By Rich Bond
According to recent statistics, the tenure of a new CFO is three and a half to five years.
While the reasons vary, do you have a plan to ensure you can have a longer tenure or will be able to leave on your own terms?
My experience is that a CFO can be the victim of the messenger syndrome. The bearer of bad news is shot.
You can avoid this fate by making sure you’re not just a scorekeeper, as CFOs have been in the past. Transform yourself into a strategic partner to the CEO and a provider of timely, actionable information to all functional areas in your company.
- Come up with new and better KPIs.
- Expand upon the analysis of profitability by customer and brand.
- Develop better forecasts for risks and opportunities.
- Look into pricing and profit opportunities, even if your company is focused on cost cutting.
If you are a CFO (particularly a new one), and you’ve discovered that your finance group is not helping you function as a strategic business partner to the C-Suite, you may need to add to, or even replace, existing staff.
Over 30+ years, I have recruited and placed people who lead or help implement financial transformations. Their leadership has helped increase their companies’ bottom lines by $100,000 to $100 million annually.
I would love to talk to you about whether your finance team is helping you fill the role as a strategic business partner. If it is not, I can share some ideas on how it could be.
