Opinion
This article is written by former CFO Kim Vogel, who currently teaches in Stanford University's continuing education program. The article points out that CFOs can more effectively motivate teams by leveraging stories when conveying complex financial information. Although every CFO's story is unique, almost all narratives can be categorized into five classic archetypes: rags to riches, the quest, rebirth, the voyage and return, and the hero's journey. Using Fortune 500 companies such as Walmart, Amazon, Apple, Hasbro, and Best Buy as examples, the article demonstrates how these archetypes are applied in practice.
Facing slowing growth, persistent inflation, and stagflation risks, CFOs in companies without a dedicated pricing team must take direct control of pricing strategy. The article emphasizes three key elements—cost, competition, and customer value—and recommends leveraging financial discipline, data-driven decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration to transform pricing into a profit protection tool, while preparing for sustained market turbulence over the next 10-20 years.
With the rise of Agentic AI in 2025, CFOs need to understand its autonomous decision-making capabilities, collaboration models with RPA, and the strategic and ethical issues in implementation.
The adoption of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) has surged, but its tax treatment varies by state, often leading to overpayment or underpayment. This article analyzes the tax complexities of IaaS, provides four strategic recommendations and a five-item action checklist for financial leaders, emphasizing the importance of proper allocation of cross-state usage and documentation.
The corporate risk landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, requiring finance teams to expand their responsibilities and master key skills such as analysis, strategic thinking, communication, technology, regulatory knowledge, and adaptability to strengthen risk oversight, shifting risk management from reactive response to proactive strategy.
Since January of this year, the United States has imposed new tariffs on major trading partners such as Canada, Mexico, and China, and has announced 25% tariffs on aluminum, steel, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and more, leaving businesses facing difficulties in both short-term and long-term planning. This article proposes four strategies, including leveraging trade data, transforming trade operations, diversifying supply chains, and conducting return-on-investment analysis, and introduces various tariff relief and recovery mechanisms to help businesses crack the tariff puzzle.
S&P data shows that most debt management operations fail to avoid bankruptcy and often harm creditor recovery rates. This article analyzes the appeal of LMEs, their hidden costs, and the keys to successful implementation, emphasizing the importance of running operational restructuring in parallel with financial maneuvers.
This article is written by Eric Russell, CFO of Studio Enterprise, based on his personal experiences, exploring the often-overlooked growth elements in the CFO role. The article points out that success lies not only in mastering financial and compliance skills, but also in balancing personal expertise with organizational needs, proactively filling business gaps, and deeply understanding how operations impact financial results. The author emphasizes that CFOs need to consciously plan their time allocation, build a supportive team, and maintain keen insight into business dynamics to achieve mutual growth for both the individual and the organization.
Only 27% of finance teams have fully migrated to the cloud, with most still operating in a hybrid mode. Facing the complexity of ERP migration, CFOs need to plan comprehensively from strategy, selection, to personnel training. Based on insightsoftware research, this article offers three practical recommendations.
In 2025, the FinOps field is undergoing profound transformation. Enterprises are no longer solely focused on cost reduction but are leveraging FinOps to enhance agility and innovation. Based on industry research, this article proposes five trends: shifting from cost optimization to innovation, strengthening cloud governance to address legacy issues, AI and predictive analytics leading decision-making, the rise of industry-specific FinOps strategies, and managed FinOps services as a new option. These trends will help CFOs and IT leaders maximize value in complex cloud environments.