Propeo Perspectives

Propeo Executive Search

The top corporate financial job has never been more demanding or more visible than it is today - the change is being driven by mergers, acquisitions, LBOs, and bankruptcies... and, globally, by rapidly emerging markets, falling trade barriers, and intense competition.

There is a new breed of Chief Financial Officer emerging, one which understands that the CFO role is not just to measure and report on value, but also to actively contribute to its creation.

These dynamic professionals have learned how to keep one eye on the balance sheet and the other on the future. They work very closely with the CEO in setting a direction for corporate strategy, maximizing the efficiency of the business, and improving bottom line performance.

The 21st century CFO helps the company prepare for a volatile and increasingly tough environment, and in particular, builds the kind of finance organization that the business will require as it moves forward.

Such a person is a far cry from the traditional bean counter. The biggest difference is that the modern CFO is actively involved in creating more beans. It's the shift from number-cruncher to business strategist and partner that must be understood both by employers and by prospective candidates for CFO positions. In our view, this is not a small step.

You will require your CFO to set in motion the critical activities that define how your company will face your challenges:

	Integrating the Finance function with the rest of the organization, redefining its role and retraining staff to fully understand business operations and drivers
	Strategically thinking through how the business should best apply its capital resources, bringing to bear traditional powers of analysis and commercial judgment to answer this question
	Developing management control methods, producing new sets of strategic measures that managers can use to anticipate challenges and monitor progress
	Putting in place long-term cost management programs that replace traditional "cost accounting" activities
	Evaluating the value-add of each financial process, and identifying the real drivers of company profitability.

The 21st century CFO has been described as the CEO's navigator, anticipating the risks and setting the course for the journey to new corporate destinations. Rather than just reengineer and re-tool back office operations, they will improve the effectiveness and the profitability of the entire organization. They know how and where the company's money is made. Such "super CFOs," to quote Fortune magazine, "shape strategy... and can be worth billions to a company and its shareholders." This truth has been clearly demonstrated in very recent times when the stock price of certain companies fell sharply as a direct result of CFO departures!

The most noticeable new CFO competencies are (1) broad strategic perspective, and (2) people skills. Good CFOs can read people like a balance sheet. They can develop relationships, create alliances, motivate colleagues and win the trust of the CEO and the board. To us in Propeo Executive Search, it is therefore hardly surprising, that not only are CFO paychecks growing to reflect such value, but that also those who can step up to the requirements of the CFO role and perform well in it find a pathway opening up to the CEO slot.

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