A visit to Blockbuster Video used to be the ultimate Friday night trip, but today, that blue and yellow ticket is a legal battleground for intangible assets. In this episode of The Pre-Read, we unearth the true drivers of company valuation, from nostalgic trademarks to proprietary AI.

"The question isn't whether Blockbuster was famous. It's whether it's famous enough now for trademark law to care in the same way." —Ivan Moreno

Guest spotlight:
Ivan Moreno, senior reporter at Law360®, breaks down the Blockbuster trademark case against a Mississippi animal feed company. He discusses why heritage brands must fight to stay legally relevant even when they no longer lead the market.

Then Alana Chartier, Sustainability Analyst at Workiva, explains the $81 trillion blind spot in global company valuation. She argues that a 21st-century economy cannot run on 20th-century reporting systems that classify human capital and AI as costs instead of assets.

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
03:30 The Blockbuster trademark case vs. Southern Seed and Feed
05:40 Dilution by blurring: Can you protect a legacy name?
08:30 Accounting for brand value: Acquisition vs. internal builds
11:00 Reputation as a corporate credit score
18:40 The orchard analogy: Why we only count the fruit
21:30 Integrated reporting: Connecting financial and non-financial data

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Don't let the political noise fool you: Green hushing is real, but green quitting is a myth. In this episode, we sit down with Grant Harrison, VP at Trellis Group, to bridge the narrative reality gap.

We explore how the office of the CFO is taking the lead, shifting sustainability from a values-driven initiative to a finance-led sustainability strategy anchored in financial materiality. Learn how to build a data backbone that delivers assurance-ready sustainability data for global mandates like CSRD and ISSB.

Key moments:
00:00 Introduction
02:15 Identifying the narrative reality gap in today's market
05:40 Green hushing vs. green quitting: What the data says
09:10 Why the controller's office is the new home for sustainability
12:50 Moving beyond a check-the-box compliance mindset
17:45 Using assurance-ready sustainability data to optimize the cost of capital

"Companies getting it right treat the disclosure as a byproduct of good decision-making, not an output of something that was ... machine built to produce PDF outcome." —Grant Harrison, VP of Sustainable Finance and ESG at Trellis Group

Find past conversations at workiva.com/podcast/the-pre-read
#Sustainability #CFO #ESG #FinanceStrategy #Workiva

Is your reporting strategy ready for a six-month silence? #podcast

The traditional quarterly cycle is under the microscope. We explore the potential shift to semi-annual reporting and why "less" disclosure often results in more work for finance, legal, and IR.

What we cover:

» The Capital Gap: Will investors penalize companies that choose to say less?

» The 8-K Surge: Why voluntary filings might become the new 10-Q.

» The Governance Risk: Navigating longer "dark periods" and insider trading exposure.

» Decision-Grade Data: Why you can't afford to lose the discipline of a quarterly close.

The Insight:

"Never has an investor asked for less information." — Mike Rost,SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Workiva

Timestamps: 
00:00 Intro
02:21 Highlights and Key Risks
04:23 IR Transparency Tradeoffs
07:39 Eight-K Takes Center Stage
10:43 Finance Governance and Data
13:54 Reg FD and Guidance Pressure
14:50 Insider Trading and Litigation
22:15 Final Takeaways and Readiness
26:06 Europe and UK Real-World Model

#SEC #CFO #InvestorRelations #Governance #ThePreRead #Workiva