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Inflation, hospital spikes and rising pharmaceutical prices are rapidly eroding human capital budgets. For CFOs who are already under pressure to cut costs, healthcare benefits present both challenges and opportunities. In fact, 54% of CFOs surveyed by Chief Executive Group and Roundstone Insurance for the 2025 Health Plan Preparation Survey were top priority this year, with nearly half of that (48%), with health costs at the top of that list. Over 80% agreed that rising healthcare costs are undermining organizational revenue. Is there a practical and strategic framework to help CFOs regain financial management and provide benefits plans that truly…

A long C-Suite career? check. Experience with the board of directors of a public company? check? Excellent interpersonal skills and references? check.These are the types of skills and backgrounds you expect to find in perspective board members. But they are hardly enough. At least not if you're good at getting the board sheet you might want.In today's competitive landscape, board members of public companies must be strategic about how they present themselves online, especially on LinkedIn, to remain visible and attractive to new board opportunities. “There are only 30,000 board seats in public companies,” said Tate Purcell, a longtime director…

Twenty years as CFO, David Brosma believes there are fundamental business principles that will help businesses thrive throughout the period of external challenges and market or regulatory changes. As a result, according to Brosma, CFOs need to keep the company's focus simple, even as the world becomes more and more complicated. Through positions in high-growth technology companies such as WP Engine and Rackspace, as well as publicly traded multinational companies including Valero Energy, Brosma has discovered that success often depends on two key factors. Customers and employees. Last December, Brosma was appointed CFO of Smarsh, a Portland, Oregon-based company, to…

The era of merciless corporate expansion has ended, and is revealed by rising interest rates and technological disruptions. This is a shift that undermines all the cost mentality that has shaped corporate America over the past decade. Survival now calls for businesses to relentlessly prioritize profitability, strategic focus and sustainable financial management over blind expansion, and change the rules of successful CEOs.For years, businesses were supported by cheap capital, paying some attention to financial health, and often prioritizing growth over profitability and cash flow. Venture capital and low interest rate loans have promoted a culture of relentless growth, which measured…

Conagra Brands CFO David Marberger says the past few months have been the most challenging period of his 22-year career as CFO, including Covid and Financial Crisis. why? An unprecedented level of uncertainty. Very sticky inflation in the food industry. Customs policy. “Food companies are taking a hit from so many different angles,” Marberger said. chief executive officer Editor Dan Big Man at the opening keynote speech at the CFO Leadership Conference held in Boston on Tuesday. For Conagra's industry, American food manufacturing – the stickiness of inflation has been a major headache. While Marberger calls this inflation a “supercycle,”…

Governance failures can be caused by opaque jargon and can be triggered with poor accountability and overt fraud. An example is the infamous, failed JP Morgan hedge strategy in 2012. This is called the “London Whale,” with the bank losing more than $6 billion and government fines exceeding $1 billion. A transparent, outspoken, unusually self-critical internal investigation conducted for the Board and a 2013 parliamentary investigation by the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committees identified a massive deal catastrophe that was not a deliberate managerial deception but was the result of a disruption in governance over terminology.On January 26, 2012,…

Recent changes in tariffs have business executives searching for how to best respond. Yet one potential solution has existed for over 90 years—and was adopted by Congress in the 1930s response to the last major trade war.  If you can qualify your business within a Foreign Trade Zone (“FTZ”) or utilize a service provider such as third party logistics provider that is located in an FTZ, you may qualify for deferred or reduced duty payments, while simultaneously making your supply chain more efficient materially reducing your U.S. Customs compliance costs, as well as a host of other benefits.What is a…

As AI changes the world around us, the big challenge that leaders face is to bring their organizations into one part of storms and tumultuousness. There is something paradox here because organizations need to change to survive in a changing world. If so, what will remain constant on that journey? What is it that unifies businesses and other organizations from time to time, every day, every year, and every year, and every year, and every day, with changing market conditions, physical exercise, staff turnover, and even changes in names and ownership? What currently means decisions that will affect the future…

The era of merciless corporate expansion has ended, and is revealed by rising interest rates and technological disruptions. This is a shift that undermines all the cost mentality that has shaped corporate America over the past decade. Survival now calls for businesses to relentlessly prioritize profitability, strategic focus and sustainable financial management over blind expansion, and change the rules of successful CEOs.For years, businesses were supported by cheap capital, paying some attention to financial health, and often prioritizing growth over profitability and cash flow. Venture capital and low interest rate loans have promoted a culture of relentless growth, which measured…

Editor's Note: For most CEOs and CFOs of middle market companies, landing a seat on a public or private board is a great career move and a lucrative and exciting way to get decades of experience to work in a whole new way. But will you make that happen? It's not easy. To help, we are launching a new occasional series with practical tips and ideas. And if you're serious about trying to get on the board, I recommend looking at the Sister Publications of CFO Leadership. Corporate board members, This offers a high-value online learning program to give you…