I asked Jeff Constable, who leads Korn Ferry’s Financial Officers Practice in North America and co-leads it globally, what he’s hearing. “Attracting, developing, and retaining top talent is usually at the top of the list or at least in the top three priority areas for the top CFOs,” Constable told me. “We continue to see more energy and investment being poured into the development of top talent, which is hugely correlated to retention,” he said.

This topic came up during Goldman Sachs’ U.S. Financial Services Conference on Tuesday. The bank’s CFO Denis Coleman was asked how he would characterize today’s competitive environment for talent.

The firm has top talent and there is always a market for that talent in the industry, Coleman said. “This year, it remains an absolute top priority of the firm to execute as well as we possibly can,” he said. “We do need to attract, develop, and, importantly, retain the most talented people.”

Some of what binds people to Goldman Sachs is a culture of collaboration and teamwork, Coleman said. “And then, obviously, making sure that we’re in a position to pay for performance where that’s warranted while balancing our desire to deliver returns to shareholders,” he said.

“A Goldman Sachs job is a ‘golden ticket’—over 300,000 young bankers try to get one each year,” Fortune’s Luisa Beltran recently observed. Noting that the Fortune 500 company is regarded as the best of the so-called bulge bracket banks, Beltran added that “The 155-year-old firm is the top global M&A investment banker in 2024, serving as an advisor on 313 mergers valued at $713.4 billion, according to investment banking scorecard data as of Oct. 6 from Dealogic.”

Meridith Dennes, managing partner of Prospect Rock Partners, a financial search firm, told Beltran that Goldman is a leading IPO advisor and has the most recognizable brand on Wall Street. “Everyone wants to work at Goldman Sachs,” she said.

During the Goldman Sachs conference, Coleman said the firm’s economics continue to call for a soft landing heading into next year. “I think it’s fair to say there are some policy uncertainties with the new administration,” he said. But it’s also expected that the “regulatory burden should be reduced and that should serve as a tailwind to risk assets,” he explained. In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates another 25 basis points by the end of the year. Heading into 2025, the overall macroeconomic backdrop “looks very supportive for increased levels of activity,” Coleman said.

But from a risk perspective, he said two major areas are top of mind—geopolitics and cybersecurity. 

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Michael Holt was named CFO at Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a global provider of independent investment insights, effective Jan. 1. The company previously announced that Jason Dubinsky would step down at the end of the year. Holt first joined Morningstar in 2008 as an equity analyst. He led the global equity research team from 2014 to 2018 before he assumed the corporate strategy position.

Laura Russell was named SVP, CFO, and treasurer at Rogers Corporation (NYSE: ROG), effective Dec. 10. Russell joined Rogers in September 2023 as VP of finance and served in that capacity until her appointment as interim CFO in August 2024. Before joining the company, from July 2021 to September 2023, Russell served as the VP of finance and operations for Wolfspeed.

Big Deal

A survey by Gartner, Inc. taken during The Top Priorities for CFOs in 2025 webinar, showed finance chiefs have a range of concerns. The poll of 250 CFOs and finance leaders found slower top-line growth, the ability to hire and retain critical talent, and strategic alignments and gaps in the executive team are the top three areas posing a major concern to enterprise performance, according to the report. 

Gartner experts have identified five practices that set apart a top 5% of companies that have delivered efficient growth relative to their industry peers: cycle discipline; remove growth anchors; cultivate over-performance; don't starve growth investments during cost-cutting; and address offering complexity. 

Going deeper

Consulting firm WTW’s Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor shows a steady rise in the volume of deals valued at over $1 billion during the last 12 months, a positive trend that has led to growing confidence in corporate boardrooms for 2025, according to the report.

WTW outlines five M&A trends to watch in 2025: consolidation and rise of mid-market deals; AI’s watershed moment; economic stabilization; geopolitical knowns and unknowns; and regulatory limbo.

Overheard

"Business leaders are hyping up AI for how it might transform the digital world. But they’re only now beginning to understand the enormous effect it can have on the physical world. AI can help us design, build, and re-build the U.S.’s many roads, bridges, factories, homes, and cities, ahead of a rapidly changing future."

—Andrew Anagnost, CEO of Autodesk, writes in a Fortune opinion piece titled, "AI can help the U.S. fix its crumbling infrastructure before it’s too late."