Chipotle CFO succession, Hackett working capital, improve revenue per employee
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Hackett Working Capital Survey: All cash conversion cycle elements degraded last year
According to the The Hackett Group Inc. 's latest report on working capital, all three elements of the cash conversion cycle degraded in 2023. Although day sales outstanding (DSO) saw the highest jump since the pandemic, both DSO and days inventory outstanding (DIO) degraded for the first time in a decade.
“We’ve definitely seen a continuation of what I call the leverage shifts between buyers and sellers,” said Shawn Townsend , director at The Hackett Group Inc. . “[And] that’s driving the DSO and DPO degradation and [also] the DIO integration, and again, it’s fairly marginal. It’s really the continuation of inflation and supply chain issues [and] the market dynamics driving overall inventory that is making it much harder for companies to manage inventory.”
Chipotle CFO announces succession plan
Chipotle Mexican Grill 's CFO Jack Hartung is set to retire in March of next year. One of the longest-tenured CFOs of note, Hartung leaves the company after over 22 years at the helm.
On his way out, he promotes two of his most tenured employees to replace him. The company's current VP of finance Adam Rymer , will take on the CFO title in early 2025. Jamie McConnell , vice president and controller, will also get promoted to chief administrative and accounting officer when Rymer takes over to help take on some of Hartung's current administrative responsibilities.
Revenue per employee: Metric of the Month
Improving revenue per employee often requires taking a hard look at overhead and resource allocation, says APQC CFO Perry Wiggins, CPA, MBA .
"According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average full-time American worker earns about $60,000 per year, based on first-quarter 2024 data," writes Wiggins. "Adding 30% to cover benefits, taxes, and insurance brings the total employer cost for an average worker to about $77,000. That means an average worker at a middle-of-the-road company generates roughly quadruple what they cost their employer in revenue each year."
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How the City of Quincy, Massachusetts’ CFO Eric Mason starts his day
Eric Mason , the CFO of the City of Quincy , shares how his wife, among others in his family, drives his work ethic and ability to attain professional accolades early in his career.
"My wife grew up in West Virginia working on her grandparent’s farm in the summers. She was an excellent student and athlete in high school (neither of those descriptions could apply to me) who went to WVU on a nearly full scholarship to study exercise physiology. She just pushes through everything. She got in her car and moved from West Virginia to Massachusetts into a small in-law attachment with her jobless new grad boyfriend . She never complained."
5 steps to build better company culture
The cost of a bad culture can be astronomical. James E. Proppe and Jason Drake from Plante Moran explain why in a recent opinion piece.
An organization’s values are crucial to achieving durability. Without them, leaders are susceptible to making short-term decisions contrary to long-term interests" both Proppe and Drake write. "Therefore, as organizations change and the world around them evolves, they must rely on their core principles to drive decision-making. These shouldn’t remain static; they should be reviewed and updated periodically through a deliberate and thoughtful process."
10 tips for CFOs to drive successful negotiations
Are you finding yourself at the negotiation table more often? Steve McNally, CMA, CPA, MBA shares tips on how CFOs can position themselves more favorably in business deals by humanizing the sales process.
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This edition of Preferred Shares was created by reporter Adam Zaki .