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Keep Your Sarbanes-Oxley Off My CFO

Harvard Business Review

No, Minow is suggesting that CFO essentially work for the audit committee. As she puts it, when she's evaluating a company, "the most important thing I look for in a CFO is someone who reports directly to the audit committee, because what I want is a CFO who is absolutely clear that his or her job depends on telling the truth to the board.".

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Why We Need to Update Financial Reporting for the Digital Era

Harvard Business Review

CFOs of these companies themselves admit that they cannot justify their market capitalizations based on traditional metrics. One CFO said that her valuation should be considered on a per idea basis instead of a per earnings multiple. Analysts increasingly rely on non-GAAP metrics.

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Midsized Firms Can Survive a Cash Crisis

Harvard Business Review

To use a different company example, one growing financial services firm’s new CFO learned this in 2004. The CFO couldn’t understand why. Cash revenues were indeed $200 million for the year, but the correct GAAP net revenues were only $30 million and profit was $2 million. But nonetheless, the company was low on cash.

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