Supply chain risk, keeping top talent and capital investment—all on the radar of CFOs this week

Here’s what happened this week:

What seemed like feasible solutions for supply chain woes actually didn’t pan out as expected, according to McKinsey & Company’s latest report. In 2020, 40% of senior supply chain executives surveyed planned on nearshoring (transferring a business operation to a nearby country) and increasing their supplier base, but only 15% said those efforts were completed in the past 12 months, the report found. Meanwhile, less than half (47%) of respondents said last year that increasing inventory of critical products was a priority; and in 2021, 61% said they’ve implemented that practice. In addition, 38% said in 2020 regionalization was key, yet just 25% said it was implemented. About 95% of respondents also said they have formal supply-chain risk-management processes. The most important step is for CFOs to work together with supply chain leaders as processes are formalized, said Knut Alicke, a McKinsey partner.

Walmart Inc. EVP and CFO Brett Biggs recently announced he is leaving the company—on Jan. 31, 2023. The retail giant said Monday that Biggs will remain in the role until a successor is named next year, and he’ll stick around to support the transition. Walmart said it will consider both internal and external candidates. “Long roads to retirement and long succession periods are trends we’re seeing, and it’s not limited to finance roles,” Vicki Salemi, an expert at career website Monster told me. “Increased competition for qualified candidates across all sectors makes the search for top leaders harder. Plus, it takes longer.” Research finds that choosing and grooming the right successor isn’t easy nowadays, Salemi says. Her company’s forthcoming annual Future of Work report shows that “confidence in finding the right candidate is trending downward from 95% in 2020 to 91% in 2022,” she says. 

“While many women, Black, and Latino professionals have taken steps to find a new job, the silver lining for companies is that these same professionals are willing to stay if given support and the chance to grow through talent mobility opportunities,” writes Andrew McCaskill, a senior director and career expert at LinkedIn. In a new Coins2Day opinion piece, 3 strategies managers need to know to keep diverse talent from walking out the door, McCaskill provides a thoughtful guide to help companies understand the concerns of employees amid the Great Resignation. Employee engagement and creating a sense of purpose amid remote and hybrid work has become a top concern for CFOs, according to an August PwC report. And 60% said they plan to advance diversity and inclusion efforts internally, including leadership and mentoring programs. But as McCaskill points out, direct managers are on the frontline when it comes to retention. And training is required to meet that need. 

In February, Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger took on the job of “turning around an icon; the company that put ‘Silicon’ into Silicon Valley,” Gelsinger said at Coins2Day’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Wednesday. Now, “do that in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of a global semiconductor shortage, and in the context of a geopolitically unstable situation—that’s a big job,” he said. Gelsinger returned to Intel, where he began his career in 1979, to work towards returning the tech giant to a leading position in the marketplace, he said. To get back on track, Intel had to return to its roots as a “data-driven, engineering and technology-centric company,” he said. “As I like to call it, the geek is back,” Gelsinger commented. He discussed how Intel is positioning itself as a major competitor in semiconductor manufacturing, which takes a lot of capital. Gelsinger estimated the company will spend a net of $25 to $28 billion on its factories next year, and more thereafter. 

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]

****

Event alert: With over 60% of most finance processes now automated, what does the future of finance look like in an increasingly digital world? To explore this topic, join us for our Emerging CFO: Future Finance Leaders virtual event on Dec. 6 from 11 a.m.-11:45 a.m. ET. Panelist will include Kelly S. Gast, CFO at Bayer, Tucker H. Marshall, CFO at J.M. Smucker Company, Mike Spencer, VP and CFO at Honeywell Connected Enterprise, and Eileen Tobias, CFO at Komodo Health. In this conversation, in partnership with Workday, we will learn how finance teams can advance the automation agenda. We’ll also explore how to promote the strategic agenda by prioritizing machine learning, big data, analytics, and predictive modeling. Click here to apply!

Big deal

A survey released by jobs site Indeed on Dec. 2 gauged the opinions of 1,005 people who voluntarily resigned from at least two jobs since March 2020. About 92% of respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic made them feel “life is too short to stay in a job they weren’t passionate about,” according to the report. More than half (60%) of workers left their pre-pandemic jobs within three months of the onset of the pandemic. And almost three-quarters of workers accepted new positions only temporarily while they continued to seek their ideal permanent job. Good work-life balance, flexibility in remote work, and a positive working environment are the top reasons employees are remaining in their new roles after going through at least two jobs. Only 23% of respondents reported wanting a job with better pay as a reason they left their pre-pandemic job, according to Indeed.

Going deeper

Here are a few Coins2Day reads for the weekend:

Female founders are crashing the billionaire club by Maria Aspan and Emma Hinchliffe

The Future 50: Growth stocks to bet on in an unpredictable world by Martin Reeves and David Zuluaga Martínez

What to expect from the stock market in 2022, according to leading forecast models by Lance Lambert

Inflation could end tech stocks’ winning streak in 2022—and pump up these stocks instead by Shawn Tully

Leaderboard

Tim Adams was named CFO at Rapid7, Inc. (NASDAQ: RPD), a security analytics and automation company, effective January 3, 2022. Adams will assume the role from current Rapid7 CFO, Jeff Kalowski, who announced his retirement earlier this year. Adams joins Rapid7 from BitSight Technologies, where he has served as CFO since April 2020. He brings over a decade of financial leadership experience in the technology industry having previously served as CFO at ObsEva SA, Demandware, Inc., and athenahealth, Inc.

Jim Crines was named interim CFO at Valencia Technologies. Crines has served on Valencia’s board of directors since June 2016. Previously, he served as EVP of finance and CFO at Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. Through his tenure at Zimmer Biomet, he served as SVP of finance and operations, and as corporate controller and chief accounting officer.

Heather Getz was named CFO and president of North America at Healthy.io, a health care company offering services enabled by smartphone technology. Getz has more than 20 years of corporate experience. She was most recently as the chief financial and administrative officer at BioTelemetry, Inc. Where she served for almost 12 years. Prior to BioTelemetry, she spent seven years at VIASYS Healthcare Inc. Where she held various financial leadership positions. Getz began her career at Sunoco, Inc., where she held several positions of increasing responsibility.

Chryssa C. Halley was named EVP and CFO at Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA). David C. Benson, Fannie Mae's president, has discontinued serving as Fannie Mae's interim CFO. Halley previously served as Fannie Mae's SVP and controller. Since joining the company in 2006, Halley has held a variety of positions including SVP and deputy controller; VP and assistant controller for capital markets and operations; VP for tax, debt and derivatives, and securities accounting; and VP for corporate tax.

Paul Holtz was named interim CFO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: KORE), an Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider. Holtz succeeds Puneet Pamnani, CFO, who is stepping down to pursue other opportunities.Pamnani will continue as an employee of KORE through at least Feb. 28. Holtz is currently SVP of corporate performance, planning, and analytics. He will take on the CFO role as the company identifies a permanent successor. Holtz joined KORE in 2017. 

Timothy R. Kraus was named SVP and CFO at Dana Incorporated (NYSE: DAN). Kraus succeeds Jonathan Collins, who will be leaving Dana to become CFO of Clarivate plc (NYSE: CLVT). Collins will continue with Dana through Dec. 15 to assist with the transition. With company with more than a decade, Kraus most recently served as SVP of finance and treasurer. In addition, he led Dana’s tax and business development activities. Prior to joining Dana in 2010, Kraus held a number of leadership roles with Intelsat S.A., Lear Corporation, and Ernst & Young LLP.

Julie Weedman was named CFO at Golden Minerals Company (NYSE American: AUMN). Weedman will succeed Robert Vogels following his retirement. She is expected to join Golden on January 16 as VP of finance and will become VP and CFO following Vogels’ retirement, by the end of February. Weedman joins the company with more than 30 years of financial and accounting experience, serving most recently as VP of finance for Aerospace Contacts LLC. She has held varied corporate controller, site controller and group controller roles with companies including Cupric Canyon Capital LLC, Mercator Minerals Ltd. And Ducommun Inc. Weedman began her career at Deloitte and Touche, followed by 10 years of mining experience with Phelps Dodge.

Sarah Youngwood was named CFO at UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS), effective in May 2022. Current CFO Kirt Gardner has decided to step down from his role. Since 2016, Youngwood has been CFO of JPMorgan Chase’s Consumer and Community Banking line of business. Since 2020, her role has also included leading finance for the firm’s global technology unit, as well as the diversity and inclusion team. Between 2012 and 2016, Youngwood served as head of investor relations for JPMorgan Chase. Prior to that, she spent 14 years in various roles in the Financial Institutions Group within JPM’s Investment Bank in Paris, London, and New York.

Overheard

“I’m a fan of the metaverse as a work of fiction. But if you read all the way to the end—I’m not sure everyone who’s been talking about it has read to the end—you know the world in those books is this horrible place.”

—John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, on why he thinks people like Mark Zuckerberg, who are excited by thought of a metaverse as described in such works as Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, a science fiction novel, are missing the point of those books, as told to Coins2Day.