FEATURE | Recruitment
A great CFO
who can stand alongside the CEO and have what it takes to transform a company’s
fortunes is not easy to find
NEW DOG, NEW TRICKS Many CEOs are hired for their track record in business turnaround and transformation. In KPMG’s ‘The View from the Top’ report, CEOs also cite this as a vital skill in their CFO. Referring to the ‘Renaissance CFO’, the report states that the modern CFO has to manage ‘a vast ecosystem of expanding complexity with the goal of achieving competitive advantage’ but, alarmingly, concludes that almost one out of three CEOs feel their current CFO is not up to the challenge. Of course, the traditional core skills of the CFO are still important and the headhunter will need to seek evidence of effective cost cutting, cash management, financial controls, reporting and compliance. The candidate, however, must demonstrate an understanding of the commercial context within which these standard requirements have been met and a desire not just to safeguard the company but to promote innovation and stimulate growth. The best CFOs are as focused on outward looking KPIs, like market share as a percentage of market potential, as they are on inward indicators such as EBIT.
30 DIRECTOR OF FINANCE
BUILDING THE TEAM An essential skill possessed by the greatest CFOs is the ability to mentor and nurture talent. Whilst the CFO’s role is to coach the CEO and underpin the CEO’s strategy through financial planning, the CFO should also be a leader who can develop, inspire and mentor his or her own team beneath. Given that a CFO’s typical tenure is around five years, a greater focus on succession planning is needed. By knowing what makes a successful CFO, the incumbent can nurture a shadow CFO by ensuring that the team below gains all the requisite experience of other functions, benefits from learning and development programmes and masters new technologies. In KPMG’s report, almost all CEOs said that attracting and retaining top-notch finance talent was the most important or equally important contributing factor to improving the finance function, yet only 33% of CEOs gave their current CFO a thumbs-up in that respect.
IT SAVVY Headhunters are placing increasing emphasis on CFOs having a penchant for technology. By harnessing cloud-based ERP systems, for example, the finance
function can be more agile and scalable and can empower senior management across the business with real-time data they can react to quickly. The CFO does not need to be an IT wizard, but needs to understand that clever application of technology allows the finance team to spend more time analysing and interpreting data, instead of preparing it. The use of predictive analytics will only help this further. The role of the CFO has evolved beyond
recognition. Exit the stereotypical bean counter and enter the three-dimensional CFO, aligned with the entire business and cut from the same cloth as the CEO. A great CFO who can stand alongside the CEO and have what it takes to transform a company’s fortunes is not easy to find. Gone are the days when swapping the same names around the FTSE 100 will do the job. It’s about time that headhunters changed too. Q
Stacey Nicholl is a Senior Consultant at Marlin Hawk, a leadership advisory and executive search firm with offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Singapore.
www.marlinhawk. com /
enquiries@marlinhawk.com
dofonline.co.uk
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