Black Rock Coffee Bar raised $294 million in its September IPO and debuted at a valuation of $1.27 billion.

Their plan is simple on paper. Scale to 1,000 stores by 2035.

Add a third roastery in Austin.

Open locations aggressively.

Their CFO says they only went public once they could prove the model was predictable and nationally scalable.

Growth ambition or over-caffeinated optimism?

How are you deciding IPO readiness in a volatile market?

A new CBIZ pulse survey shows mid-market leaders tightening the screws.

62 percent say benefits and healthcare costs hurt their business last quarter.

43 percent say labor pressures are dragging down performance.

59 percent say tariffs are eating margins.

The response: More supplier diversification.

More contract renegotiations.

More onshoring.

Is this resilience or retreat as we head into 2026?

46 percent of mid-market firms paused M&A.

37 percent paused capital expenditures due to financing costs.

32 percent paused hiring.

The message is clear. The mid-market is protecting cash while big firms dominate the M&A cycle.

Are we entering a slow-growth year for the middle of the economy?

Italian pasta makers are considering leaving the US market as import duties reach extreme levels.

Supply chain pressure is back in the spotlight, and CFOs running COGS sensitive businesses should pay attention.

Are tariffs a strategic lever or a silent tax on business?

Employers cannot find enough workers with the right experience.

Job seekers cannot find roles matching their background.

Wage pressure and slow hiring collide in a frustrating equilibrium.

Is this mismatch the new normal for 2026 workforce planning?

According to Crist Kolder Associates, women comprise only 17.5 percent of CFOs in the Fortune 500 and S&P 500.

That number is essentially unchanged year over year.

Progress stalled or pipeline problem? What is actually blocking the climb?

A new survey says 3 in 10 companies plan to replace workers with AI next year.

These sectors are expected to see the sharpest cuts.

This is not a theoretical transformation.

CFOs will be restructuring teams in real time.

Where do you see automation pressure building first?

Challenger reports 1.1 million job cuts announced from January to October.

The highest January to October total since 2020.

Cost-cutting plus AI equals fewer humans.

Is this the beginning of a structural reset?

Protiviti’s Dan Stummer says CFOs must keep pace with AI’s exponential growth, but many are simply exhausted.

Between new systems. New vendors. New promises. New integrations.

Where do you draw the line between innovation and burnout?

Gartner says 71 percent of CFOs believe they own enterprise-wide tech.

77 percent of CIOs believe the same.

Bloomfire says value depends on both leaders guarding each other’s blind spots.

AI is not a tech project. It is a power dynamic.

How does your org define ownership?

value is unlocked only when finance and tech stop guarding turf and start sharing risk.

Siloed thinking kills AI ROI faster than bad software.

Are your teams aligned or competing?

Waymo appointed a senior Google executive as its new CFO at what it calls a pivotal moment for scaling autonomous ride hailing.

It is a bet that the next phase of AV growth will require operational discipline more than R&D flash.

Do you see the AV sector entering maturity or stalling?

Jason Warnick is stepping down in Q1.

Long time exec Shiv Verma will take the seat.

Markets reacted with a slump in share price.

Is this normal succession or deeper instability?

CME says long-term expansion will come from complementary partnerships rather than big internal bets.

A reminder that not every growth story is built by acquisition.

Is this the smarter path in a high-rate world tho?

MIT finds 95 percent of companies still see no measurable ROI on AI.

Yet adoption keeps growing.

CFOs call this necessary experimentation.

Are you measuring ROI?

University of Michigan sentiment dropped from 53.6 to 50.3 as the federal government shutdown drags into its second month.

Consumers report worsening personal finances and pessimism about the year ahead.

The K shaped economy persists.

High income households stay confident while lower income households struggle.

Are you modeling a slowdown in early 2026?

The highest share of borrowers sixty days past due.

This is a flashing warning for consumer credit risk.

1- Run a tariff stress test. Map every import exposed to current or proposed duties and quantify 2026 margin pressure.

2- Build an AI displacement matrix. Identify roles that could be replaced. Augmented. Or redesigned.

3- Strengthen your CIO partnership. Set shared KPIs. Shared budgets. Shared ownership. Stop the turf war.

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