FP&ASenior Executive
August 11, 2022

Business Partnering Must Be a Full-Time Job

To prepare for increasing demand for business decision-making support, FP&A needs to review its business partnering model. When the business landscape is foggy, FP&A shines. Facing a period of economic and market volatility, FP&A leaders are preparing to provide more hands-on support to the business: A recent survey of NeuGroup’s Mega-Cap and Large-Cap FP&A peer groups showed that 100% of members anticipate (or are already sensing) a rise in demand for help from business leaders. Operational leaders are going to ask a lot more…
Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
June 30, 2022

How Treasury Steps into the Strategic Limelight

Rising rates and a looming recession provide treasury with an opportunity to elevate its profile and and become a leader in board-level conversations. Tough economic conditions have historically highlighted the critical role treasury plays as the champion of corporate liquidity. This happened during 2008-09 and will likely happen again if credit and cash flows begin to contract. This is not new territory for treasurers, many of whom have already evolved to serve new and broader constituents, becoming more strategic, consultative…
Senior ExecutiveTechnology
May 19, 2022

Stories and Foresight Built on Data: What a CFO Wants From Treasury

A seasoned CFO shares thoughts on automation and how treasury can elevate itself to become a strategic partner.The path of treasurers who are determined to walk the walk of becoming strategic business partners by devoting more time to value-adding activities and less to tactical tasks runs through automation that frees up bandwidth for intense data analysis. In making that point at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Mid-Cap Treasurers sponsored by HighRadius, Jeff Martini, interim CFO of Bishop Lifting Products,…
FXSenior Executive
May 5, 2022

Sharpen the Focus: Fostering More Productive FX Meetings

Approaches to more productive meetings include highlighting world events, more detailed program updates and updating dashboards. After a recent quarterly risk meeting, a senior leader gave this advice to one FX risk manager to improve the productivity of future meetings: Highlight only new developments and events, come with any specific asks and leave anything else to pre-meeting reading materials. Up to this point, much of the two-hour meetings consisted of a comprehensive update on everything the FX team had done…
Senior ExecutiveTechnology
April 21, 2022

AI-Enabled Analytics Drives Faster, Better Decision-Making

Author Larry Maisel says advanced analytics fueled by AI helps finance teams explain why something happened, what may happen next and what action to take to prepare for it.NeuGroup managing director Nilly Essaides recently interviewed Larry Maisel, an analytics expert and president of DecisionVu, about his recently published book, AI-Enabled Analytics: A Roadmap for Becoming an Analytics Powerhouse. The book, co-authored with Robert J. Zwerling and Jesper H. Sorensen, focuses on how to leverage advanced analytics to drive unbiased and…
FXSenior Executive
March 24, 2022

Turn Down the Volume: Cutting Through ‘Noise’ in FX Hedging

NeuGroup members share their common sources of unexpected volatility in cash flow and balance sheet hedging programs.One goal of a foreign exchange hedging program, one FX risk manager said at a recent NeuGroup meeting, is to minimize the risk that senior executives will face questions during quarterly earnings calls about the impact of currency on results. But uncertainty sparked by global issues like the war in Ukraine, inflation and fallout from the pandemic means this isn’t always possible. Those issues…
Cash & Working CapitalSenior Executive
May 27, 2021

No Walk in the Park: Overcoming Resistance To Embrace a Cash Culture

One treasurer’s rocky quest to shift his company’s focus from P&L to cash.When one NeuGroup member saw an opportunity to elevate treasury’s role within the company while focusing its overall view of cash, he took it—but the journey was no walk in the park. He encountered some resistance from leadership and the FP&A team, but was able to work with them to reconcile two methods for cash flow forecasting and take a more active approach to cash management.The member, the treasurer at…
BankingCapital MarketsSenior Executive
March 16, 2021

No Sale: Convertibles at Great Prices Fail to Impress IG Corporates

Companies rated investment grade expressed reluctance to issue convertible bonds, despite favorable conditions. It can be a nonstarter to raise the topic of convertible bonds with treasurers at investment-grade companies that can already issue debt with very low interest rates and don’t want their stock diluted when investors convert bonds to equity. But many NeuGroup members whose companies have high credit ratings, including some at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Capital Markets, say all their banks have pitched convertibles.…
ESGSenior Executive
August 6, 2020

Treasury’s Key Role as Corporates Support Black Communities

Treasurers weigh investments, deposits and transactions that will benefit Black communities.Treasury teams within the NeuGroup Network are playing a key role at companies that are stepping up efforts to support Black communities and Black-owned financial institutions. NeuGroup members discussed their initiatives and options at a recent Virtual Interactive Session (VIS) that followed a webinar in which Netflix detailed its commitment to allocate 2% of cash holdings—initially up to $100 million—into financial institutions and organizations that directly support Black communities in the US.Director of…
Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
June 23, 2020

Juneteenth and Beyond: NeuGroup Member Companies Take Action on Racial Justice

Treasurers at major retailers discuss what’s been done so far and what lies ahead. Calls for major societal change in the wake of the killing of George Floyd have sparked many corporations, including NeuGroup member companies, to take a range of actions in support of change and racial justice. For some, those actions included the observation of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the US. At a NeuGroup virtual meeting for retailers last Friday on changing regulation and business norms…