Lead on Purpose

DECEMBER 6, 2010

Accounting/Finance: This group is often completely ignored by product management. Smart product managers know the value of having allies in the CFO’s office. When the PM makes a concerted effort to have a strong relationship with sales, their product success will increase.

Productivity 182

Productivity Products Management Leadership 182

Marshall Goldsmith

FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Co-founder of Rose Park Advisors—Disruptive Innovation Fund. A leading thinker on strategy and breakthrough innovation. Formerly a leader in the automotive, retail, restaurant, media innovation and consulting industries. Darek Lenart – Senior VP HR, Finance MasterCard. Leading innovator in HR for over 25 years.

Executive Coaching 70

Executive Coaching CEO Magazine Banking 70

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2016

The 1990s saw the rise of the strategic CFO, and more recently many companies have created a chief strategy officer (CSO) position. Such friction is destructive — and a huge missed opportunity, because the CFO and the strategy head are far more effective when they collaborate. There are two reasons for this.

Strategy 8

Strategy CFO Finance Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 6, 2013

But this makes the still lingering CMO-CFO disconnect even more significant, as both executives are now stewards of that critical corporate data. We found that we shared a passion for finance, the stock market, innovation, and marketing (and, candidly, politics). Figure out the definitions. Understand both sides of risk.

CFO 8

CFO Advertising Finance Marketing 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

This notion, that risk is a desirable feature, can seem like sacrilege to anyone who’s taken an introductory finance course. CFOs of these companies themselves admit that they cannot justify their market capitalizations based on traditional metrics. Traditional companies therefore rely on two strategies.

Report 8

Report GAAP Net Present Value CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 1, 2018

” In finance, for example, that might mean believing — based on no evidence — that only MBA graduates from an elite university are likely to succeed at their jobs. And sameness blocks performance and innovation. Diversity, on the other hand, spurs innovation. Hardly anyone raised their hand.

Power 12

Power Management Diversity CFO 12

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. Insight Center.

Industry 12

Industry Short-term Planning Long-term 12

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 16, 2012

This raises the question of whether retaining strategic cash makes economic sense and should be viewed as a legitimate corporate finance tool in today's environment. Often citing the maxim that "cash is king", CFOs know that strategic cash can enhance shareholder value in various ways. Arguments for Strategic Cash. It can: Save Taxes.

Company 13

Company Cost of Capital Finance Long-term 13

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 25, 2015

What they don’t do well enough is reinvent and innovate. Sure, there are exceptions who are both visionary CEOs and innovators — Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, for example — but there are very few companies that can stomach that sort of leadership. So if the CEO isn’t someone who can innovate, then who should?

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur CTO Business Model CEO 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 6, 2011

Process champions must have them ready for the day when the CEO or CFO effectively says, "Show me the money.". Engage the finance organization. Finance was on board at the company in our story. The system must be reviewed and validated by finance. Brad Power is a consultant and researcher in process innovation.

Process 15

Process Six Sigma Finance Short-term 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2018

It’s a solution we discovered during our research in India, and involves breakthrough innovations that drive down health care delivery costs so much that the margins from serving those who can pay is more than enough to cover the costs of those who cannot. It also pursued process innovations that resulted in cost savings.

Health Care 8

Health Care Insurance Cost Price 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 discussions with a number of trusted advisors, she realized that her work of the past several years had given her fantastic contacts, experience, and credibility in the innovation world.

Career 10

Career Examples Supply Chain CFO 10

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

For example, Tim Sheahan, Chief Financial Officer for a large division of a multi-national corporation, aspires to become CFO of a Fortune 100 company in the future. At meetings of the corporation's finance managers, Tim makes a point to spend time with lower-level staff members to establish a personal bond.

Execution 14

Execution Team Chief Financial Officer Finance 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Education crowdfunder DonorsChoose.org, which finances classroom-based projects, is a good model of success. Good Shepherd’s CFO, Greghan Fischer, for example, saw strong potential in Yan Li, a quietly competent member of her finance team. Fischer had Li practice leading budget meetings and provided feedback.

Development 8

Development Mentor COO CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 23, 2014

When I do get a name, it often differs depending on who I asked—a marketing executive points to one person, while finance identifies someone else. The CAO should be under an executive that naturally spans all of the business units that have analytical needs, such as the Chief Strategy Officer, the CFO, and the COO. That isn’t good.

Company 8

Company COO Information Technology CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 23, 2014

” When I do get a name, it often differs depending on who I asked—a marketing executive points to one person, while finance identifies someone else. The CAO should be under an executive that naturally spans all of the business units that have analytical needs, such as the Chief Strategy Officer, the CFO, and the COO.

Company 8

Company COO CFO Analysis 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

The question is how to equip employees with the skills to handle complexities such as creating innovative solutions to emergent problems, understanding new markets, and pushing back on the "status quo." At Allianz, the program was initiated and supported by the company CFO. However, the core skills they need are different.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Company Six Sigma Franchising 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

The same investment logic holds for Apple's innovation ecosystem; the flow and fortune of its third-party apps development alone would yield valuable insight. But those are exactly the kinds of values conversations (privacy, exclusivity, fairness, and intellectual property) innovative organizations need to have.

Hedge 15

Hedge Core Competence CFO ROI 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 30, 2013

Well, he's a hedge fund veteran who has always taken a skeptical view of Wall Street, treating it more as a loopy rich uncle than the efficient information processor of standard finance theory. Clayton Christensen has long complained that standard financial metrics can be enemies of innovation and growth. Nobody complains.

Training 10

Training Bond Christensen Long-term 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 18, 2018

“I’m not sure when I first asked if I thought it would be successful,” said Hickox, now CFO of Independent Bank in McKinney Texas. “The culture in the bank’s accounting and finance team has changed totally since I got here,” she said. “I learned I needed to speak up.

Banking 15

Banking Conference CEO Bottom-up 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 23, 2012

But according to Dina Dublon, former CFO at JPMorgan Chase and currently HBS professor of management practice, the empowerment and deployment of embedded risk managers was part of formal risk management at the bank well before the financial crisis. But was it? But limiting the downside does not mean inhibiting risk-taking.

Risk Management 9

Risk Management CIO Management Banking 9

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 9, 2015

That positive, innovative approach is not only far more likely to lead you to a beneficial solution, but also to a place of trust. The winning company would not only design and install the project, but also finance it and own it for 20 years, selling power to the residents at a discounted rate.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain How To Price Case Study 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2017

Employees and other constituents should expect HR to hold leaders accountable for fiduciary and strategic risks, just as a CFO would be expected to hold leaders accountable for a risky pattern of using corporate funds or resources. Are these acceptable growing pains? In one word: No.

Compliance 11

Compliance Hedge Human Capital Finance 11

Harvard Business Review

MAY 14, 2012

People often ask me why it's so hard for big companies to be innovative. But that doesn't mean innovation can't happen, even in the biggest, most entrenched firm. By establishing the Innovation Office , and empowering me with resources to run it, he sent a crucial signal to the organization that innovation is on top of his agenda.

Innovation 11

Innovation CFO Learning-by-Doing Brainstorming 11

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 9, 2010

Back at Calidad de Vida's corporate offices that afternoon, Gloria asked Daniel Hernandez, her CFO, and Diana Correa, her deputy director, to join her in the company's lone conference room, a windowless space made cheerful by photos of smiling elderly people on the walls and the same bright green chairs found in the centers.

Case Study 13

Case Study Franchising Health Care Follow-up 13

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 7, 2011

The wishes of a functional head such as CFO, CMO, or company President won out over a Process Owner of Order-to-Cash. How many times have you heard "I'm a finance person" or "I'm a marketer"?) Brad Power ( bradfordpower@gmail.com ) is a consultant and researcher in process innovation.

Process 15

Process Champy Competitive Advantage Hammer 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 22, 2014

company takes on the legal identity of foreign subsidiary, usually in order to reduce its taxes — has become about as controversial as corporate finance topics get. We have some of our largest and most innovative companies doing this. I was with the CFO of Apple the other day, and they’ve got $140 billion of cash trapped overseas.

Globalization 8

Globalization CEO System Offshoring 8