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

Workforce reimagination is here. In 2026, the office of the CFO is moving from AI as a tool to a coworker.

Recorded in Davos, this episode digs into the human side of transformation. We sit down with global leaders to unpack why the human in the loop is being rewritten and why change management has become a core executive capability.

Mandi McReynolds talks with Costi Perricos, Global GenAI Business Leader at Deloitte, Dennis Woodside, CEO of Freshworks, and Dr. Márcia Balisciano, Board Member Foundation for the UN Global Compact and CSO of RELX, about what they're seeing on the ground as roles evolve from task execution to AI orchestration.

In this episode:

04:00 Costi Pericos on agentic collaboration and why HR and AI are converging
13:10 Dennis Woodside on the execution gap and changing daily work habits
15:30 Marcia Balisciano on CFO leadership and becoming "chief environmental champions"
19:00 Conclusion: Why CFOs must architect the agentic future

"I often say you'll learn without AI first so that one day you can be the human in the loop, coordinating and governing AI."
— Costi Pericos, Deloitte

Enjoy this episode? Find more at workiva.com/podcast/the-pre-read

Traditional finance models are hitting a wall. This episode highlights a panel at Davos that gets straight to the engine room of the enterprise.

Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer, Cognizant; Mike Rost, Chief Strategy Officer, Workiva; Jonathan Zanger, Chief Technology Officer, Check Point; and Jennifer Steinmann, Global Sustainability Business Leader, Deloitte gathered to talk about:
The ROI heresy: Why waiting for a fixed ROI is like using an obsolete map for a moving target
The 3x productivity jump: Why a 300% increase is the new starting point for AI
Security risks: Understanding white font attacks and AI doppelgangers in HR systems
Strategic insights: How predictive analytics and earth observation are changing risk valuation

Timestamps:
00:00—Multiplying traditional productivity by three
02:15—The Davos panel: AI promise and peril
04:10—Why ROI is an irrelevant measure for AI
05:40—Security alerts: The white font attack
07:15—The $3.8 trillion insight at stake
08:20—The Monday morning mandate

"Whatever you thought about traditional productivity multiplied by three at minimum, and that should be a starting point, not the end point." —Jatin Dalal, CFO of Cognizant

Find past conversations at workiva.com/podcast/the-pre-read

Misinformation, amplified by AI, has climbed to the top of the global risk landscape. What does that mean for the office of the CFO?

We kick off a Davos miniseries with Workiva CSO Mandi McReynolds, bringing perspectives straight from the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Mandi sits down with Ami Badani, CMO of Arm, Rob Fisher, Global Head of Advisory at KPMG, and Robin Hodes, CEO of Global Reporting Initiative, to break down brand risk, workforce pressure, and why transparent, trusted data is now a leadership mandate.

In this episode:

04:00 Defending information certainty and proactive brand protection
09:30 The "dollar for dollar" rule: Investing equally in tech and people
18:00 Why reporting is becoming a frontline risk tool
21:00 Preview: The rise of cybersecurity doppelgangers

"For every dollar on the tech, you should be spending a dollar on the workforce transformation."
—Rob Fisher, Global Head of Advisory, KPMG

Enjoy this episode? Find more at workiva.com/podcast/the-pre-read

#Davos2026 #GlobalRisk #CFO #AIStrategy #WorkforceTransformation

Is your organization ready for the SOX journey of sustainability data?

In this episode of The Pre-Read, we sit down with Lori Defnet, ESG Controller at The Hershey Company, to define the core remit of this emerging role. While traditional controllers guard the known, ESG controllers manage ambiguity. Lori shares how she navigates moving targets in the regulatory landscape and why curiosity and adaptability are the most critical skills for the next generation of finance leaders.

Key moments:
02:45—Defining the core remit of an ESG controller
05:30—The data challenge: ERP systems vs. supplier surveys
08:15—A "crawl, walk, run" approach to limited and reasonable assurance
11:40—Stakeholder management: Education and empathy
13:50—Will the ESG controller role eventually merge with finance?
17:15—Curiosity and adaptability in succession planning

"I think the role of that ESG controller is that translator to help teach the business and teach the finance organization how to get there." —Lori Defnet

Find past conversations at workiva.com/podcast/the-pre-read

#ESG #Accounting #Sustainability #FinanceTransformation #Workiva

How do leaders turn messy data into something they can trust?

Global C-suite executive Amina Razvi joins us to explain why decision-grade data is the foundation of modern CFO risk management. She breaks down how integrating financial and non-financial data changes how companies manage volatility, price risk, and build long-term resilience.

In this conversation, we cover:

Why waiting for perfect data is a risk in itself
How sustainability data quality drives innovation, not just compliance
What CFOs gain by connecting financial, operational, and supply chain data
Why working pre-competitively can reduce risk across entire industries

Enjoying the show? Find past conversations at workiva.com/podcast/the-pre-read
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