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Business magnate and investor Rupert Murdoch once said, “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” Advancing interconnectedness will also play a critical role in a rapid paced future. Companies must develop global strategies to help them expand their operations abroad and remain competitive in a changing marketplace at home, to gain access to talent, technology and millions of new consumers. The steady rate of innovation will also remain a vital influence as we advance into unfamiliar territory. As I describe in my book, Outside In, Inside Out,…

Last week I spoke to a client who runs 300 construction companies. They have been around for over 70 years, operating in 12 cities and manage multi-million dollar contracts each year. Do you know what they don't have? In-house legal team. They fired them two years ago. However, they maintain full SOC2 compliance and an improved audit trail compared to before. Please listen to me before closing this article. This is not a reckless startup. It is the construction of Yates. It's a company that saved $15,000 a month after eliminating the legal department. They handle contracts faster, have fewer…

The term “finance transformation” appears in many white papers and high-tech vendor blogs and refers to process, systems and organizational changes at scale. In fact, it is often portrayed as being led by a change in technology that allows for data-driven decision-making or a single source of truth. However, Chad Wonderling of Zone & Co. For us, financial change is a clear effort. “For us who live it, financial transformation is very realistic and very operational,” says Wonderling, Zone's CFO since March 2024. As strange things explains,Transformation is about partnership, relevance, and enablement. In the next interview, Wonderling discusses the…

CEO turnover rate broke records in 2024, up over 20% at S&P 500 companies compared to the previous year. In the middle of 2025, it doesn't look that good. Early indicators point to benchmark indexes that exceed those numbers this year as CEO tenure continues to maintain a short-term pressure, increased volatility, increased cultural change and a rapid pace of change.Corporate Board Members We asked nearly 100 board members about the increased risk for some of the largest public companies in the United States (over $1 billion in annual revenues). The response was surprisingly unflinching confidence.On the one hand, directors…

Showing leadership during times of uncertainty is an ongoing challenge for the Corporate Committee. Blake Irving, former CEO of Godaddy, who is currently on the board of directors of Autodesk, Docusign and Ziprecruiter, recently discussed the challenges the board is facing and what you can do to make the ILEADership Summit in Morgan Stanley, New York, at the Rouge Media Group 8th Annual Summit, held on September 10th at the 8th ILEADERSHIP Summit of Rouge Media Group.Below is an edited excerpt from Irving's keynote speech at the summit.”First, AI is planning to improve revenue for some companies. It puts stress…

Few leaders shaped the landscape of corporate governance as profoundly as Mary Jo White. As the 31st chair of the SEC, White championed accountability and shareholder engagement to set key reforms in motion, including the Universal Proxy Card rule requiring both management and shareholder nominees on a single ballot. Her regulatory tenure ultimately reshaped corporate elections, encouraging broader participation and transparency.Now a partner in Debevoise & Plimpton’s litigation department, she counsels boards on high-stakes governance matters, earning a reputation among clients as a strategic, practical and trusted voice in boardrooms. In a recent interview, White shared insights about her tenure…

The importance of competitiveness appears to have reappeared in the dictionary of global corporate culture. I don't know if that is due to all the recent visibility into tariffs and international competition, or because the impact of “long-term corporate covid” has finally faded. For some reason, I see more and more people talking about the challenge of reestablishing a competitive work ethic to fully participate in new economic opportunities around the world. Unfortunately, these conversations revolve around working hours too often. European venture capitalists have recently speculated that perhaps continental startups should adopt the 9-9-6 model promoted by Chinese companies,…

I'm Gen X'er, who started my marketing career in Silicon Valley. I lead my team through the rise of SaaS, the pivots to Video, the heyday of performance marketing, and now through the Ai-Everywhere Era. They also stare at more dashboards than humans should. So when the CEO says he's ready to let go of the CMO, I ask if they're firing the real issue or if they're the only person in C-Suite without the tools to protect themselves. Let's start with the uncomfortable facts. CMO Tenure stubbornly drags C-Suite averages and remains the shortest of the common company roles.…

Many public companies say they are straying to the Trump administration's tariff push, but they haven't lie. Negotiating cost concessions from vendors, enacting parts resources, supply chain efficiency measurements, tightening cost controls, increasing production of domestically made products, and increasing prices for some finished products are all part of the company's game plan. Increases tariff induction costs It also encourages CFOs to adjust their capital allocation, often causing repeated projects, Michael Perica (pictured above) tells the CFO of Rimini Street, an enterprise IT support and services company specializing in large ERP systems. Certainly, the fluid trade policy environment presents a…

Building a thriving company in today’s complex financial landscape requires a delicate balance between data-driven decisions and people-centered relationships. This episode dives into that challenge as we hear from Matt James, CFO and chief acquisition officer of Oakbridge Insurance, a rapidly growing agency that has risen to be among the top 50 US brokerages. Matt discusses Oakbridge’s impressive trajectory since its launch in 2021, emphasizing Oakbridge’s unique approach of blending “small-town values” with corporate efficiency, and how he navigates the dual role of financial leader and M&A strategist. We explore his career path, from history major to finance executive, and…