What's Up With All The Vacant CFO Positions?

Kohl's CorporationKSSCoach IncCOHNordstrom, Inc.JWNWhole Foods Market, Inc.WFMNeiman Marcus

According to Gadfly's Shelly Banjo, the list of vacant chief financial officer positions merely adds to the roughly one-fifth of U.S. retailers that appointed a new chief financial officer in 2015 — 5 percentage points higher than all the other industries.

What's In A Name?

Finally, Banjo also highlighted another key trend: Retailers are looking outside the retail sector for their main finance gurus. For example, Tiffany & Co. TIF's CFO Mark Erceg is a railroad veteran and Ralph Lauren Corp RL's CFO Jane Nielsen spent more than a decade at a food and beverage company.

Throughout 2016, the CFO turnover rate for retailers was 17.4 percent — 2 percentage points higher than 15.4 percent for all other industries.

Banjo suggested this trend is merely a sign of the "rapidly changing retail industry" due to changing consumer behavior, which demands new strategies from executives.

Consider that two decades ago the job of a retail CFO was to:

1. Build new stores.
2. Watch the company's stock price.
3. Boost sales at new stores.
4. Watch the stock rise some more.
5. Repeat.

These days, a retail CFO is expected to:

1. Boost e-commerce sales.
2. Close stores.
3. Help plan a turnaround.
4. Slim down corporate structures.
5. Still keep up with the old tasks.