Succeeding as a modern CFO is more demanding than ever before. Here are the skills you need to become a strategic partner who leverages technology and insights to drive growth and plan for the future.
It used to be that a chief financial officer’s primary focus was on the traditional functions of the job: monitoring cash flow and financial activities; serving as a controller and accounting expert; limiting unnecessary spending; and ensuring that financial decisions conformed to standard operating procedures.
These duties are still critical, of course, but they’re increasingly becoming secondary to the strategic roles CFOs are being asked to play. As the pace of business accelerates and technology advances, the modern CFO must take a broader, more forward-thinking and growth-oriented approach to the job.
The consulting firm Accenture captured this transformation in a 2022 survey, finding that typical finance chiefs now spend most of their time spearheading companywide efforts to transform and optimize business operations, with an emphasis on accelerating revenue and profit growth.
It’s a new reality that I’ve seen play out among fast-growing small and medium-size healthcare firms where I’ve held a number of leadership positions. These companies not only expect you to be a functional CFO, delivering on basic accounting responsibilities, they also expect you to be a strategic CFO, working with the leadership team to explore growth opportunities and maximize profitability.
So how do you develop this strategic expertise? Through trial and error, I have learned that the most effective way is to focus on your existing finance capabilities and responsibilities—those functions that are already within your purview as a CFO—and elevate them to deliver the strategic insight your company needs.
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In this article, I share six areas where I recommend you focus. The development of the skills I discuss can be applied broadly to growth companies and employed across a wide spectrum—by fractional CFOs working with later-stage startups, by interim CFOs in distressed situations, or even by finance chiefs employed by public companies.
When it comes to expanding and bolstering your existing capabilities, I discuss the easiest areas first. The later ones, especially corporate vision, will probably consume more of your time, but I expect you’ll find that mastering them is well worth it to you and your company. I include examples to show you how I put each of these concepts into action.