business, which ties to how we’re communicating about the business externally as well, so there’s tons of connectivity.”

A banner for the Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava is displayed outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as the company goes public on June 15, 2023

How Cava’s CFO handles investor relations communication 

Cava CFO Tricia Tolivar walks us through her typical process.

Jesse Klein

The University of Michigan’s preliminary 

 for November dropped to its lowest point since June 2022. The record-breaking 

 drove the decrease in consumer confidence.

The index fell from 53.6 in October to 50.3 in November and has fallen almost 30% year over year. Consumers expressed pessimism about their own personal finances with a 17% drop, as well as an 11% decline in business conditions expected in the year ahead. The decline in sentiment was recorded across demographics.

“With the federal government shutdown dragging on for over a month, consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative consequences for the economy,” Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, said in a statement.

 Consumer gloom and doom are showing up across multiple surveys. According to a recent 

 study, employee anxiety grew as the perceived probability of higher unemployment a year from now reached 43% in October, up for the third consecutive month. And employee confidence in finding a job after being laid off dropped 0.6 percentage points to 46.8%.

However, one group is still feeling fairly sunny: The University of Michigan survey showed an 11% jump in sentiment for consumers with large stock holdings, as the stock market 

 in which high-income households are doing fine, while those with lower incomes are facing challenges. So overall spending is remaining strong as 

But lower income households are facing pressures on many fronts. Tariffs adversely affect lower-income households more than higher-income ones because the increased prices represent 

 of their income. And the stalled labor market also seems to be affecting 

Consumer sentiment drops for third consecutive month

Hits lowest point since June 2022.

 of collaboration between the CFO and the CIO. And it might be a little contentious, according to experts.

 showed that 71% of CFOs believe they’re in charge of enterprise-wide technology, but so do 77% of CIOs. So what happens when both executives think they’re in charge of the company’s AI plan?

“AI is going to force both the CFO and the CIO into a tighter, more strategic, and probably sometimes more tense partnership,” Connor Augustyn, director of finance transformation at West Monroe, told CFO Brew.

According to Michael Welch, chief information security officer at cybersecurity consultancy MorganFranklin Cyber, in the past the two executives often didn’t have much of a direct relationship. And if there was one, according to CFO advisor 

, it could often be transactional and contentious.

 for the CFO in the past decade, good CFOs were already cultivating strong relationships with their CIOs, according to 

, CFO of Wasabi Technologies. AI is the continuation, and acceleration, of this trend. And it will make working closely with your CIO a requirement, he added.

According to a survey from enterprise software platform OneStream, on AI and the CFO, half of surveyed CFOs reported that their relationship with their CTO/CIO has become “more strategic,” with a third calling it “more collaborative.”

So what role does the CFO play in the relationship with the CIO? And how will it change?

 that implementing AI across an organization comes with a lot of risk, so it’s no wonder they want to get their hands all over the AI strategy. According to OneStream, 75% of CFOs believe they’re leading their organization’s AI strategy.

“Can we make sure that we’re [implementing AI] without introducing new risk into our environment, for our customers, for our partners, and for our shareholders?” Welch said.

For Bayer, the CFO should be a powerful collaborator on this question with the CIO.

“It’s for the CFO…to have balance and perspective in a risky and unpredictable world,” he said.

The very nature of the C-suite remits and AI’s impact could set the stage for conflict. CIOs handle systems, infrastructure, and data, while CFOs are concerned with 

“CIOs aren’t used to being able to be held accountable to ROI investments,” Augustyn said. “CFOs aren’t normally used to being responsible for the data across the organization. You’re getting a little bit of an overlap in the Venn diagram, and that’s why the two of them have to start collaborating together.”

Augustyn sees another time bomb in the CIO/CFO relationship: data ownership.

“AI is only as good as the data it is being used on,” he said.

While CIOs are used to owning the data infrastructure, he sees CFO departments as wanting to be more responsible for the data ownership and fidelity, as AI becomes critical to business operations and strategy.

“You’re going to see a lot higher collaboration between the two of them, because they have to be able to co-orchestrate all these AI use cases,” he said.

 CFOs are going to turn that famous budgeting eye toward the CIO’s department. They’re going to start asking tough questions around whether the investments are worth the expense and risk, according to Welch.

CFOs don’t always have the technical expertise to understand the scope of an AI project and how it could be of value to the business, according to Land. Similarly, CIOs aren’t always best positioned to evaluate the financial ROI of complex, long-term AI initiatives.

“CIO and CFO have to decide what’s the best usage of the budget,” Land told CFO Brew. “And how do they view AI, as a necessity for growth and not only as an expense that needs to be controlled.”

 The two roles need to bridge a potential language barrier for good collaboration.

“CFOs need to speak multiple languages,” Bayer said. “They need to speak people. They need to speak data. They can’t just speak accounting and finance.”

And critically, CFOs need to start speaking digital and AI native.

“The more AI aware you are, the more credibility you have in that relationship with your CIO, because they’ll say, ‘oh, he gets it,’ or, ‘she gets it.’” he said.

So it’s time to get that CFO/CIO meeting you’ve been putting off on the calendar.

CFOs and CIOs will need to collaborate more closely as companies bring on AI

In the age of AI, your CIO should be your work spouse.

With around 18,300 stores in the US and Canada, Starbucks is still the green giant of coffeehouses. But it’s faltered in recent years, and upstart, drive-thru-centered coffee chains like Dutch Bros, Scooter’s, and 7 Brew have gained market share.

Black Rock Coffee Bar, which went public this September, wants to join their number—and there are lessons to be learned from how it’s positioned to capitalize on shifts in the to-go coffee market. Its CFO, Rodd Booth, spoke with us about Black Rock’s IPO, gave advice for other companies thinking of going public, and shared where he sees the coffee shop market heading.

Black Rock Coffee was founded in Oregon in 2008. It had 158 locations in seven states at the time of its IPO, when it raised $294 million. Shortly after its public debut, it was valued at $1.27 billion.

The company has set a goal of 20% annual growth, which would give it 1,000 stores by 2035. The plan’s an ambitious one: Black Rock has only added 108 stores over the past five years. But its expansion plans over the next two years are well underway. It’s leased 70% of its planned 2026 stores, and is in negotiations for most of its 2027 openings, 

, and it plans to add a third coffee roastery, in Austin, Texas.

Founders Daniel Brand and Jeff Hernandez “always had a dream of taking their company public,” according to Booth, who was Black Rock’s CPA at top 70 firm Aldrich Advisors before joining the company as CFO. The company knew it was ready to begin preparing for an IPO “once we proved our model could scale nationally, and we had the ability to consistently, predictably, and with confidence deliver on our strategic plan and meet all of our commitments,” he said.

His advice for companies contemplating IPOs is to “prepare early, prepare often, and get way out in front of where you think you want to be,”as the process involves so much time, energy, and commitment, and can be disruptive to day-to-day business if you’re not ready for it. Black Rock, he said, tried to operate as if it were a public company “long before” it became one.

The IPO process was an opportunity for Black Rock to “reset and strengthen [its] balance sheet, Booth said, and “committing to the process really made us stronger and more accountable as a team.”

Black Rock could be poised to take advantage of emerging trends in the US coffee shop market, where the landscape has shifted in recent years. Starbucks may be losing just a little of its dominance: The chain saw 

 in 2024 as promotions and complicated drink orders slowed baristas down, stores were understaffed, and customers 

 after just 17 months on the job. Its new CEO, Brian Niccol, launched a 

 called “Back to Starbucks,” which aims to return the chain to its roots as a “third place,” neither home nor work, where customers can linger over lattes.

But the turnaround hasn’t yet paid off. In Q2 2025, its net earnings were down almost 50% year over year. Sales have been declining for six 

And consumers may not be as interested in the “third place” any more. The National Coffee Association reported this spring that US cafe foot traffic was down 22% since before the pandemic. “‘Back to Starbucks’ feels more nostalgic than forward-looking,” analyst Saswat Sidhant Prusty told Coffee Intelligence.

Drive-thru-only coffee chains like Black Rock are catering to customers’ desire for speedy service. Though Starbucks and Dunkin’ are still the behemoths, owning 

of the US away-from-home coffee market, the drive-thru upstarts are gaining ground. Dutch Bros, the third-largest chain in the US by number of locations, went public in 2021 and aims to have 

 by 2029. The fifth- and sixth-largest US coffee chains, Scooter’s and 7 Brew, are drive-thru only.

Black Rock might be able to capitalize on this and other consumer shifts. Though it’s smaller than Dutch Bros, Scooters, and 7 Brew, all its stores are drive-thru and it stresses speed of service.

“Convenience has only become more of a priority for many of our guests,” Booth said, adding, “If you want to get your drive-thru coffee on your way to work, you want it timely.” Staff at Black Rock aim to get drinks in customers’ hands within 90 seconds. (At Starbucks, Niccol’s goal is to have drinks served in a comparatively stodgy 

And it’s hedging its bets in case customers do want to return to the “third space,” equipping around 75% of its stores with seating areas it calls “lobbies.” “The business is anchored on the drive-thru,” Booth said. “But the lobbies are differentiated in the sense that it gives guests options.” The company has found that some customers “want the option to come in, to sit down, to meet folks.”

Like Dutch Bros, Black Rock has a Gen Z-friendly menu, replete with energy drinks and iced options. In fact, energy drinks are its #2 seller, after coffee-based beverages.

Plus, it seems well-positioned to avoid the missteps that plagued Starbucks in recent years. Service, Booth said, could be the chain’s differentiator.

“Service is something that oftentimes people don’t really realize they want or need until they don’t have it,” he said. When customers have a positive experience at a store, it “really reinforces the brand,” he said. To that end, Black Rock focuses on its store operators, training them on people management. It keeps operators in mind when “implementing new food items or drink recipes” to ensure they’re practical and easy to execute.

Questions remain about how saturated the coffee shop market is in the US. Is there still room for expansion, or will the chains start competing for market share? Booth, a coffee lover who sipped java throughout his interview, believes there’s still room for more cafes to sprout.

“Coffee is something that people do every day, and I think if anything, the market is only growing,” Booth said. Analysts suggest that the US could support some 20,000 more coffee shops in the next decade, QSR reported.

What would Booth be ordering at those cafes, in case you’re wondering? An americano, he said. “I am very basic, as you would imagine someone in finance to be,” he quipped.

This CFO’s scrappy coffee chain just went public

Could Black Rock Coffee Bar be the next Dutch Bros?

Alex Zank

Middle market CFOs say that data integration is the “top barrier” to finance modernization efforts, according to a new 

In a survey of 200 CFOs and senior finance leaders at middle market organizations in the US, the accounting firm found that more than half (55%) of respondents said data accuracy and consistency was a major challenge. Nearly half (48%) said integration complexity was the “number one challenge their company faces.”

In addition, 84% of finance executives said improving data quality and integration was their top priority in the coming year.

“Fragmented systems and manual workarounds slow decision making and erode confidence,” according to the report. “CFOs are prioritizing clean, connected data to unlock strategic insights.”

Financial planning and forecasting was the activity most impacted by lack of data, 49% of respondents said. Other significantly affected areas include operational performance monitoring (46%), budgeting and cost control (33%), and risk management and compliance (27%).

But tight budgets slowed down finance modernization efforts, the survey found. More than two in five respondents (42%) said they spent between 10% and 20% of finance budgets on modernization, but a third said they spend less than 10% of their budgets on such efforts. According to the report, “limited investment means CFOs must be highly selective to maximize return.”

In addition to improving data quality and integration, Cherry Bekaert also recommended that finance teams optimize technology, streamline processes, improve reporting, and train up their existing talent.

High-quality, integrated data is also key to successful AI adoption, as CFO Brew previously 

, nearly two-thirds of practitioners said a lack of “high-quality data” impacted AI use at their organizations.

“If your organization is all-in on AI and you’re not all-in on data, you might have a problem one day,” Alexander Davis, deputy CFO of Pie Insurance, said at Workiva’s annual conference in September.

Quality, integrated data is a top challenge for middle market finance teams

A new Cherry Bekaert survey found that nearly half of CFOs think integration complexity was the top challenge facing their company.

Mid-market businesses are focused on cost containment and protecting their fundamentals as they close out 2025, according to a 

 from CBIZ. The financial, insurance, and advisory firm polled CBIZ analysts and more than 1,200 leaders from midsized businesses across a wide range of industries, including construction, consumer goods, food and beverage, life sciences, and technology, in October 2025.

Benefits costs and the labor market are significant headwinds for midsized businesses, the survey found. Almost two-thirds of respondents (62%) said that healthcare and benefits costs had harmed their business in the past three months, and 43% said labor market trends had hurt them. Some of the labor factors they may be referring to include wage competition and talent shortages in areas such as finance, construction, and technology, CBIZ reported.

Tariffs and global trade policy were also a key concern. Nearly six in 10 (59%) respondents said tariffs had hurt their businesses over the past three months, and only 3% said they had helped. Nearly half (47%) cited supply chain performance as a cost pressure. Tariffs are making 

 more complex while cutting into margins, according to CBIZ, and companies are taking steps to manage them including buying from a wider range of suppliers, negotiating contracts, and considering onshoring.

Midsized businesses paused or delayed many growth initiatives in the time period, the survey found. Most frequently (46%), they opted to hold off on M&A activity, suggesting that the 

 is dominated by large firms. More than a third of respondents (37%) said they were pausing capital expenditures, mostly due to financing costs, and 32% weren’t growing their workforces.

Leaders of midsized businesses also said they had continued to focus on controlling costs for goods and services (37%) and labor (26%). They’re mainly investing in fundamentals such as customer service and support (70%); compliance, legal, and insurance (68%); and business-critical technology (54%).

Despite the emphasis on cost discipline, survey respondents had a somewhat 

 on the economy this quarter. A little under half (47%) said they were optimistic, up from 39% last quarter.

Midsized businesses batten down the hatches

Headwinds like tariffs and labor costs have them focused on cost containment.

US manufacturing activity shrank for an eighth straight month in October, due to slumps in both production and inventories, according to the latest sector index from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

ISM’s purchasing managers index (PMI) came in at 48.7% last month, slightly lower than September’s reading of 49.1%. An index reading below 50% indicates a contraction in the manufacturing sector. Economists that Reuters 

 had predicted a slight improvement in the PMI, to 49.5%, but the government shutdown “has caused a government economic data blackout,” Reuters reported.

It was “contractions in production and inventories” that were responsible for “the 0.4-percentage point decrease of the manufacturing PMI” over the previous month, Susan Spence, chair of the ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said in a news release. ISM’s production index decreased 2.8 percentage points from September, to 48.2%. Its inventories index of 45.8% was down 1.9 percentage points.

All four of ISM’s demand indicators—new orders, exports, order backlogs, and customer inventories—improved, but were “still in contraction territory” last month, according to Spence.

 ISM’s prices index reading of 58% showed that manufacturers generally paid more for materials last month, albeit at a slower rate than the 61.9% reading in September. Sectors that reported paying higher raw-materials prices included apparel, appliances, computer and electronics products, furniture, and food and beverage products, among others.

Thomas Ryan, North American economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note that the prices index decrease was “the most encouraging aspect of the report,” Bloomberg 

. Ryan added that the reading hit “its lowest level since tariffs were imposed,” and it “indicates the worst of the tariff-driven pressure on manufacturers’ input costs is likely behind us.”