Harvard Business Review

JUNE 18, 2014

but on the whole, the practice is not a helpful way of building a sustainable business that is geared to succeed in the long-term. By now it is well understood that the short-term focus by shareholders on quarterly earnings can impair firms’ ability to create long-term value.

Short-term 8

Short-term Long-term How To CFO 8

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

AUGUST 5, 2016

Under this financing structure, the company contracts to buy kilowatts, not the turbines and panels. Second, signing long-term power agreements for 15 to 20 years is hard for any company to swallow, and they often struggle with how to handle the accounting (is the contract a lease? Get early buy-in.

Energy 8

Energy Industry Finance CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 4, 2011

Roughly, I'd suggest that they're strategy, marketing, finance, and the rest of the drear, dismal, passionless stuff that makes most of us snooze through meetings and dread the arrival of Monday morning, dilberting our joint prosperity, perpetually disappointing our ever-more apathetic customers, and gleefully embezzling from the future.

Organization 15

Organization Finance Senge Long-term 15

Strategy Driven

OCTOBER 21, 2011

Twelve cases are written as narratives with multiple teaching points, but without a focus on a particular business decision; the remaining twenty-three cases were written around specific conundrums related to strategy, operations, finance, marketing, leadership, culture, human resources, organizational design, business model, and growth.

Learning-by-Doing 62

Learning-by-Doing Price Bottom-up Finance 62

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 18, 2018

It had been a long day at the company’s Birmingham, England, headquarters, and in the early evening the two were going over the evaluations of each of Lance’s direct reports. Lance was struck by what he saw in CFO Damon Ewen’s file. His CFO and his sales chief had been at loggerheads for a while.

Case Study 13

Case Study Team CFO Merchandising 13

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 25, 2014

Nance Dicciani, to head our European operations in 1999 (first in the senior ranks in our industry to hold such a senior position); a Venezuelan (Rueben Salazar) and Korean (YiHyon Paik) to head our operations in Japan; an African-American (Charles Hill) as CFO of our subsidiary in Japan; and the list goes on and on.

Team 12

Team Diversity CFO TSR 12

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2015

This comes at a significant financial and productivity cost to all organizations, as demonstrated by research in corporate settings : Onboarding an external hire can cost up to twice the departing executive’s salary, and the time it takes for an external hire to become productive is twice as long as for someone hired from within.

Development 8

Development Mentor COO CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 30, 2015

To learn more about this commonly used business term, I spoke with Joe Knight, author of the HBR TOOLS: Return on Investment and co-founder and owner of www.business-literacy.com. You may be wondering if this is the same as discount rate and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, explains Knight. Finance & Accounting Tool.

Cost of Capital 8

Cost of Capital Cost Finance Discount 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 30, 2013

And while it has certainly burned many buyers of Amazon shares through the years — Amazon's stock price took a decade to get back to its 2009 peak — the long-run returns have been spectacular. Hansen, Herminia Ibarra, and Urs Peyer latest ranking of long-run CEO performance in HBR , Amazon's Jeff Bezos now ranks No.

Training 10

Training Bond Christensen Long-term 10

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Australia’s main CFO forum, the G100 , has shown interest in the topic and even published a paper offering broad support for integrated reporting, arguing that “corporate reporting reform is underway and CFOs should seize the opportunity to drive the reporting agenda.”

Human Capital 8

Human Capital CFO Banking Report 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Your CFO and finance team can take a leadership role here. On the macro level, you can estimate the value of achieving customer loyalty leadership in terms of market share gains or revenue growth. A clear link to financial and strategic outcomes. Your customer metrics must correlate with financial and strategic goals.

Incentives 10

Incentives Sample Customer Loyalty Metrics 10

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 18, 2018

Then he had to believe that not only was it important enough to try, but also — through a series of trials and errors — actually possible to sustain over the long-term. “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.

Banking 15

Banking Conference CEO Bottom-up 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 14, 2015

The company’s executives said that to help finance the plan, McDonald’s would increase refranchising (turning company-owned restaurants into franchises), take on more debt (even at the risk of lowering its bond rating ), and find $300 million to cut in general and administrative expenses.

Price 8

Price Franchising Short-term CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

There was even a dot in Samoa—a long way from the company’s Berlin office. She explained that BrainGame’s current backers had been asking about growth plans, and Lena was pitching new groups for a new round of financing in two weeks. Maybe a slightly messier process could work in the long term. The numbers are all there.

Company 9

Company CFO Proposal Engineering 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Lotta Tindal, the chief marketing officer for the Dutch hospitality group Ervaring Hotels & Resorts, hadn’t wanted to come to the presentation, but Gerard Bakker, Ervaring’s CFO, had twisted her arm. How long will it take you to get those traffic numbers up?” But that offer won’t stand for long.

Case Study 8

Case Study Travel Hotels NPV 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 9, 2015

It could be about process — like how long the talks should take, and how the other side tries to involve stakeholders — which still gives you context that might prove useful. The conversation needn’t be personal, either. Making smart small talk “is where the great negotiators really shine,” says Wheeler.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain How To Price Case Study 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 18, 2011

There are many moving parts in people's career decisions — family, the economy, finances — and you may simply not know what the next five years holds. Butler suggests you avoid naming a particular role and answer the question in terms of learning and development: What capabilities will you have wanted to build in five years?

P&L 18

P&L Committee Career Case Study 18