FOX Business' Dagen McDowell interviewed Eric Spitz, CFO of the Narragansett Brewing Company, today. Here is a link to the segment.

It will be interesting to hear the strategies and responses to the economic times at the up coming key note panel: "Strengthening your Competitive Position in an Economic Downturn"

Recent unemployment figures inched up to 10.2 percent indicating a lack of faith in the economic recovery and consequent lack of hiring.  Deeper into the figures reveals that unemployment for college graduates and professional management dropped slightly in the same period to 4.7%.

Temporary employment enjoyed the largest increase with 34,000 new hires in the same period.  Many pundits are stating that the temporary hires are a leading indicator and is indicative of a broader hiring rebound soon to come.  

I asked Bob Badavas, who until recently was President and CEO of TAC Worldwide, a leading provider of Engineering staffing, IT staffing and workforce management solutions, what he thought the increase in temporary workers meant.   He responded "things need to get done and companies are unwilling to commit to a full time workforce at this time. At the same time I would say that the # of new job orders, i.e. companies looking for talent, is increasing, which is a positive sign. I believe companies will, coming out of this recession, look to a more variable workforce in the years ahead...things need to get done, competitive edge needs to be sharpened, etc but with the availability of talent companies may not move aggressively to shore up their 'permanent' workforce." 

How our panelists are meeting the challenge of todays economic uncertainty and how they expect to respond in the near future will be an enlightening discussion.

George Emmanuel

MIT CFO Summit Organizing Committee

gemmanuel@alum.mit.edu

A recent Baseline story examines the results of a survey of 1,400 Chief Information Officers and their positions about social networking. More than half (54%) say their company policy prohibits employees from using sites such as Facebook and Twitter while at work. It is seen as a “time-waster,” affecting productivity.

Wonder what participants of the “Social Networking for the CFO" track think of these findings? Is it valuable? Does it matter what kind of company you are? What industry you are in? Your size – if you are public or private? Or is it a must-have since communications with customers and investors is changing instantaneously?

Do CFOs see other benefits or value than their CIO counterparts?

Here is a link to the Baseline story.

Please tell us your thoughts.

An interesting closing in Bernanke's address on Friday (8/21) was his stressing the need for stricter oversight of companies that could cause widespread disruption to the financial system and a process to wind down globally interconnected companies like the federal reserve does for failing banks.   This seems like a potential landmine of regulation and conflicting goals of growth vs. constraint. 

George Emmanuel 

Coordinating Committee for the MIT Sloan CFO Summit