Good morning, CFOs. What Hasbro's CFO learned from a cyberattack; can the AI trade power the next rally?; plus, OPEC, allies increase oil output.
How companies manage crises sometimes can be the source of the greatest lessons for leaders. For toy maker Hasbro, a cybersecurity breach earlier this year served as one of those moments.
To respond to a cyber threat, Hasbro temporarily disabled a core operating system, forcing employees to use manual processes to keep working. Despite the tech hurdles, the company successfully protected a coming high-profile product launch, its CFO told the WSJ Leadership Institute's Jennifer Williams. She writes for today's Morning Ledger newsletter:
Hasbro CFO Gina Goetter was abroad when a cyberattack hit the company this spring. The day started as planned, but her schedule was wiped clean a few hours later.
The team "knew something was wrong in the morning," said Goetter, who is also the company's COO. "By afternoon, they were aware that it was a breach."
The toy and game maker discovered the intrusion in late March. Executives quickly pulled its entire SAP system, which tracks everything from financial to human-resource matters, offline to assess the damage. For three or four days, employees relied on manual workarounds to keep operations moving, forcing Hasbro to delay its first-quarter earnings.
Company leadership, however, refused to derail certain business operations. That included the launch of a new series of Magic: The Gathering cards based on Marvel superheroes, which debuted recently and set a record for first-day and first-month sales of Magic cards. "There were a lot of people in the background that were kind of bubblegum and bandaging everything together to make sure that there was not a single hiccup," Goetter said.
Systems were restored faster than anticipated following the cyberattack, keeping costs lower than expected. Hasbro lost roughly $25 million in revenue because of the breach in the three months ended June 28, below the projected $40 million to $60 million hit. The swift recovery allowed the company to quickly terminate third-party legal and accounting support, often a significant part of the costs, according to Goetter.
"We came up faster, which helped," she said.
-- Jennifer Williams
The Day Ahead
Monday
Earnings: Clorox, Marriott International, On Semiconductor, Palantir Technologies, TKO Group Holdings, Tyson Foods
The Institute for Supply Management releases its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for July.
Tuesday
Earnings: Advanced Micro Devices, Amgen, Apollo Global Management, Ball Corp., Booking Holdings, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Caterpillar, Cummins, DaVita, Devon Energy, Duke Energy, DuPont, Emerson Electric, Fidelity National Information Services, Gilead Sciences, Gartner, Kimberly-Clark, McDonald's, Merck, Mosaic, NRG Energy, Paramount Skydance, Pfizer, Prudential Financial, Public Service Enterprise Group, SpaceX, Spotify Technology, Sysco and Wynn Resorts
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
Wednesday
Earnings: Allstate, CVS Health, DoorDash, eBay, Eli Lilly, Expedia Group, Honeywell Aerospace, Iron Mountain, Kraft Heinz, MetLife, Motorola Solutions, News Corp, Novo Nordisk, Occidental Petroleum, Phillips 66, Realty Income, Sandisk, Shopify, Solventum, Uber Technologies, Walt Disney and Western Digital
The ISM releases its Services PMI for July.
Thursday
Earnings: Aflac, Airbnb, Akamai Technologies, American Insurance Group, Becton Dickinson, Cloudflare, ConocoPhillips, Consolidated Edison, Constellation Energy, Datadog, Evergy, Fiserv, Fox, Howmet Aerospace, Kenvue, Keurig Dr Pepper, Microchip Technology, Molson Coors Beverage, Monster Beverage, Parker-Hannifin, Ralph Lauren, ResMed and Warner Bros. Discovery
Friday
Earnings: Oklo, Plains All American Pipeline, PPL, Take-Two Interactive Software and Vistra
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the jobs report for July.
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What Else Matters to CFOs
Financial markets faced a series of crucial tests last week. The results? Not as clear as investors might hope.
Earnings reports from the country's largest tech companies sent their stocks flying in different directions, propelling Apple's shares to their worst day since the tariff turmoil and Microsoft's to the largest one-day market-cap gain for any U.S. company, ever. A press conference from the new chairman of the Federal Reserve left analysts issuing notes with titles like "Doved and Confused" and "Erm... What?"
The question now is whether broadening equity gains and a renewed zeal for the artificial-intelligence trade can power the rally's next leg, even as chip-stock swings and a bond-market selloff drag on major U.S. stock indexes. The Nasdaq fell 3.2% during the month of July, while the Dow edged higher and the S&P 500 was little changed.
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Zach Dell Is Raising Money to Put a Battery in Your Backyard
Workers Seeking Compensation for Injuries Face New Challenge: Fewer Lawyers
Big Fashion Brands Try on a New Trend: Selling Secondhand Clothes
New 'Spider-Man' Movie Scores Hollywood's Second-Biggest Debut Ever
Americans Lose Their Main Reason to Get Out of Bed: Dannon Coffee Yogurt
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The WSJ Leadership Institute's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics including corporate tax, accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.
Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team comprises reporters Kristin Broughton, Jennifer Williams and Bureau Chief Walden Siew.
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