Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 4, 2023

The ban would would elevate the cybersecurity conversation to the CEO, the CFO, and the board, and potentially end the practice of scapegoating CISOs when a breach happens.

CFO 15

CFO CEO Training Information 15

Strategy Driven

DECEMBER 31, 2015

I coined the terms in the 1980s to describe elements of a change management process I developed (Buying Facilitation®) that coaches buyers through their behind-the-scenes change issues they must handle before they can buy – a consulting process to help them get their ducks in a row. meet with CFO (manages the Tech department).

CFO 50

CFO Consensus Budgeting Brand 50

Harvard Business Review

JULY 25, 2016

What receives far less attention is that, more and more in our increasingly complex, volatile, and fully-globalized business world, the effectiveness of such action depends on a powerful partnership between the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the General Counsel (GC).

CFO 8

CFO Chief Financial Officer Compliance Due Diligence 8

The Idolbuster

JANUARY 15, 2013

As I argued in the last post , if you want the company to do the right thing, make sure you have a set of numbers to back it up. The Cambridge dictionary online defines a revenue forecast as “a calculation of the amount of money that a company will receive from sales during a particular period.”. I cringed when I heard the story.

Biotechnology 41

Biotechnology Groupthink CFO Stress 41

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 13, 2011

Companies love to stretch out their investments in existing technology as long as possible, a policy whose faulty logic I recently rediscovered in my role as CIO. That's because, like many CIOs, I hate buying technology that loses a significant part of its value as soon as it's delivered.

Technology 15

Technology CIO CFO TCO 15

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

All of our companies are digital now – or quickly becoming that way. Yet how many millions of dollars have been spent on analytics technology, but with no parallel improvements – or even any changes – to the way decisions are made within a business? When the process works, the benefits become obvious. Why does this happen?

Technology 8

Technology Metrics Budgeting CIO 8

Mills Scofield

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

At Bettcher Industries, we love the meat processing industry; we’ve always loved the meat processing industry and one reason we do is because many others don’t. Special guest blog post by Don Esch, President of Bettcher Industries of his story at BW-Center For Innovation & Growth 's Innovation Summit.

Succession 70

Succession Industry Stage-Gate CFO 70

Harvard Business Review

JULY 23, 2013

It''s time for CIOs to move beyond their roles as chief technology officers, and embrace the name with all of its implications: Chief Information Officer. At the same time, technology budgets are static or contracting, and non-IT execs want more attention to cost-cutting. Because no one is managing the store. How did we get here?

CIO 8

CIO CFO Zero Based Budgeting Chief Technology Officer 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2018

Most companies see investor relations as a one-way street. Yet investors can be a powerful strategic resource, providing not only capital but also less-biased insight into the threats and opportunities that a company encounters. Heini Wehrle/BIA/Minden Pictures/Getty Images. This time it was to investors that Oka looked.

Company 8

Company ROIC CFO Restructuring 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 1, 2017

The answer involves radically reframing one of the mainstays of the C-suite — the role of the CFO. It’s no longer adequate or acceptable for CFOs to simply focus on managing the financial risks of a company. CFOs at the most risk-aware companies are applying these strategies. Partner with your CISO.

CFO 9

CFO CIO Budgeting Long-term 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 24, 2013

This area of innovation is where mobile payment companies want to play, especially in markets where such technology is less than ubiquitous. San Francisco-based Square , led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey , is among the companies looking to lead this genre. Below is an edited version of our conversation. Or using punch cards.

CFO 8

CFO Loyalty Technology Definition 8

Miles Anthony Smith

MAY 2, 2018

Matt Sweetwood, branding expert, defines personal branding as: " Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands -- the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual." Czar "I rescue troubled companies.

Brand 68

Brand Examples Career Godin 68

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

The market caps of just four companies, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, now exceed $3 trillion. Their combined assets of $944 billion are an order of magnitude lower than the combined assets of $7,700 billion of the largest 3,177 companies in 1986, when the aggregate market capitalization reached $3 trillion for the first time.

Report 8

Report GAAP Net Present Value CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2017

Despite rapid innovations in data processing and machine learning, many businesses have yet to make the leap from the Industrial Age to the information age, and the gap between technological and organizational progress is widening. Closing this gap requires much more than short-term fixes, like adopting new technologies.

Industry 12

Industry Short-term Planning Long-term 12

Women on Business

DECEMBER 3, 2012

Ask any career-oriented woman about her top work-related concerns, and she will likely rank having access to high-quality jobs at desirable companies and having equitable opportunities to advance within those organizations at the top of the list. Take a quick scan of the managers and company leaders.

Career 247

Career Company Software Handbook 247

Harvard Business Review

JULY 4, 2018

The recruitment, interviewing, hiring, and on-boarding of even one new employee is a time-intensive process every manager takes seriously. Or perhaps the solution lies in better application of technological tools, rather than additional people. ” It’s easy to want to make this kind of hire — a carbon copy of yourself.

Learning Curve 14

Learning Curve Management CFO Delegation 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 23, 2015

If you want approval for a new project — purchasing new equipment or computer systems, applying for a patent, building a new store — chances are you need your company’s finance department on board. Everyone always wants new equipment — new computers or other hot technologies. HBR TOOLS: Return on Investment.

Finance 8

Finance NPV CFO ROI 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2011

As finance shifts its focus from controlling costs to advising managers on improvement activities, CFOs must change their thinking and behaviors. He had not been exposed to the approach his company chose ("Lean"), and all the tools and concepts were new to him. "We Getting the CFO on board is key. Then I became an advocate.

Finance 10

Finance CFO Budgeting Operations 10

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 19, 2011

A few months ago, a former client called me in a panic : Her CFO wanted to start several process simplification projects immediately — and she needed a proposal to review with him the next day. In some ways, technology has turned us into rapid-response junkies.

CFO 15

CFO Crisis Proposal Finance 15

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 21, 2011

Many major companies, such as Southwest Airlines, UPS, Chick-fil-A, Best Buy, Yum! The Good: Zappos.com Companies that know great customer service do exist, and Zappos.com is one of them. When they were received at Zappos, I got another e-mail telling me my refund was being processed and thanking me for shopping at Zappos.

Learning-by-Doing 62

Learning-by-Doing Price Bottom-up Finance 62

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 28, 2016

Virtually every 21 st century business scandal is reducible to a morality tale of a technology that allows us to do things we couldn’t before, coupled with major institutional failures that were enabled by failures of omission and commission of corporate leaders. In most companies, we have not.

Ethics 9

Ethics CFO Technology Learning-by-Doing 9

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 26, 2014

We have reviewed hundreds of corporate announcements and websites, interviewed numerous leadership experts, and conducted an analysis of CEO changes and successions over the past five years at S&P 500 and Global 100 companies. Attuned to the times, he or she has a stronger chance to uncover and release a company’s latent potential.

CEO 13

CEO Contingency Plans Telecommunications Planning 13

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2014

CEOs of midsized companies who make big bets can lose the farm. The executives of Fortune 500 companies might be able to lose the same bet with impunity, and the founders of venture capital-funded startups are only renting the farm (with the VC’s money) anyway. The project budget paid for the software and not a lot more.

CFO 8

CFO Venture Funding IPO Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 23, 2012

Just ask Gene Morphis, ex-CFO of clothing retailer Francesca's. He was fired shortly thereafter for the offense of "improperly communicating company information through social media.". without any compliance process or technology in place.". The risks and penalties are real. You will likely see thousands of them.

Compliance 15

Compliance Media Compliance Officer Policies 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 26, 2013

More humbly, incompatible communications networks and a less-than-proactive IT department drove a company''s supply chain and procurement teams to use LinkedIns, private Tweets and cut-and-paste Sharepoints to quickly coordinate go-to-market product changes with key vendors. Why Can''t a CIO Be More Like a CFO?

Media 8

Media Power CIO Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

It’s no wonder, then, that more than 90% of B2B sellers have turned to content marketing to help regain access to buyers in the early stages of the purchase process. Consider Xerox Technology Business, a division that provides enterprise printing capabilities to various industries, including schools.

B2B 8

B2B Content Marketing Consensus 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2014

At many companies we work with, analytics becomes the connective tissue between the different visions of what drives results emerging from marketing and finance. At MarketShare, we’ve seen these partnerships play out in a change in who’s sitting at the table during discussions with major brands about advanced marketing analytics technology.

Finance 13

Finance Marketing P&L ROI 13

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Better insight from customers can drive serious growth in your company, at least according to a recent study by IBM of over 1700 CEOs. In fact, recent research [PDF] conducted by the CMO Council, suggests that this process should start with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Find Common Ground.

CIO 8

CIO Chief Information Officer Norton Technology 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 28, 2018

The company’s cost of new customer acquisition had ballooned from 5 cents to $50. Despite the fact that the company enjoyed massive brand awareness, escalating acquisition costs were destroying margins. He also relieved the marketing team of many of the manual and process-driven tasks they’d been doing.

Retail 8

Retail Audience Budgeting Advertising 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

If you’re not turning your company into a “math house” you’re headed for serious trouble. Every industry will soon be driven by digitization and every winning company will be using algorithms, or mathematical rules for processing information, to shape the end-to-end customer experience. Insight Center.

Short-term 8

Short-term How To Venture Capitalist CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 15, 2013

For a brief period, as they were being built into the infrastructure of commerce, all these technologies opened opportunities for forward-looking companies to gain real advantages. Company leaders have quoted and lauded Carr whenever they''ve needed to justify their hesitation to create strong, progressive IT positions.

CEO 8

CEO CIO Technology CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

With a background in both strategy and finance, Sheila was an up-and-coming manager at a well-known consumer products company. Through this process, Sheila realized that while her boss and others had probably acted poorly, she was partly at fault for not managing the relationships and politics more effectively.

Career 10

Career Examples Supply Chain CFO 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 25, 2014

Thirty-one years later, I became Chairman and CEO of a global Fortune 300 company. In order for a company to access the best possible talent they must access the broadest possible talent pool. Born in India, I arrived in the U.S. How did this happen? I was fortunate, to be sure.

Team 12

Team Diversity CFO TSR 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 4, 2013

A question that could tell you a lot about the company''s potential under this leader. How about this, the boardroom version of Sophie''s Choice: "Who would you rather fire, the CFO or the CSO?". First off, if the company doesn''t have a CSO and the chief executive thinks the "S" has something to do with sustainability, just fire him.

CEO 8

CEO CFO Offshoring Cost 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 19, 2018

Why is that some companies have great heads of strategy who make an outstanding contribution to their companies while others don’t? The existing management team had not addressed a range of issues, including required changes to store sizes, the product range, and which geographies the company focused on.

Strategy 8

Strategy Chief Financial Officer Short-term Chief Information Officer 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2016

But for too many companies, analytics is an unsolved puzzle with the pieces flung all over the floor. In research spanning 20 years, we closely examined 36 companies in eight industries to find out why companies are struggling. This is about more than technology. But that is not always the case.

CEO 8

CEO Competitive Advantage ROI CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 28, 2015

This all-too-familiar story illustrates the challenge facing companies — especially customer-facing companies. Coordinating the infrastructure, technology, and messaging in a way that appears seamless and fluid to the customer is, to be blunt, a logistical nightmare.

COO 8

COO Planning Metrics Call Center 8