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…
COVID-19Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
April 9, 2020

Treasurers Rise to the Challenge of Managing Teams Remotely

One treasurer shares how he keeps staff united and upbeat—and offers his take on leadership during a crisis.The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many treasurers to confront the challenges of managing finance teams remotely. At a recent NeuGroup virtual meeting of mega-cap companies, one treasurer shared his approach to keeping his team cohesive, as well as an observation about how people perform during a crisis. Together apart. To build a sense of togetherness and maintain unity when everyone is in a…
COVID-19FunctionalRisk ManagementSenior Executive
April 2, 2020

Closing a Quarter for SOX Can be Difficult in New, Remote World

An internal auditor describes what his company has done to successfully close a quarter when some physical tasks can’t be done. Part of Sarbanes-Oxley, the internal controls act released in 2002, requires a corporate’s chief executive and financial officers to certify financial and other information contained in the issuer’s quarterly and annual reports. But what happens in a crisis? What if some of that info requires someone in place to record inventory or in-person meetings when employee movement is heavily…
Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
March 26, 2020

DIY: Forming Mentoring Circles That Lead to Sponsorship

More takeaways from the Women in NeuGroup meeting featuring three senior executives at one company. The Women in NeuGroup (WiNG) virtual meeting held last week highlighted the use of mentoring circles as a building block for sponsorship—where someone senior to you in the company advocates for your advancement. Our first story described how the process works at one major American multinational, as described by three senior executives. Below are more takeaways from the meeting as distilled by Anne Friberg, senior…
Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
March 19, 2020

Using Mentoring Circles to Cultivate Organic Sponsorship for Women

Mentoring circles can help women find sponsors who can advocate for their career advancement. Three women who are senior finance executives at a major multinational corporation described how their company organically builds sponsorship using so-called mentoring circles to support the development needs of high-potential talent. The three spoke this week at a Women in NeuGroup virtual meeting. One of the women described mentoring circles as groups of 10 to 20 people led by more senior employees to discuss topics of…
Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
March 10, 2020

Org Charts and Beyond: How Leaders Help Prepare Teams for Change

Many treasurers want to give team members the skills to move to other areas or companies. NeuGroup members at a recent Treasurers’ Group of Thirty meeting delved into the nuances of treasury department organizational structures and how they meet specific company needs. Participants enjoyed seeing on a screen exactly how other treasury teams have been put together and why. And they had a laugh when one person didn’t recognize his own org chart. But many members clearly feel the weight…
Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
February 20, 2020

Mike Likes It, but Would Your Team Vote for an Open-Office Plan?

Open-office plans like the one Mike Bloomberg adopted at City Hall have fans and skeptics. Where do you stand (sit)? Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg in December tweeted the picture above of the “bullpen” office he had as New York City mayor and wrote, “I’ll turn the East Room into an open-office plan, where I’ll sit with our team.” No one can say if that will ever happen, of course. But the subject of open-office plans definitely sparked interest at a…
Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
February 4, 2020

Appealing to Millennials and Gen Zers: The Academic Perspective

Insights from the Foster School of Business on what today’s MBAs want—and what treasurers have to say. Corporates who want to hire MBA finance graduates face a highly competitive market and are well served by knowing what the current crop of millennials and Gen Zers value most when weighing job offers. That was among the key takeaways from a presentation by faculty and administrators at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business to the members of a group of…
Capital MarketsESGRisk ManagementSenior ExecutiveUncategorized
January 28, 2020

Activist Investors Who Care About More Than One Kind of Green

Founder’s Edition, by Joseph Neu Takeaways from a fireside chat with ValueAct founder Jeffrey Ubben. Based on a head’s up from a top Wall Street activist defense adviser, I went to an event earlier this month hosted by Refinitiv and Reuters Breakingviews that featured a fireside chat with ValueAct co-founder Jeffrey Ubben. Mr. Ubben has stopped trying to increase his net worth and is now focused on making the world a better place (at least according to his worldview). One…
RegionalSenior ExecutiveTreasury Management
January 16, 2020

A High Bar: Lowering Corporate Expectations and Under-delivering Successfully

Slower economic growth and tighter consumer credit put pressure on finance chiefs in Asia. The subdued mood among participants at a recent NeuGroup meeting of CFOs in Asia reflected the difficulty many members say they are facing as China’s economic growth slows and business conditions worsen, while expectations for revenue growth at corporate headquarters remain unrealistically high. Managing expectations. The key challenge, then, for some members is managing the expectations of those in the C-Suite who still want 10% revenue…