Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OGM who wrote (7705)	9/26/1998 3:59:00 PM
From: Michael G. Potter	Respond to of 16960

I'm wondering if seeing into the channel is the CFO's job. I would think that it is the sales and marketing groups job to do that. The CFO ('s organization) has to take what the customer contacts are saying and translate them into financial impact, but he or she doesn't have the regular contact with the customers that the sales group does. What I would expect is that the CFO would be asking tough questions of the other functions to make sure that he agrees with their assessments. He also would approve any special deals or pricing that came up. In a smaller organization, the CFO and CEO would have much more customer contact. 3dfx isn't that small anymore. What the CFO can do is call his counterparts at his major customers and set up a financial early warning system - he can warn the customers about production problems that may impact their finanical statements and they can warn him about changes in demand. As far as we know, it was Dave Zacharias that made the call that the orders were not coming in and decided (with the CEO) to issue the press release warning the shareholders about the shortfall. Michael ps - I'm in Finance at my company and used to work in the small business group when I was at KPMG Peat Marwick Thorne. If I'm wrong about the expectations for a CFO in Silicon Valley, please let me know.