Supply-chain disruptions cut about 7 percent of a firm's shareholder value, according to research by Accenture cited in a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report on supply-chain resiliency.
When economic hard times hit in 2007-2008, CFOs and finance departments felt pressure to improve their organizations' working capital positions. The longer companies could hold on to cash, the more liquid they were, and the safer they felt. Paying bills quickly meant dipping into cash reserves, possibly taking away money from new-product development, mergers and acquisitions, marketing, or anything else that might drive top-line revenue. It was either that or be forced to rely for growth on expensive external financing. Everyone knew that when it came to days payable outstanding, longer was better.
Consumer-oriented collaboration and file-sharing tools that have gained popularity as the workforce becomes increasingly mobile are customarily cheap, even free, for employees to use. But they could be costing businesses plenty, a recent study suggests.
Matt Fates envisions a world where no one talks about Big Data anymore. Using the totality of an enterprise's data to make forward-looking business decisions, develop new products, and improve marketing efficiency will be so common that there won't be a name for it. But getting to that point, in his view, will involve a cultural shift; a change of consciousness.
Although the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been in effect for 35 years as of Dec. 19, many companies still have a long way to go in complying with it. Indeed, 44.6 percent of professionals say either that their companies are not making improvements to prevent and detect corrupt activity or that they don't know if their company is doing so, according to a survey by Deloitte.
When he was asked if Big Data is just a buzzword, a marketing tool vendors use to sell more software to CFOs, Justin Borgman, the founder and chief executive officer of Hadapt, a data-analysis software vendor, answered honestly: "Yes. It's an excuse to sell you more stuff." However, he added, "it's stuff you'll eventually need."
Ask mostly any CFO, and he or she will tell you that they are very involved in operations. But often such involvement is like having a second, lower-paying job: you can't afford to divert too much focus away from your top breadwinner.
Don't give up on China, despite its short-term political and economic difficulties. So says Ted Fishman, author of "China, Inc., How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World" and former Chicago Mercantile Exchange trader.
Wal-Mart has long had what is virtually beyond question the largest retail supply chain, as measured by number of suppliers, global reach, volume of material, and overall spend on supplier goods. Wal-Mart also has been touted as an innovator in supply-chain management, but it's more accurate to say it uses its sheer size and market power to manipulate the supply chain.
CFOs make all kinds of investments, but how about investing in more down time for employees? That may sound like a recipe for creating a bunch of slackers, but in fact the idea of optimal slack in a system is as fundamental to talent optimization as it is to engineering. Planned and mindful slacking off may help optimize talent performance.
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