Only one letter difference but a whole new set of personal qualities awaits as we dive into the profile of The CEO’s right hand: The CFO.
Eye for Talent
The calibre of the finance staff is crucial to the company’s success. Being the head of financial matters at any company means having a good team around you and a lot of the work that goes into being CFO is meeting personally with potential team members. To get recruitment right you should have a clear idea of who you want working with you and should know instinctively how to recognise those people.
The skills and knowledge to adequately assess colleagues and subordinates is critical for this role.
Cultural Interaction
As the head of the business end of the company, you are essentially in charge of the allocation of resources. Being a good CFO means knowing where to invest and as such the financial acumen and the idea of all CFOs being ‘number men’ needs to be done away with. Being interactive with the world around you is the only way to properly know what constitutes a smart investment. This can also mean interacting within the company and being plugged into how the company gets things done. It is performance analysis and figures that you are primarily working with but the reasons behind those figures are equally important today.
Analytical Ability
The most obvious choice here would be: have excellent numerical skill, in addition: instead of manipulating figures, much of the job is based on analysis of data compiled and then plans proposed with appropriate risk assessments informing the decision. We mentioned in a previous article that CEOs need to be risk takers, well; here to rein them in is their trusty partner in crime (or legitimate enterprise) the CFO. To summarise crudely, they need to be the link between the data scientists and the business itself as data is integral to how companies model themselves.
Honesty/Integrity
This is needed when you are negotiating with various different businesses and branches of businesses at the same time. The CFO needs to essentially walk a tightrope and consider all the needs of all parties. Managing assets means that a lot of people are putting their faith in you, to be honest with your findings. The company acts on the numbers and absolute transparency is needed if the business is to succeed. CFOs are not known for their ability to sugar-coat the truth and this is definitely not a bad thing.
