The Trial Balance is CFO.com’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — Porsche attempts to oust CFO, though problems aren’t unique
Porsche, the German automaker majority-owned by Volkswagen, said its board has entered “into discussions” with CFO Lutz Meschke to end his contract early. Though the company has financially outperformed its parent organization, concerns about slowing sales, particularly in Asia, have grown. The company has also admitted defeat on its goal of having 80% of new sales be exclusively electric vehicles by 2030.
The latter likely contributed to similar discussions about the company’s sales and marketing executive, Detlev von Platen, which were announced alongside Meschke’s possible early termination announcement.
Porsche’s considerable challenges are not unique among its luxury competitors. Infiniti is merging many of its dealerships with its parent brand Nissan. Jaguar, whose questionable rebranding efforts were widely covered, has also struggled. Both BMW and Mercedes have faced similar issues to Porsche. Increasing competition in China, which is disrupting automaker initiatives globally, has also affected the financial performance of many automakers of nearly all types.
However, ultra-luxury automakers like Lamborghini and Ferrari continue to perform well financially despite similar EV efforts and limited competition in China. This high-end market — one experts say Infiniti may be attempting to rebrand into — may also be among the last areas where Chinese competition has yet to make as much of an impact.
Widespread quality concerns around Porsche’s EV models, particularly the Taycan, have also raised concerns for the company’s loyal consumer base, despite recent quality improvement efforts resulting in overall quality highest among premium brands in 2024.
Mid-level and economy consumer brands with poor reliability continue to struggle, increasing the likelihood of major mergers and acquisitions in the automotive industry. Reports indicate Nissan may be acquired by Honda. Struggling Stellantis brands, such as Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Jeep, are also in trouble — having their long-term viability as independent brands currently evaluated by leadership.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, Feb. 3
- S&P final U.S. manufacturing PMI, Jan.
- ISM manufacturing, Jan.
- Auto sales, Jan.
Tuesday, Feb. 4
- Job openings, Dec.
- Factory orders, Dec.
Wednesday, Feb. 5
- ADP employment, Jan.
- U.S. trade deficit, Dec.
- S&P final U.S. services PMI, Jan.
- ISM services, Jan.
Thursday, Feb. 6
- Initial jobless claims, week of Feb. 1
- U.S. productivity, Q4
Friday, Feb. 7
- U.S. employment report, Jan.
- U.S. unemployment rate, Jan.
- U.S. hourly wages, Jan.
- Wholesale inventories, Dec.
- Consumer sentiment (prelim), Jan.
Part 3 — Financial fraud, NFL CFO tenure, PagerDuty CFO Q&A
This week, CFO.com has a story on financial fraud from new data from TrustPoint (2/4), a story on the average tenure of CFOs in the National Football League (2/5), a Q&A with PagerDuty CFO Howard Wilson (2/6), a story on how to prioritize the CFO-chief customer officer relationship (2/6) and more.