In JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s annual shareholder letter, he recaps the successes and challenges that both his bank and the U.S. as a whole have seen over the past year and offers commentary and suggestions about what is to come. And not surprisingly, he mentions the war in Iran as a major issue for the future of the U.S. economy. War, Dimon writes, is “the realm of uncertainty,” which can have an impact on nations and economies that aren’t even involved in the conflict.

The war in Iran has brought oil and commodity price shocks—and could bring more, Dimon writes. This conflict has the potential to reshape global supply chains, create stickier inflation, jack up interest rates, and keep geopolitical tensions high, he writes.

“The outcome of current geopolitical events may very well be the defining factor in how the future global economic order unfolds — then again, it may not,” Dimon’s letter states.

One thing is clear: The future is uncertain. And in times of uncertainty, EY-Parthenon found that the companies best able to maintain revenues are those that have invested in a resilience strategy. I spoke with EY-Parthenon Global and Americas Corporate Finance Leader Josh Putnam about how to put this kind of strategy into action. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

This is the published version of Forbes' CFO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief finance officers and other leaders focused on the budget. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.

Many aspects of the war in Iran are somewhat uncertain to many Americans, but this much is apparent: the stock market, investors and consumers want it to be over. Last Tuesday, the markets saw their best day in almost a year because President Donald Trump told the New York Post that U.S. military forces wouldn’t need to be in Iran much longer, saying later that day that the war would only last two or three more weeks. The markets have dropped since, especially this morning, after Trump has said Iran’s peace proposal was “not good enough” and warned “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if the Strait of Hormuz is not passable by tonight.

Consumers are definitely feeling the price of the war. Forbes senior contributor Mayra Rodriguez Valladares looks at how the prices of food, natural resources and gasoline have increased since the war began in late February, potentially leading already wary consumers to cut back even more. The pain is most obvious at the gas pump, where average prices crossed the $4 per gallon mark in the last week, and are at $4.14 today, according to AAA. Analysts caution that if gas prices stay above $4 a gallon at this time of year, people may decide to pull back on summer vacation plans, curtailing significant economic activity in the second half of the year.

Still, consumer confidence was up in March, according to the Conference Board’s monthly report, increasing to 91.8 from 91 in February. The increase in confidence is short-term, with more people saying jobs were “plentiful” in March and that business conditions were better. And at first glance, the federal jobs data from March falls in line with that viewpoint. The U.S. added more jobs last month than expected—178,000, opposed to analysts’ estimates of 60,000—and the unemployment rate fell a tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%. However, Forbes senior contributor Erik Sherman writes, recent revisions to job numbers and the overall downward employment trend make it clear that it isn’t time to celebrate. February’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, which measures percentages of the workforce that got new jobs and left old ones, showed zero net growth in the workforce.

And things may not be getting better on that front. Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported 60,620 jobs were cut in March. A quarter of them were eliminated because of AI, the firm found.

Given the number of military entanglements Trump has gotten the U.S. into since his second term began, it’s no surprise that he asked Congress for a record $1.5 trillion budget for the Pentagon in FY 2027—a 40% increase from the current fiscal year’s budget, which is the largest the military has seen. In Trump’s plan, some of those funds would come from steep cuts to many federal government programs that help businesses.

The Small Business Administration would lose roughly two-thirds of its funding, a $671 million decrease. The bulk of that cut—$309 million—would come from entrepreneurial development programs the Trump Administration claims “waste taxpayer dollars,” including the elimination of the nonprofit Service Corps of Retired Executives. There would also be far fewer people working at SBA under this plan—salaries and expenses would see a $170 million reduction. A $160 million cut in administrative expenses linked to business loan programs is also included, along with a new proposed fee on lenders to backfill the money. SBA’s workforce had already been cut in half in FY 2025, according to the agency’s annual report, and provided $45 billion in loans to 85,000 U.S. businesses.

Other big cuts to business programs include a 26% drop to Labor Department spending—which would be used to shut down the Job Corps training program for low-income youth—and a 12% cut to the Commerce Department, which would eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency. Trump also wants to reallocate funds in the Commerce Department, with $110 million more for trade enforcement and to create the “U.S. Investment Accelerator,” which the administration says is intended to fast-track job creation.

Early signs show Trump’s budget will have a difficult time in Congress—which actually passes the budget, and can choose to ignore Trump’s priorities. Politico reports many members of Congress are unwilling to give such a huge boost to military funding in exchange for programs that help Americans. Last year, Trump also used his budget to try to force through several major changes to government, and many of them did not get through Congress.

There are many pervasive unknowns in the business world, but top executives are optimistic about what lies ahead. According to the annual Forbes Research CxO Growth Survey, a quarter of companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenues had flat or negative growth in the last fiscal year—but 91% expect revenue to increase this year. Almost as many—86%—said they think they’ll be in a stronger position in three years than today.

CFOs say they are working to balance risk management with investment in the future—while preparing for any issues with inflation, tariffs and other unexpected cost pressures. Almost every CFO—95%—plans to increase investment in AI, while the same percentage also plans more investment in cybersecurity. More than half said that cybersecurity threats are their company’s No. 1 obstacle to growth. But investment goes beyond technology: About three-quarters of CFOs are anticipating hiring increases, and the same proportion expects wage increases in the next year.

Inflation and economic uncertainty are large obstacles for CFOs, the survey found. More than six out of 10 said inflation was the top risk to their bottom lines in the next year. And 51% said economic uncertainty is among their top challenges as financial leaders over the next 12 months.

The Strategic Shift: Moving From Growth Chasing To Operational Discipline

For the most part, the stock market has been relatively strong in recent months, and many companies have seen good margin growth. But the economy as a whole has been volatile, and many companies have seen sharp declines in response to events and announcements by other companies and political leaders. Earlier this year, EY-Parthenon put together a playbook for companies to gain stability by adopting a resilience strategy.

I talked to report co-author EY-Parthenon Global and Americas Corporate Finance Leader Josh Putnam about how CFOs can work toward this change and help their companies do well in whatever economic climate lies ahead. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.

Why is it so important right now for companies to become resilient, and how can the CFO help them get there?

Putnam: It’s been important for a long time. What you see is the companies that are successful right now are the ones that have focused on resilience. It matters now because if you are prepared for it, you would be better established, both from your supply chain perspective and from a capital allocation perspective. Do you have the right customer relationships? Have you differentiated your product? Those are the companies that are performing.

It’s not too late to start down the resilience path. First off, get operational discipline around the business. We’re seeing any number of things that companies are doing. One: looking at their portfolio. Do I have the right kind of set of companies within my portfolio to maximize value?

Two: interest rates are up. Access to capital is different than what it has been over the last decade. How am I going to fund these investments going forward? We’re seeing companies actually divest to invest: Get rid of lower performing businesses and generate cash so that you can generate future transformation going forward.

A CFO today has to think about: What does my business look like tomorrow from a margin perspective? How am I going to utilize technology and digital infrastructure investments in order to maximize efficiency and improve margins going forward?

What is the biggest challenge to companies as they are trying to transition from a short-term growth strategy to one with more resilient and sustained margin growth?

There are two, and I think they’re related.

It’s change management: How do you convince a company and other C-suite executives that operational discipline is what will pay off in the long run?

Then two: How do you accept that in times of high-return markets, I’m not just chasing the market for excess returns, and I’m actually going to embed that operational discipline that gives me steadier, better long-term returns? If you haven’t embedded the operational discipline and you are chasing returns in the periods of time when returns are available to you, I think that is a real change management problem.

What are some things that you would tell a CFO to do to start moving toward more operational discipline, a strategy that is more protective of what is going on inside the company?

Getting your data in order: A problem that we see is companies don’t have the systems that they need in order to track the information. Companies have aggregated businesses over time, and they have multiple systems that don’t communicate, so they’re doing manual over-the-top adjustments. We see issues with disparate systems that don’t communicate, and companies that haven’t taken the time to invest in a robust suite of data.

Laying out that capital investment framework: You have to answer questions for yourself such as: Where should I put my money to work? Do I buy versus build? If you think about technology investments or trying to grow for scale? These are things that help drive margin over time. Building is maybe a lower capital-intensive decision, but a longer return horizon. Or am I going to buy it? I might pay more for it today, but I get the scale or infrastructure online quicker.

Cloud computing and software company Oracle appointed Hilary Maxson as its new chief financial officer, effective April 6. Maxson joins the firm from Schneider Electric, where she served as executive vice president and group chief financial officer, and she has also worked in leadership at the AES Corporation.

Building solutions firm Amrize appointed Baris Oran as its new chief financial officer, effective April 1. Oran joins the company from GXO Logistics, where he worked in the same role, and he succeeds Ian Johnston.

Contracting services provider Dycom Industries promoted James “Bo” Gresham to be its first chief revenue officer, effective March 30. Gresham most recently worked as the company’s vice president of strategy, and before that spent 26 years working for Dycom subsidiary Ervin Cable Construction.

While companies are supposed to receive refunds for the tariffs they paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, struck down by the Supreme Court in February, that isn’t the end of tariff issues. Here are some things to consider as you recalibrate your tariff strategy for the future.

Many companies have grandiose ideas for successful strategies, but they fall flat because they’re too complicated. A new book from Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee lays out how to simplify strategy—and become more effective—by focusing on value.

Which company recently announced it will offer its employees up to $1,200 annually in bonuses and weekly paychecks for meeting performance, sales and customer service goals?

See if you got the right answer here.

© Forbes