Three things I learned reporting on CFOs this year

It’s been a volatile year for CFOs. Inflation moderated and the Fed cut rates, but consumers stayed cautious, AI took off, macroeconomic risks persisted, and we all held our breath waiting for the results of the US election.

But then again, when hasn’t it been a wild year for CFOs? By now, y’all are pros at rolling with the punches. I’m sure you learned a lot riding the roller coaster of 2024, and I learned a lot alongside you.

Here are three things that stood out to me when reporting on CFOs this year:

Accounting is changing forever: I came to CFO Brew after eight years with the AICPA, where I learned a lot about the small firms that make up the backbone of the profession. There was a bespoke, cottage-industry feel to many of these firms. They tended to build long-lasting relationships with their clients, and some even played a cardinal role in helping small business clients survive the pandemic.

But these folksy firms might be endangered. In a very brief period of time, private equity has staked its claim on the accounting profession. PE-backed firms are snapping up smaller competitors, and small firms are joining PE-funded umbrella organizations that let them keep their names but have a say in how they run things.

To be clear, firms are using PE money for much-needed modernization. They’re putting the capital toward better technology and higher starting salaries that can help them attract talent at a time when fewer young people are choosing accounting as a career.

At the same time, though, I worry that the pressure to produce short-term returns will conflict with the profession’s culture of trust and relationship-building. And it’s anybody’s guess what will happen when the PE firms exit, and when there are fewer strong small firms left to acquire. It's a trend that CFOs—who hire many former public accountants, and who may find themselves competing with outsourced services (offered, in some cases, by these same PE-backed firms)—should watch with interest.

Maintain your brand in the face of pressure: 2024 has been a year marked by diminished trust in brands. The “shrinkflation” phenomenon made customers resent paying more for lower value. Starbucks’s earnings fell after it emphasized sweet drinks and drive-thrus over coffee and the “third place” vibe that brought it to prominence in the first place.

It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that a number of CFOs I spoke with emphasized the importance of brands. Tata Communications’ Kabir Ahmed Shakir cautioned against “salami-slicing” your products’ or services’ quality to lower costs.

Restaurant chain Dig is expanding because its customers appreciate its healthy, often locally sourced options, CFO Jasmine Chiaramonte told me, adding that they’re willing to pay more for quality. e.l.f. Beauty, meanwhile, is leaning into its emphasis on board diversity, even as other brands are backing away from DE&I commitments, because that’s what its young customers value. These are all important lessons for CFOs who might be under pressure to cut costs.

Saving the world, one spreadsheet at a time: Unseasonably warm temperatures and natural disasters like Hurricane Helene, which brought devastating floods to my home state of North Carolina, have made it hard to ignore climate change. But speaking with CFOs has given me hope that human ingenuity might be able to solve this problem.

This year, I talked with several CFOs at innovative startups working to increase sustainability. Oberon Fuels’ plants convert biogas and organic waste into fuel. Resynergi is developing portable modules for recycling types of plastic that aren’t commonly recycled. Dryad has created sensor systems for detecting wildfires—themselves a driver of climate change—far more quickly than satellites or video cameras can. These companies’ CFOs have to be scientifically savvy as well as good with numbers, and need to be able to convince investors that their businesses are worthy of funding. But from what I’ve seen, they’re up to the task.