When the container ship Dali crashed into and collapsed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge, claiming a half-dozen lives and blocking access to one of the busiest ports in the US, it also created a knot of financial problems for the ship’s owners and cargo customers that experts say will likely take years to unravel.

For instance, how much is the ship’s owner liable for, how much of the financial burden will cargo owners take on, and how much of the damages to cargo will be covered by insurance?

CFO Brew spoke with experts in supply chain law and marine insurance on what the affected companies will likely undergo. They also shared lessons for organizations exposed to similar shipping risks.

Greater force. While the aftermath of the incident is still in its early stages, the experts cautioned, there is precedent to lay out a likely roadmap of what’s to come in ensuing months and years.

For more on how the Baltimore bridge tragedy might play out, click here.—AZ

With a globally distributed team, your business can take advantage of worldwide talent.

But paying workers in Europe, a few in Asia, and the US can get complex and costly. The truth is that 85% of payroll professionals anticipate payroll costs will increase in the next year. Is your system set up for success?

In this commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Deel, 300+ payroll experts from enterprise businesses were surveyed on the current state of running payroll.

Learn more about reporting, compliance, the benefits of a unified payroll system, and Forrester’s latest insights on the pitfalls of a fragmented system. (Hint: It’ll cost ya.)

Best part? Reading the study won’t set you back a cent.

In February, economists told the Philadelphia Fed that inflation would hit the sub-3% mark this quarter. What a difference a few months can make.

Ahead of the release of April’s consumer price index (CPI), economists raised their predictions for inflation for the current quarter as well as for 2024, 2025, and over the next decade, according to the Philly branch’s quarterly survey.

In their first-quarter survey, economists predicted that inflation would hit 2.5% this quarter, but this quarter’s average has jumped to 3.4%—roughly the same as the March CPI of 3.5% and the April CPI of 3.4%. They do expect rates to hit 2.5% in the fourth quarter, though, which would be tantalizingly close to the Fed’s target rate of 2%.

Economists contrasted their prediction for stronger, longer inflation with a boost to their outlook for economic growth and jobs. They forecast this quarter’s GDP to grow 2.1% year over year, revising up their February prediction of 1.5%.

Click here for more on what economists are predicting for the months ahead.—GD

Gina Mastantuono became the CFO of ServiceNow, a B2B cloud platform, in January 2020—just before Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic. To make things even more challenging, Mastantuono was new to the software industry and her boss, Bill McDermott, chair and CEO of ServiceNow, was also new to the company.

That sounds like it could be the opening of a disastrous case study, but it’s been the opposite. ServiceNow’s stock has tripled since 2020 and its market cap is in the same neighborhood as IBM, Uber, and Morgan Stanley. This week, Mastantuono joined Austin Hankwitz and Katie Perry, hosts of the Morning Brew show After Earnings, to talk about what ServiceNow does, how it has expanded, its early bet on AI, the company’s success—including its entry into the Fortune 500—and much more.

This summary has been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the whole episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Perry: We all feel like the last four or five years have felt like one or two years. What were the core changes on the executive team that you had to make to keep everyone aligned and moving quickly?

There was a lot going on…We didn’t have answers. As a leader, how do you motivate [and] inspire when you don’t have all the answers? A lot of folks just kind of retrench and don’t say anything, because they don’t know what to say. And Bill and I and the entire leadership team…[increased] the pace of our all-hands [and] our communications. And if we don’t know the answer, we’re just going to say “We don’t know…But this is how we’re going to think about it.”

Click here to continue reading.—GD

See a CFO’s to-do list. A CFO’s day is anything but typical, but the most efficient ones do rely on routines. Oracle NetSuite is pulling back the curtain on what finance execs oversee, accomplish, and experience in their free business guide: The CFO’s Daily Checklist. Peep the 10 main to-dos here.

The CFO Leadership Conference returns June 4–6 in Boston's Seaport. Over three exciting days, you'll network with 300+ senior finance leaders and experience thoughtful main-stage sessions hosted by world-class speakers. This conference is an unmissable opportunity to develop your strategic leadership skills and learn how to fulfill your professional potential. Save $100 with code Brew24.

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