FEI Weekly

January 17, 2019

3 tips for thriving as an introvert, Gymboree files for bankruptcy, and Patisserie Valerie's accounting scandal gets worse.

CFO's Exit Spells Doom for Snap

Forbes

Snap's 8-K filing with the SEC noted that CFO Tim Stone will stay with the company through the report of fourth quarter results, scheduled for February 5th, but his short stint clearly raises questions. In every quarter as a public company Snap has reported negative operating cash flow and negative EBITDA, and the $3.4 billion raised in Snap's IPO in March 2017 has dwindled at a rate of about $200 million per quarter.

Gymboree Files for Bankruptcy (Again)

Huff Post

Children’s clothing retailer Gymboree filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said on Wednesday it will close more than 800 Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores. Gymboree earlier filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2017 and was one of the few brick-and-mortar retailers that managed to escape liquidation in a wave of bankruptcies that swept the sector.

Patisserie Valerie's Accounting Scandal Gets Worse

Financial Times

The owner of Patisserie Valerie has said an accounting scandal it revealed in October was worse than it thought. The owners said on Wednesday that RSM had been appointed as auditors and KMPG had been taken on to help it "recover from the devastating effects" of the scandal. “Among other manipulations, this involved thousands of false entries into the company’s ledgers,” it said in a statement, warning that it will take “some time before a reliable trading outlook can be completed while the above work streams progress.”

The First Step for CFOs Trying to Drive Digital Transformation

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey's Michael Bender says that CFOs trying to drive a digital transformation must first recognize that there is no longer a distinction between corporate strategy and digital-analytics strategy. They have to figure out some way to make digital-analytics transformation or digital-analytics strategy a central part of the overall business or corporate strategy.

3 Tips for Thriving as an Introvert

LinkedIn

Here are some tips for introverts: 1. Prepare talking points to common questions. 2. Be strategic with how you spend your energy by giving yourself permission not to be social. 3. Maximize the time you spend in introvert-friendly environments. A big part of thriving as an introvert is knowing yourself and your limitations. So, whenever possible, put yourself in environments that suit you best, so you thrive in each interaction.