Skip to main content

The Entrepreneurial CFO

By

A CFO is no longer just the person providing financial analysis and mitigating legal and financial risks. Today’s CFO is the CEO’s right hand executive and a strategic trusted advisor. The role of a successful CFO is to enable the CEOs, owners and management to fulfil their corporate vision as the company's finance function is a key factor for creating success. The primary objective of the CFO is to enable CEOs to deliver to their companies' continuous improved financial returns, increased cash flow, improved financial position and increased overall business value.

A contemporary CFO must think differently and provide alternative perspectives. The CFO should be in tune with the culture of the organization and understand the importance of momentum for the organization to reach its full potential.

Apart from regular finance related responsibilities, an entrepreneurial CFO focuses on:

Ø  Catalyst to technology adoption - The right financial processes, tools and practices should be established so that day-to-day financial management is enabled efficiently and controls are enhanced. Today's CFO not only develops KPIs and understands performance trends, but also develops and implements strategies to improve them. The CFO also needs to continuously raise the bar and empower the employees and thereby push the organization forward.

Ø  Strategic advisor - The CFO understands in depth, the market opportunity, strategy and business model of the organization. The CFO plays the role of a trusted advisor to the senior executive team as he/she is the best person to provide a unique perspective that looks across all departments.

Ø  Disciplined operator - To ensure success, today’s CFO must speak the language of business and understand that the key drivers of business are often significantly more than what shows up on the balance sheet. He/she provides data, information, insights and puts them into action.

Ø  Partner to CEO – The CFO helps CEOs and business leaders to gain a sense of financial control thereby creating a better overall working environment. He/she also partners with CEOs in reducing risk in forming strategy.
  
The role of an entrepreneurial CFO is hands-on, focused not only on financials but also on the myriad of operational and strategic issues that affect an organization. Besides the CEO, the CFO is the only person with a clear view of the big picture and operates without a specific bias towards line functions.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mission to Make the CFO's life Easier

By
In today’s business context, life of a CFO is that of the radar as well as the captain of a moving ship. Today’s CFO is expected to contribute well beyond the traditional role of cost management and operational controls. The CFO needs to play a delicate balancing act across multiple dimensions, some of which include: Impact of globalization: having an effective finance function that can account for the increasing complexities of running a global business Regulatory adherence: Global regulatory requirements are constantly changing and continually increasing, and CFOs have a personal stake in regulatory adherence Risk management: the nature of risks that an organization faces keep changing Reporting requirements: managing the ever broadening and often burdensome reporting requirements The CFO needs to do all this, while also keeping a keen eye on rigorous ongoing cost management and operational efficiencies to fuel profitability and strategic reinvestment. All this under...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why you should automate your statutory financial reporting

By
Visit : https://finalyzer.beyondsquare.com   ||  https://xbrl.beyondsquare.com Statutory reporting consumes a significant amount of time, effort and cost. The statutory reporting function is constantly evolving as organizations look to further streamline their finance function through technology transformation and other cost-cutting initiatives. Manually prepared reports present challenges around data inaccuracy, inconsistency, lack of audit trail. They are time consuming and subject to significant operational risk. If consolidation is involved, there are a whole new set of challenges to deal with – standardisation of account grouping, forex translation, elimination, minority interests etc. Incorrect reporting due to manual errors and omissions can be quite costly. Hundreds of companies are routinely investigated and penalised each year for violating disclosure norms. Organizations are looking at technology solutions to ease out and streamline the regulatory reporting...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Tips to make your KPI tracking initiatives effective

By
EVERYTHING is measurable in today's increasingly digital world. Clearly, businesses with a strong analytics program in place have significant advantage over those that don't. The right tracking initiatives help them effectively identify what is working and what is not, and to know whether they are making the right decisions . An effective KPI should be able to reflect, and relate directly to the business' goals. It should be quantitative and quantifiable, and linked directly to the measurement of your business' success. So, are you being S.M.A.R.T. about it? When you create KPIs, you should be able to answer these five questions known as the S.M.A.R.T. tips to help you identify the effective ones. ·    1.          Specific : Is this KPI too broad, or is it clearly defined and identified?       2.       Measurable : Can I easily quantify this measure?     3 .      Attainable ...
Post a Comment
Read more