A July 11 article in CFO magazine entitled “What Keeps CFOs Up at Night?” - http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/11731286/c_3805465 - has senior writer Kate O’Sullivan politely pointing out that with oil at $140 a barrel, the cost of fuel has officially registered on finance executives radar screens. About time! The impact that $4.70/gallon diesel will have on the economy, and each company, is large. Consider the fact that most consumer product companies provide free freight to their customers, when they order a truckload of product. This means that the only way they can recoup the additional cost is to increase the prices of their products. If product costs go up – you and I are the ones that pay at the store. Hello inflation! Hello higher interest rates! Hello a big slow down!
CFO’s should be kept awake at night by fuel costs as their companies’ margins are under fire. Some how they need to support their operations team’s efforts to reign in the fuel monster. What is this somehow? Since IT normally works in the finance side of the house, the CFO needs to influence his IT people into providing genuine support – not, as I heard from a client, “we are getting SAP in 5 years, that will solve all your operational problems.” You could not make this kind of stuff up! Who can wait that long? How many gallons of diesel will need to be wasted before we stem the flow?
The bottom line: CFO’s need to help operations
