This story is part of our collaboration with Retail Brew on investing in changing consumer habits.

Remember 2010? Apple released the iPad, a baby-faced Mark Zuckerberg was Time’s Person of the Year, and Lady Gaga wore the meat dress. Oh, and a new generation of humans hard launched. Now, they’re starting to come of age.

By 2029, the spending power of Generation Alpha, the cohort of youngsters born between 2010 and 2024, is expected to reach $5.46 trillion, according to research-based advisory firm McCrindle.

Those numbers alone should be enough to make a CFO’s ears perk up. But if you need more convincing, consider this: “Every organization, every brand, every product is just one generation away from extinction,” Mark McCrindle, the social researcher credited with coining the term “Gen Alpha” and founder of McCrindle, told CFO Brew.

Take that as a challenge. In recent years, CFOs have weathered a pandemic; growing global conflict; a tense, ever-changing economic landscape; extreme weather events…we could go on. Could some tweens and toddlers be the thing that throws them off course?

For more on the immense spending power of Gen Alpha, click here.—NP

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For starters, he was wearing the leather jacket.

When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took to the stage at the Stripe Sessions, a global internet economy conference in San Francisco last Wednesday, it came as a surprise to absolutely no one that he was donning his trademark leather jacket—a cool and collected look that puts Steve Jobs’s iconic uniform to sartorial shame.

In recent years, Huang has been inching closer to Jobs-level icon status as a CEO for more than just his consistent wardrobe choices.

Maybe you’ve been following along with Nvidia’s blockbuster earnings reports as of late, as tech companies’ AI investments increasingly end up in the pocketbook of the chipmaker. Huang has served as Nvidia’s CEO since co-founding the company in 1993, making him one of the longest-serving CEOs in the S&P 500. Oh, and he’s now the 20th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $73.1 billion, per Forbes as of this writing.

Clearly, he’s doing something right. So, when he shares advice that other executives (ahem, CFOs) could take to heart, you listen—and that’s what attendees (including yours truly) did last week.

Click here for more of Huang’s leadership advice.—NP

It’s no secret that property/casualty insurers have been on a tear with rate increases. Finance teams may be scratching their heads as to how and why this keeps happening.

Insurance companies say they aren’t jacking up your rate for funsies. Rather, they’re responding to a host of adverse (i.e., increasingly expensive) market trends, like the tight labor market and recurring “storms of the century.”

To put these trends in perspective, we dug into several key earnings calls to understand what execs at major carriers and brokers say are their biggest pain points in the P/C marketplace.

The latest. US composite insurance pricing increased by 3% on average in the first quarter, in line with Q4 2023, according to a report from insurance broker Marsh.

US commercial property insurance rates increased 8%, a moderation from the 11% uptick in Q4. Casualty rates grew 4% on average, up slightly from 3% the prior quarter. Rates declined for financial and professional lines by 5% on average, about in line with the 6% declines seen in the previous two quarters.

Click here to find out why your corporate insurance bill is so high now.—AZ

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