Nvidia's billionaire CFO; The cost of underperforming workers; Riveron CFO Q&A; Slowing US wage growth
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Underutilized workforce capacity may be costing CFOs millions
A recent analysis of 5,619 organizations and 304,083 workers by workforce productivity software provider ActivTrak finds that companies operate at just 87% of expected productivity. Across industries, this translates to the equivalent of 130 employees per 1,000 workers producing no output — or $11.2 million in wasted salary annually per 1,000 employees.
“CFOs tend to assume their teams are operating at full capacity because financial results often mask underlying inefficiencies,” ActivTrak CFO Jana Wilson tells CFO.com. “Our analysis shows there’s significant untapped potential, particularly in back-office roles where contributions are harder to measure but critical to operations.”
Riveron's Tony Ciotti on dissolving lines between finance and operations
Several big-name businesses, including Salesforce and Qualcomm have appointed chief operating and finance officers, or COFOs. For Riveron CFO Tony Ciotti , that's emblematic of a the continual blurring between finance and operations teams. CFO.com recently sat down with Ciotti to understand why, and what it might mean for finance chiefs today.
"We’re seeing the aperture for CFOs being broadened tremendously. We’re expected to be much more than a cost center or a financial voice of the firm. We have to do more than deliver the financial news."
Nvidia mints another billionaire
The chipmaker's unprecedented climb past a $4 trillion market cap this summer has not only set global valuation records, but has also made its CFO, Colette Kress , a billionaire.
This week, Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index listed Kress with a net worth exceeding $1 billion thanks largely to her equity holdings in the chipmaker. According to Bloomberg data, Kress owns or has options for more than 5.4 million Nvidia shares, worth roughly $1 billion at current prices.
US wage growth continues to slow
The era of rapid growth in wages seen coming out of the pandemic is "definitively in the rearview mirror," wrote Indeed senior economist Cory Stahle in a recent report. Last month, wages for new job postings in the United States grew about 2.9% year over year, with a similar rate seen in May. That compares to the peak of 9.4% growth reached in January 2022.
CFO spoke with Stahle to put the changing numbers into a broader context. “Wages often represent the demand for workers,” he said. “We’re seeing that weaker hiring demand show up in wage growth numbers.”
A quarter of workers ‘very likely’ to seek a new job
There are signs the job market may be shifting once again, with almost half (48%) of workers saying they’re at least somewhat likely to search for a job by mid-2026, according to a June Bankrate survey of 1,005 people either working full time or seeking full-time employment. And 25% of them characterized themselves as “very likely” to do so.
CFOs On The Move: Week ending Aug. 1
Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group has replaced its CFO, Diageo's former finance chief returns and Amtrak names a new head of finance.
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This edition of Preferred Shares was created by reporter Dan Niepow .