INSIDE STORY | FD Recruitment W


alt Disney once dismissed the idea of his accountant brother taking over from him to run his Hollywood studio. “You can’t have an accountant running the company,” he opined. “Accountants can only look backwards.”


That may have been true once but increasingly the finance


director role is taking over from that of the chief operating office, becoming the second-in-command responsible for the operational side of the business. That can be more or less hands-on – depending on the size of


the company – and on what the business is looking for in an incoming CFO, which varies enormously. Some CFOs do not even come from a traditional accounting


background, seeing themselves more like digital evangelists, transforming businesses through actionable data. Director of Finance spoke to four leading specialist FD


recruitment agencies to understand what qualities you need to become the perfect CFO.


HOW THE FD ROLE IS CHANGING “The CFO role is as broad and influential as it’s ever been,” says Simon Bailey, partner and head of financial officers’ practice, Savannah Group. “I am looking for someone who’s ready to be co-leader of the business. The line between CFO and CEO is increasingly thin nowadays, and I’m looking for somebody who’s able to be ambassador for the organisation as much as I’m looking for someone who can look aſter the financial side.” CEOs are looking for FDs who understands where their business sits in the marketplace and what it offers in the sector. Phil Scott, managing director of


The line between


CFO and CEO is increasingly thin nowadays


FD Recruit, says the FD role has become all about forecasting – forward thinking, planning, risk analysis and mitigating risk – as opposed to the


controller, which is about looking into the past.


Companies that FD Recruit work with want an FD who can


help them go on the journey they want, putting numbers against it. They want the FD to update them along the way, rather than present end-of-year figures. This means that the qualities one needs to bring to the role


are changing too. No longer are companies just looking for grey-haired bean counters – they want people who are emotionally intelligent, who can move between all strata of an organisation. George Heppenstall, director of Director Bank, says:


“There’s a lot of pressure on the finance function these days to be closer to the business. Businesses are having to be nimbler, which has a consequence to pushing more across to the CFO to support the day-to-day running of the business. “The emotional intelligence [EQ] of the finance director is


quite high when it comes to recruitment. You want somebody who’s comfortable at board level but can also relate to the shop floor, so to speak. Somebody who’s comfortable right throughout the hierarchy.” What this means is that FDs have to be good at communicating. “What we’re not asked for is the stereotype grey-haired bean counter,” says Scott.


30 DIRECTOR OF FINANCE DOFONLINE.COM


financial


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