Four faces of the CFO

Framework
Today, the role of the chief financial officer (CFO) is under greater scrutiny,
internally and externally. CFOs face never ending pressure to cut costs, grow
revenue, and ensure control. Economic uncertainty, increased regulatory
requirements, financial restatements, and increased investor scrutiny have
forced them into the spotlight. Given these factors, CFO turnover is on the
rise.
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The four faces

Today’s CFOs are expected to play four diverse and challenging roles. The two traditional roles
are steward, preserving the assets of the organization by minimizing risk and getting the books
right, and operator, running a tight finance operation that is efficient and effective. It’s increasingly
important for CFOs to be strategists, helping to shape overall strategy and direction, and catalysts,
instilling a financial approach and mind set throughout the organization to help other parts of the
business perform better.

These varied roles make a CFO’s job more complex than ever.

The four faces overview Download the PDF

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Steward
CFOs work to protect the vital assets of the company, ensure compliance with financial regulations,
close the books correctly, and communicate value and risk issues to investors and boards.

Operator
CFOs have to operate an efficient and effective finance organization providing a variety of services
to the business such as financial planning and analysis, treasury, tax, and other finance operations.

Strategist
CFOs take a seat at the strategy planning table and help influence the future direction of the
company. They are vital in providing financial leadership and aligning business and finance strategy
to grow the business. In addition to M&A and capital market financing strategies, they can play an
integral role in supporting other long-term investments of the company.

Catalyst
CFOs can stimulate and drive the timely execution of change in the finance function or the
enterprise. Using the power of their purse strings, they can selectively drive business improvement
initiatives such as improved enterprise cost reduction, procurement, pricing execution, and other
process improvements and innovations that add value to the company.
 The Deloitte CFO Program is celebrating its 10th anniversary
Deloitte's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Program brings together a multidisciplinary team of Deloitte
leaders and subject matter specialists to help CFOs stay ahead in the face of growing challenges and
demands.

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 The four faces

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 Catalyst

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Executive Summary

The role of the CFO has undergone a profound transformation in

recent years.
 Traditionally, the CFO fundamentally had three main tasks: the books and
records of the company, financial reporting, and statutory compliance.

 Today's CFO is fundamentally different from the CFO of yesterday.

Today's CFOs drive the direction and success of the organizations they
work in using their knowledge and understanding of the financial
position of the company.

 The "older" set of tasks continue to be mission critical, but are now seen
as minimum requirements: CEOs take them for granted.

Key skills for the modern CFO

 Leadership – To be an effective business partner, today's CFO must
have the necessary leadership and communication skills. They must give
advice and counsel as well as provide a voice of reason.
 Operations – They should possess a strong understanding of the
company's business model and industry and be able to use this
knowledge to provide an independent perspective and to constructively
challenge the commercial and operations teams, ensuring that business
decisions are grounded in solid financial criteria.
 Controls – In an increasingly global and volatile environment with
additional regulatory burdens, it often falls to the CFO to ensure
adequate assessment and mitigation of risk as well as compliance with
applicable regulatory or other legal requirements.
  Strategy – Supporting strategy development and helping enable its
execution. The CFO also plays a role in prioritizing and ensuring the
strategy can be funded.

Personal perspective on what makes for a successful modern CFO

Are today's CFOs ready for the challenge?
Focus areas for the CFO of the future

Almost one in three CEOs worry that their

CFO isn’t prepared for the challenges ahead
– The View from the Top, KPMG/Forbes
Survey of 549 top executives from six
continents
Thirty years ago, when I was a freshly minted graduate entering the corporate world, the
role of the CFO was, in essence, fairly straightforward. The CFO fundamentally had
three main tasks: the books and records of the company, financial reporting, and
statutory compliance. CFOs tended to be number-crunchers who operated behind the
scenes and were usually the ones who said “no” to things due to budgetary reasons.
Strategy and decision-making were left to the rest of the C-Suite, while the CFO was
confined to more of a “sign-off” role than anything else.

But in the thirty years that I have been operating in this function—in which I have
worked in large multinational corporations ranging from $250-$900 million in
turnover, and where I have led simplification projects across geographically disparate
finance teams in countries like the UK, Germany, Belgium, and Hungary—I have seen a
significant shift in the expectations placed on the CFO and finance team. Today’s CFO is
fundamentally different from the CFO of yesterday in very important ways. While the
CFO of yesterday was more of a support function, the CFO of today and of tomorrow is
of strategic relevance to a company. Today’s CFOs drive the direction and success of the
organizations they work in, and rightly so, given the ever-changing business
environment we operate in.

The purpose of this article is therefore to outline the roles and responsibilities of the
modern CFO. I will first run through an overview of the role, and will then share some of
my own personal insights that I have developed over my thirty-year career.

The Role of the CFO of Today and Tomorrow

People used to think the CFO was there to

tell you there isn’t enough budget when you
needed something or to simply report
financial results after the fact. Today’s CFOs
must break away from the number-cruncher
stereotype and think of themselves as more
of a strategic player in the company. CFOs
today need to be creative, understand best
practices, and know how to create more
value for the company. There will always be
a need for someone to balance the books,
crunch the numbers, and perform critical
routine tasks but the CFO role is much more
dynamic today. – Bill Tobia, LLR Partners’
Managing Director of Strategic Finance
There’s no doubt that the historical tasks of the finance function such as books and
records, financial reporting and statutory compliance are still of fundamental
importance. These tasks continue to be mission critical and fall squarely under the
responsibility of the finance team, and consequently, the CFO that leads the team. But
while they continue to be relevant, these tasks are now taken for granted by
CEOs. This does not mean they are any less important, it’s just that they are now seen
as minimum requirements for finance.
What has significantly changed, however, is that the CFO of today and of the future
must be able to take financial data and use it to influence operational decision-
making and strategy. CFOs must possess many more skills than just the technical
accounting background of the past. Today’s CFOs are also effectively Chief Operating
Officers in addition to their finance role. They are business partners to the CEO, who
help guide and influence decision making using the financial context as an integral
driver of such choices.
Key Skills for the New CFO

Given the changing role of the CFO, what are the key skills and competencies that a CFO
must possess in order to fulfill their duty? The day-to-day financial focus is still
necessary but is diminishing in proportion to the demands of business leadership.
Fundamental finance skills are still paramount, but other skills are necessary to provide
the service that the CFO of today and tomorrow is expected to provide. I believe that the
required skillset of the modern CFO rests on the following four fundamental pillars:

1. Leadership – To be an effective business partner, today’s CFO must have the

necessary leadership and communication skills. They must give advice and
counsel as well as provide a voice of reason. They are often asked to lead group-
wide transformation programs and must be able to translate detailed
information into clear, concise, and accessible messaging. It goes without saying
that creating a top talent pipeline to ensure the right people and leadership skills
are in place within the finance function is also critical.
2. Operations – they should possess a strong understanding of the company’s
business model and industry and be able to use this knowledge to provide an
independent perspective and to constructively challenge the commercial and
operations teams, ensuring that business decisions are grounded in solid
financial criteria. They must navigate complex data and provide analytics and
predictive scenarios that drive action and decision-making. The CFO should also
identify opportunities for top-line growth and drive profit improvement, not just
through the traditional methods of cost control, but through examples such as
product line/regional profitability analysis and benchmarking against industry
peers.
3. Controls – in an increasingly global and volatile environment with additional
regulatory burdens, it often falls to the CFO to ensure adequate assessment and
mitigation of risk, and compliance with applicable regulatory or other legal
requirements. They must understand risk through a commercial as well as a
financial lens. Therefore, they need to manage risk as the business executes on its
 strategies and initiatives as well as maintain a strong internal controls
environment and financial reporting processes.
4. Strategy – supporting strategy development and helping enable its execution.
The CFO also plays a role in prioritizing and ensuring the strategy can be funded.
The finance skillset is very applicable to building predictive modeling, analyzing
macroeconomic trends, and incorporating non-financial information. This also
includes communicating the strategy and progress against it to external
stakeholders and investors.

Personal perspective on what makes for a successful modern CFO

 Behavioral competencies are key to the business partnership role—a "seat
at the table" must be earned. A CFO needs to be a visible leader in the
business, an excellent communicator, and an influencer.

 Finance needs to be embedded throughout the business, providing

decision support to key functions such as commercial, operations, and
manufacturing. The most effective finance teams I have worked in had
dedicated finance analysis and support attached to the most important
functions in the business.
  Access to timely, accurate data is a key enabler to finance productivity and
decision support. Automated reporting and analytics allow more time to
be dedicated to forecasting and predictive analysis. Technology will play
an increasingly important role for the CFO, but its effectiveness depends
on the accuracy, availability, and consistency of data, and on robust,
integrated technology infrastructure.

 CEOs want "'more for less" from their finance function. The finance
function is now increasingly being assessed in terms of its effectiveness
(its ability to deliver what the business needs) rather than a narrower
focus on its efficiency (its cost in serving the business).

Are today's CFOs ready for the challenge?

 According to a 2014 Accenture study, "CFOs have taken the right steps
and finance is advancing. We see evidence of a stronger and more capable
finance function and CFO, which contributes to their growing influence."

 However, in their 2018 Survey, The New CFO Mandate, McKinsey found
that "CFOs and their peers have diverging views about where CFOs create
the most value; non-CFOs most often note the value generated in
traditional areas."
 In KPMGs survey, The View from the Top, 45% of CEOs voiced concerns
with their CFOs lacking commercial (i.e., non-financial) experience and
knowledge while 41% believed they lacked necessary leadership skills.

Focus areas for the CFO of the future

 Gain a breadth of finance experience, especially in roles which offer
exposure to the commercial and operations functions in the business.
Depending on the nature of the business and industry, it may be
advantageous to take roles outside of the finance function.
  Develop a global perspective through international exposure, especially in
emerging markets. This experience can help manage through the
volatility and complexity often associated with these regions.

 Look for leadership opportunities and team-building skills through

transformation initiatives and major change programs. This will help
develop the communication and influencing skills that are necessary for
dealing with both internal and external stakeholders.

 Investment in digital technology will be vital in managing complexity and

driving productivity. The CFO must raise his/her game in managing,
analyzing, and presenting data in a way that yields the greatest value for
the business.

 Finally, and perhaps the most important element for me, the increased
expectations on the CFO mean increased demands on the whole finance
function. The very best CFOs that I observed surrounded themselves with
the best talent they could recruit and made a big effort to retain them.
They made coaching, mentoring, and leadership development a big
priority through all levels of the finance organization.

Almost one in three CEOs worry that their

CFO isn’t prepared for the challenges ahead
– The View from the Top, KPMG/Forbes
Survey of 549 top executives from six
continents
Thirty years ago, when I was a freshly minted graduate entering the corporate world, the
role of the CFO was, in essence, fairly straightforward. The CFO fundamentally had
three main tasks: the books and records of the company, financial reporting, and
statutory compliance. CFOs tended to be number-crunchers who operated behind the
scenes and were usually the ones who said “no” to things due to budgetary reasons.
Strategy and decision-making were left to the rest of the C-Suite, while the CFO was
confined to more of a “sign-off” role than anything else.

But in the thirty years that I have been operating in this function—in which I have
worked in large multinational corporations ranging from $250-$900 million in
turnover, and where I have led simplification projects across geographically disparate
finance teams in countries like the UK, Germany, Belgium, and Hungary—I have seen a
significant shift in the expectations placed on the CFO and finance team. Today’s CFO is
fundamentally different from the CFO of yesterday in very important ways. While the
CFO of yesterday was more of a support function, the CFO of today and of tomorrow is
of strategic relevance to a company. Today’s CFOs drive the direction and success of the
organizations they work in, and rightly so, given the ever-changing business
environment we operate in.

The purpose of this article is therefore to outline the roles and responsibilities of the
modern CFO. I will first run through an overview of the role, and will then share some of
my own personal insights that I have developed over my thirty-year career.

The Role of the CFO of Today and Tomorrow

People used to think the CFO was there to

tell you there isn’t enough budget when you
needed something or to simply report
financial results after the fact. Today’s CFOs
must break away from the number-cruncher
stereotype and think of themselves as more
of a strategic player in the company. CFOs
today need to be creative, understand best
practices, and know how to create more
value for the company. There will always be
a need for someone to balance the books,
crunch the numbers, and perform critical
routine tasks but the CFO role is much more
dynamic today. – Bill Tobia, LLR Partners’
Managing Director of Strategic Finance
There’s no doubt that the historical tasks of the finance function such as books and
records, financial reporting and statutory compliance are still of fundamental
importance. These tasks continue to be mission critical and fall squarely under the
responsibility of the finance team, and consequently, the CFO that leads the team. But
while they continue to be relevant, these tasks are now taken for granted by
CEOs. This does not mean they are any less important, it’s just that they are now seen
as minimum requirements for finance.
What has significantly changed, however, is that the CFO of today and of the future
must be able to take financial data and use it to influence operational decision-
making and strategy. CFOs must possess many more skills than just the technical
accounting background of the past. Today’s CFOs are also effectively Chief Operating
Officers in addition to their finance role. They are business partners to the CEO, who
help guide and influence decision making using the financial context as an integral
driver of such choices.

Key Skills for the New CFO

Given the changing role of the CFO, what are the key skills and competencies that a CFO
must possess in order to fulfill their duty? The day-to-day financial focus is still
necessary but is diminishing in proportion to the demands of business leadership.
Fundamental finance skills are still paramount, but other skills are necessary to provide
the service that the CFO of today and tomorrow is expected to provide. I believe that the
required skillset of the modern CFO rests on the following four fundamental pillars:

1. Leadership – To be an effective business partner, today’s CFO must have the

necessary leadership and communication skills. They must give advice and
counsel as well as provide a voice of reason. They are often asked to lead group-
wide transformation programs and must be able to translate detailed
information into clear, concise, and accessible messaging. It goes without saying
that creating a top talent pipeline to ensure the right people and leadership skills
are in place within the finance function is also critical.
2. Operations – they should possess a strong understanding of the company’s
business model and industry and be able to use this knowledge to provide an
 independent perspective and to constructively challenge the commercial and
operations teams, ensuring that business decisions are grounded in solid
financial criteria. They must navigate complex data and provide analytics and
predictive scenarios that drive action and decision-making. The CFO should also
identify opportunities for top-line growth and drive profit improvement, not just
through the traditional methods of cost control, but through examples such as
product line/regional profitability analysis and benchmarking against industry
peers.
3. Controls – in an increasingly global and volatile environment with additional
regulatory burdens, it often falls to the CFO to ensure adequate assessment and
mitigation of risk, and compliance with applicable regulatory or other legal
requirements. They must understand risk through a commercial as well as a
financial lens. Therefore, they need to manage risk as the business executes on its
strategies and initiatives as well as maintain a strong internal controls
environment and financial reporting processes.
4. Strategy – supporting strategy development and helping enable its execution.
The CFO also plays a role in prioritizing and ensuring the strategy can be funded.
The finance skillset is very applicable to building predictive modeling, analyzing
macroeconomic trends, and incorporating non-financial information. This also
includes communicating the strategy and progress against it to external
stakeholders and investors.
My Personal Experience on What Makes for a
Successful Modern CFO

With the above in mind, I’d like to add my personal perspective and advice on what
differentiates the best CFOs from the rest.
A Seat at the Table Must Be Earned

Behavioral competencies are key to the business partnership role—a “seat at the table”
must be earned. A CFO needs to be a visible leader in the business, an excellent
communicator, and an influencer. Curiosity is an attribute often highlighted as a
required skill—a previous CFO boss of mine would turn up to meetings he had not been
invited to, just in order to find out more about what was happening in the business and
challenge where he felt decisions were being taken without the necessary finance input.

Finance Must Be Embedded Throughout the Company

Finance needs to be embedded throughout the business, providing decision support to

key functions such as commercial, operations, manufacturing. The most effective
finance teams I have worked in had dedicated finance analysis and support attached to
the most important functions in the business. This opens up the dialogue between
finance and operations and it fosters a better flow of data between areas of the business.
This makes the functions more accountable for their financial metrics and also allows
the finance team to provide more insightful commentary through a better
understanding of the business. Another previous CFO boss of mine gave me one of the
best pieces of feedback I have received—“Don’t be a postbox,” meaning that it’s not
enough for finance just to produce static snapshots of the company’s financial health.
The CFO must paint the picture for the business and translate the financial data into
meaningful commentary, trends, and actions.

Automation and Technology Are Critical

Access to timely, accurate data is a key enabler to finance productivity and decision
support. Automated reporting and analytics allow more time to be dedicated to
forecasting and predictive analysis. Technology will play an increasingly important role
for the CFO, but its effectiveness depends on the accuracy, availability, and consistency
of data, and on robust, integrated technology infrastructure. Many companies are still
struggling to put these foundations in place. To succeed, CFOs will have to be
champions and stewards of digital technology. CFOs must adapt to new technology and
be at the forefront of ERP implementations and cloud-based solutions. A common
mistake I have observed in large scale ERP implementations is that the project does not
get resourced with the right skills. Often, an ERP project is seen as an opportunity to
“park” underperforming finance talent when the opposite should be occurring—the very
best and brightest finance talent should be placed into ERP project implementation
teams to ensure success.

Focus on Results, Not Efficiency

CEOs want “more for less” from their finance function. The finance function is now
increasingly being assessed in terms of its effectiveness (its ability to deliver what the
business needs) rather than a narrower focus on its efficiency (its cost in serving the
business).

Are We Ready?

As we have seen, the CFO role is developing and expanding. The CFO of the future will
add most value as a business and strategic partner to the CEO, being commercially savvy
and managing external relationships. But are CFOs ready? Do they have the necessary
skillset to meet the new requirements of the role? What do CEOs and other key
stakeholders/peers think?
The answer seems to be a cautious “yes.” According to the 2014 Accenture High
Performance Study, “CFOs have taken the right steps and finance is advancing. We see
evidence of a stronger and more capable finance function and CFO, which contributes to
their growing influence.” In the same report, Accenture found that high-performance
businesses:
 Are more likely to report high levels of satisfaction with their finance function
across most dimensions.

 Tend to have CFOs who have seen their strategic influence grow in recent years.
For example, finance leaders of high-performance businesses report a greater
increase in influence over providing insightful analytics to the business,
executing business transformation initiatives for the broader enterprise, and
influencing the strategic planning process.

 Are more likely to have carried out operating model rationalization and moved to
a “global business services model” (which Accenture defines as having greater
agility and control through end-to-end process ownership and delivery of mid-
office as well as back-office services).

 Have finance leaders that are more engaged in assessing technology investments.

However, the picture is not always rosy. In their 2018 Survey, The New CFO Mandate,
McKinsey found that “CFOs and their peers have diverging views about where CFOs
create the most value; non-CFOs most often note the value generated in traditional
areas.”
KPMG, in their survey “The view from the top,” also noted the top concerns that CEOs
had with regard to the CFO skillset.

Focus Areas for CFO of the Future

In order to gain the skillset required to perform the role, the finance career path looks
very different than it did previously. One must:
  Gain a breadth of finance experience, especially in roles which offer exposure to
the commercial and operations functions in the business. Depending on the
nature of the business and industry, it may be advantageous to take roles outside
of the finance function.

 Develop a global perspective through international exposure, especially in

emerging markets. This experience can help manage through the volatility and
complexity often associated with these regions.

 Look for leadership opportunities and team-building skills through

transformation initiatives and major change programs. This will help develop the
communication and influencing skills that are necessary for dealing with both
internal and external stakeholders.

Investment in digital technology will be vital in managing complexity and driving

productivity. The CFO must raise their game in managing, analyzing, and presenting
data in a way that yields the greatest value for the business. According to Accenture,
“Technology will play a key role in business transformation. It is already transforming
the role and expectations of the finance function. Digital technologies present finance
leaders with a powerful opportunity to improve and accelerate decision-making, but
their effectiveness depends on the accuracy, availability, and consistency of data, and on
robust, integrated technology infrastructure. Many companies are still struggling to put
these foundations in place. To succeed, CFOs will have to be champions and stewards of
digital technology.”

Finally, and perhaps the most important element for me, the increased expectations on
the CFO mean increased demands on the whole finance function. The very best CFOs
that I observed surrounded themselves with the best talent they could recruit and made
a big effort to retain them. They made coaching, mentoring, and leadership
development a big priority through all levels of the finance organization. They not only
spent time on individual succession planning for key roles in the organization, but also
on ensuring the right balance of technical, analytical, and leadership skills within their
team. They judged their own capability on the strength of the team they had around
them.

UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS

What is a CFO in charge of?

A CFO is in charge of a company’s financial operations. This includes responsibility for

internal and external financial reporting, stewardship of a company’s assets, and
ownership of cash management. Increasingly, the role is more forward-looking and
expanding to incorporate strategy and business partnership.

Is the CEO higher than the CFO?

In a typical company structure, the CFO reports into the CEO, although it is common for
both roles to be part of the board of directors.

How do you become a CFO?

Most CFOs have experience covering disciplines such as financial planning and analysis,
controllership, and treasury. This may can be obtained via training programs with a
company before taking on increasingly senior roles within the business and/or time
spent with an accountancy firm before moving into industry.

What qualifications do you need to be a CFO?

Typically, a CFO would have a university or college degree followed by a technical
accounting qualification such as a CPA, ACCA, CIMA. Increasingly, leadership and
communication skills are assuming more importance.

What should I look for when hiring a CFO?

As well as the requisite technical skills and qualifications, a CFO should have leadership,
communication, and influencing skills. A breadth of experience across different finance
disciplines and either industries or geographies should enable a CFO to be a business
partner and add strategic value.

What is most important to a CFO?

TAGS
FinanceCFOCFOSkillset
Paul Ainsworth
Finance Expert
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul is an international CFO with experience across multinational companies ranging from $250-
$900 million in turnover. After roles of increasing responsibility with General Electric and Orica, he
now freelances to help companies with his operational finance and transformation experience. He
has led simplification projects across geographically disparate finance teams and has worked in the
UK, Germany, Belgium, and Hungary.

Hire Paul

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The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a company has primary responsibility for
the planning, implementation, managing and running of all the finance
activities of a company, including business planning, budgeting, forecasting
and negotiations. The CFO job description should also extend to obtaining
and maintaining investor relations and partnership compliance.

CFO duties and responsibilities of the job

As part of an executive management team, the CFO will have interaction with
various members of a company, both senior and junior. A CFO job description
should include:

 Providing leadership, direction and management of the finance and

accounting team
 Providing strategic recommendations to the CEO/president and members of
the executive management team
 Managing the processes for financial forecasting and budgets, and overseeing
the preparation of all financial reporting
 Advising on long-term business and financial planning
 Establishing and developing relations with senior management and external
partners and stakeholders
 Reviewing all formal finance, HR and IT related procedures

CFO job qualifications and requirements

The role of CFO is very senior, hence a high level of experience is expected
for anyone applying for this role. A Bachelor’s degree in the following will be
expected for this role:

 Accounting
 Finance or Economics

An MBA or CPA is also highly desirable. At least 10 years' experience in the

finance industry and managing a team is a must – with examples of when they
have demonstrated excellence in the workplace. A CFO must display a
cohesive ability at interpersonal and communication skills, both verbally and
written. They must be able to engage with staff at all levels of the organisation
and exercise sound judgement.