CFOs of The MLB and The North Face answer reader questions

The CFO role has evolved faster than the tools built to support it.

Most finance teams are still running infrastructure designed for a job that no longer exists. The reporting. The reconciling. The close that bleeds into the next month. That's not finance - that's overhead with a title.

Agentic Finance shouldn't multiply your output - it should eliminate the work that was never worth doing in the first place.

That's why I run Mostly Media on Brex - an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that do exactly that. Expenses handled automatically, policy enforced before the spend happens, books closed in minutes. So I can spend my time on the work that actually moves the business.

It was at BrexMode Chicago last week where I learned how a nuclear reactor works...

Interviewing Craig Bealmear CFO at Oklo was illuminating (no pun intended), as power becomes the constraint for AI.

Shout to Craig for his technical acumen, and my wife for dressing me.

This week we have the following CFOs answering your reader questions:

If your question is picked for the Mailbag, you’ll win a Mostly Metrics Yet Rambler ($84 economic value, unlimited street cred).

Let’s get into it!

Jonathan from MLB:

Accounting for weather was actually not as complicated for baseball as you might imagine. First, given the days the schedule covered over the course of the season, we were able to use data to forecast weather patterns for the time of day the games were going to be played. Over the roughly 10 years I was with the Florida Marlins, we knew, based on history as well as what other teams averaged in general, roughly how many "rainouts" we could expect (in actuality, there were never more than 2-3 per year!).

So when budgeting, we would estimate a certain number of game dates we'd lose to weather and factor that into our revenue estimates. Given the nature of the business, we also had the ability to make up games lost.

Finally, losing days to rainouts wasn't as impactful as simply having rain delays that reduced the number of fans who showed up - that proved more consequential than losing games we could later make up with a doubleheader.

When I build a budget, I treat variables such as weather, consumer demand, and competitive factors as scenarios rather than certainties. The forecast is a guidepost - not a perfect prediction - and the model should include offsetting assumptions so that no single variance creates a major surprise. As actual results emerge, I compare them with those guideposts and course-correct.

Angela from TNF:

The North Face (TNF) was a winter brand with Q4 being the biggest quarter (and Q1 as the second biggest), both from the standpoint of the DTC business it owns and from the retailers who were wholesale customers. Since inventory needed to be bought 6-12 months in advance given the lengthy product development and supply chain cycles, it was bought without much foresight on weather.

Please note that “sell-through” is a key metric for retailers. It is the percentage of inventory that a retailer sells to consumers compared to the total stock bought. It acts as a key performance indicator to track product demand, measure sales velocity, and guide future inventory purchases. For sure, weather is an important driver of sell-through, but brand heat, marketing effectiveness, and great merchandise and assortment planning (the process that retailers use to curate the right product mix, quantifies, and pricing across store and digital channels) must also come together to have an excellent season.

“Good” weather (i.e. good from a business standpoint - cold but not too cold and snowy so that you can’t go outside and shop) will act as an accelerant to sell-through. And “bad” (i.e. warm) weather will dampen sell-through.

In other words, a great operator does not rely solely on the “snow gods” to have a great selling season. But there have been many seasons when the snow gods smiled on TNF, most notably the polar vortex in January 2014 which sent massive arctic blasts into North America. What was interesting is that while the polar vortex enabled fantastic sell-through, revenue upside was capped by the inventory that was pre-bought. The greater impact is on the “sell-in” of the next winter season, when wholesale customers would put more of their inventory buy against TNF.

Jonathan from MLB:

There's an old saying in advertising you may have heard: roughly 50% of all advertising is effective; the trick is figuring out which 50%!

Over the course of my career in professional sports, I saw that companies using our venue to promote their brand became far more focused on metrics - looking for specific outcomes based on how much they spent with us. In earlier years, simply having their brand visible to fans from the stands was enough (brand identity). Ultimately, especially after the Great Recession, whether and how much a company spent came down to ROI based on their expected outcomes - for example, was the spending driving additional visits to their business?

One of the most effective advertising campaigns we created at Major League Baseball was Taco Bell's "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" campaign. If any player stole a base during the World Series, Taco Bell would give a free taco to all fans, redeemable only on Tuesdays - their slower revenue day. It drove tons of traffic to their stores, a great example of a brand looking for measurable results based on spend.

I'm also on the board of Rocket Companies, which spends substantial amounts promoting our brand. Recently, though, we've become far more quantitative about measuring exactly how much of that spend drives mortgage activity, or, in the case of one of our products, sign-ups for Rocket Money. I recall the days back in the '90s when Archer Daniels Midland spent enormous sums promoting their "brand" during NFL games. To this day, I have no idea what they were actually selling (CEO vanity spending?) - and I think those days are largely gone.

Angela from TNF:

Great brands and retailers (such as The North Face) considered the overall marketing mix

These core 4 Ps can extend to people (i.e. the retail staff, customer service reps, brand ambassadors), process (i.e. inventory flow and delivery systems), and physical presence (i.e. beautiful storefront, website with great UX).

Instead of just looking at how much to spend on brand marketing, the better question is this: What is an effective marketing mix given the context of the 4-6 Ps for your business?

Planning and orchestrating the right mix are both an art and a science. For TNF, this mix changed as it transformed from a US focused, wholesale-centric business that played in the specialized outdoor space to a global lifestyle brand and omni-channel player that built products in different categories.

Jonathan from MLB:

Two principles have guided my approach to negotiation.

First, know your walk-away point and be prepared to use it if the deal doesn't meet your objectives.

Second, remember the business-school maxim, "If you name the price, I name the terms." Price is only one lever, and adjusting terms can create incentives that move both parties toward an acceptable outcome.

The takeaway from those principles is understanding what you want out of a negotiation while also being prepared to give a little so the other party walks away with something too. Some people treat negotiation as a zero-sum game, where the goal is to beat the other side into the dirt. But I think it's just as important to build partnerships across the table - especially when things go sideways and you need to go back and renegotiate a prior agreement. Zero-sum tactics never leave room for that. I attribute a lot of my success as a CFO to building strong partnerships that let me go back and get what I need, because the relationship never turned toxic. And as an FP&A person, understanding the other side's economics is critical to knowing their deal points and finding mutually beneficial ground.

As for getting reps while still in the FP&A chair: it can be as simple as thinking through how to build a model, how to create financial reports that are genuinely useful to other users, or how to frame conversations around your analysis - especially with senior leaders - so your approach prevails based on what they're trying to accomplish. For example, are they only looking to push "good news" when your analysis suggests otherwise? Think about how to frame your position to prevail - that's a negotiation. And as an additional barometer: do those same people recognize, and even appreciate, your approach to the work without you having to cave to theirs?

Angela from TNF:

I would like to open the aperture on this question. The bigger question is - what makes a great CFO? What are the competencies and attributes? There are hard technical skills (such as negotiations). But a great CFO is more than a master of numbers. They act as a strategic partner to the CEO, turn complex financial data into clear plans for growth, manage risk, and guide smart business decisions across the entire enterprise. There is no one path to the CFO seat. But one common denominator is a deep understanding of how value is created, great storytelling abilities, and great business partnering skills. So, get operationally dirty and work on effective communication and business partnerships.

Jonathan from MLB:

Something most people don't know about my background: when I graduated from Harvard Business School with my MBA, I actually stayed on for two additional years as Assistant Director of Admissions. I went to Harvard right out of college, which wasn't unusual at the time, and felt I had the time to explore something different before entering finance. In that admissions role, as you can imagine, I spent a lot of time promoting the value of the MBA degree.

Over the last 30 years, I've seen at least three major shifts in how the MBA is viewed. During the '80s, '90s, and even into the early 2000s, there was tremendous emphasis on credentials - especially from big-name schools - and MBA applications skyrocketed. Following the Great Recession, the calculus started to shift, particularly around the opportunity cost of leaving a full-time job for a full-time program, similar to what you may be facing now.

More recently, as AI has begun affecting entry-level roles - including those traditionally pursued by MBA graduates - the value of the degree, particularly its cost relative to expected career benefit, has come under greater scrutiny. Recent graduating classes at Harvard Business School have also faced a tougher hiring environment than earlier cohorts, who often left with multiple offers in hand.

For someone who already has a productive professional career but is looking for an inflection point, I think of the value of an MBA in two ways. First, are you looking for the knowledge the program provides? This is especially relevant if you're in a liberal arts or non-quantitative field and want to pivot in another direction. Second, are you simply seeking the credential to qualify for a higher-level or higher-paying job? This comes up less often, but it's still something people weigh - are you after the three letters after your name from a quality school?

These days, most MBA programs offer options that don't require full-time enrollment. If you have the bandwidth between work and family responsibilities, a part-time or executive program is typically a more practical path for someone currently working, without having to sacrifice income.

It really comes down to your motivation: knowledge, credentials, or the network a full-time program might generate.

To your specific question - do you need an MBA to become a CFO? - most job postings don't explicitly require one, though many list it as preferred. That's usually a proxy for a certain level of managerial training and critical thinking, and possibly an assumption that there's a valuable network behind it.

Angela from TNF:

Again, there is no one path to CFO and there is no one answer to this question. I believe an MBA is worth it if you attend a top-tier program, want to switch careers, get a credential boost, or gain access to an elite network. It’s a personal calculus of high tuition and lost wages versus potential benefits.

Jonathan from MLB:

Earlier in my career, before working in sports, when I was leading an FP&A unit also responsible for planning and budgeting, recognizing and addressing customer value was critical to building the bottom line. For small companies on a growth trajectory, margin can sometimes be secondary - but that's far less true today.

I recall, early in my sports career, a situation where a major sponsor was prepared to write a really big check, but they wanted our commercial business in return. As CFO, I rejected the deal because the cost to us - and the burden it placed on our employees - far exceeded the revenue value. We didn't run a specific margin calculation on that deal, but it was obvious to me that the account wasn't worth the cost, even though it would have driven top-line revenue.

As a CFO, I think that's something you always have to weigh - it's almost an obligation. And I've had more than a few salespeople upset with me because of how focused I was on that.

Angela from TNF:

Not all revenue is “good” revenue. For example, is the revenue profitable, does the revenue help gain brand buzz (by accessing a coveted target consumer or expanding channel presence, etc.)? The bigger question is: What is your sales & channel strategy? What are the short-term, medium-term, and long-term business and financial goals of that strategy? Guided by that strategy, you can make an informed call on a difficult or margin dilutive customer.

I feel so fortunate to call both of these CFOs friends and mentors. Catch their episodes below:

Wishing you weather that doesn’t impact your jacket sales,

CJ