Describe Your Role as a CFO in a Single Word

A lot has been said about the transformation undergone by the finance function of many corporates over the last five years. It has become intrinsically linked to the operational elements of the business and increasingly informs the strategic decision-making process. But how do CFOs experience this change in their role? What impact does it have on their responsibilities?

We were keen to find out how the trend towards business partnering is affecting CFOs, so we asked finance directors in European companies a simple question via the FDE LinkedIn members network: ‘In a single word, how would you describe your role as a CFO?’

The results were intriguing to say the least. They show that the demands of CFOs are varied, and that organisations want different things from their finance teams. But what is most apparent is how important the CFO has become in optimising overall business performance.

A key theme to emerge from the poll is the growing influence the finance director exerts on strategic thinking. Many CFOs are prominent in defining a company’s vision of the future and how it can achieve those goals.

Among the key words for these forward thinkers are: ‘strategist’, ‘visionary’, ‘navigator’, ‘composer’, ‘leader’ and even ‘wizard’, suggesting that finance provides the magic that turns a vision into a reality. Other suggestions, such as ‘co-pilot’, ‘challenger’ and ‘influencer’, confirm that CFOs increasingly see themselves sitting firmly in the driving seat with their hands on the controls. Michael van der Ploeg at United Biscuits suggests that his role is best described as ‘architect’. Andrey Kolov in the Russian arm of Triumph International believes the role is that of ‘oracle’, while Mats Läckgren, senior finance director at Oracle, sees the CFO as the company’s ‘backbone’.

Many CFOs certainly see themselves as making things happen in their organisations. They are enablers, catalysts and motivators. They are enthusiastic and focused on making their companies outperform. To fulfil this role there is a need for greater commercial awareness and a keen business mind. "Everything boils down to acumen, and that summarises the responsibility," says E Altman, deputy CFO at the holding company of a global oil and gas group.

Is the CFO the accelerator or the brake?

While there is clearly a sense that CFOs are required to put their foot on the gas pedal and push their organisations forward, other responses to our poll show that it can be just as important that CFOs control the cheques and balances, and prevent their companies from rushing off into the wild blue yonder in the rash pursuit of a dream.

Many finance directors stress that their role is primarily to support the rest of the business in achieving its goals, to act as custodian to safeguard the company’s future. They keep the organisation moving, but they also keep it in line. Dominic Moorhead, CFO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, perhaps sums it up best when he describes his role as ‘the conscience’ of the organisation. His view is echoed by many others. In fact, the question we posed. The over-riding implication is that the finance function, despite becoming more deeply involved with the rest of the organisation in its role as business partner, must maintain its objectivity.

When finance builds bridges to other business functions, there is a risk that its objectivity could be compromised by its closer involvement in operational teams. But the strength of finance as a business partner is precisely the objectivity that sets it apart from other parts of the business. The CFO’s job is often to influence strategy by taking a realistic view of where a company is going, and how it can get there. It is to see the destination towards which strategy points a company, but also to see the road that leads there.

In many cases, readers describe themselves as realists, pragmatists, equilibrists and shock absorbers. They are the advisors who provide a company with its integrity. They are the judicious and accountable policemen, the pragmatists, the wise men and the sceptics whose key talent is their common sense. Irina Gridneva at Nokia Siemens Networks sees the role as that of ‘preventer’, evidently holding the organisation back from over exuberance and keeping its feet firmly on the ground. Imre Orban at Procter & Gamble feels he provides ‘balance’.

Jésus Ángel Conde Bahillo at Viveros Merimar describes the FD’s role as the ‘mechanic’.

"The ones who make the fuel in the company, i.e. the money, flow," he says, while Kerem Vulas at Volvo Group UK believes the CFO is, "The drummer: while not usually recognised he/she keeps the organisation in rhythm."

Neil Davies, CFO at MANN+HUMMEL UK says his one word is ‘advisor’. "Wherever I have worked that has been the major part of my role. Whether it be pure financial advice, as you would expect, or just general advice caused by our knowledge of the whole business, advisor comes to mind," he observes.

Shouldering the burden of change

Whether a finance director is called upon to work the accelerator or the brakes within an organisation, their decisions are better informed than ever before by the needs of other parts of their business. Many people who responded to our LinkedIn survey suggest words like ‘involved’, ‘partner’, ‘connected’ and ‘interpreter’, which show that finance teams are increasingly skilled at communicating with operational teams.

Finance is creating a language with which to communicate its aims to the rest of the organisation, and through which it can interpret the needs of the company’s operations managers. CFOs are providing the clarity and objectivity needed for key decision making processes.

As a result, the focus of the finance director is broader than ever before. Indeed, according to Sidhartha Mehra at Barclays Shared Services, it is ‘boundaryless’.

Senior members of finance teams are taking on roles with a much broader scope. But is this leading to confusion about what CFOs are meant to be doing? Is the definition of the role expanding so much that the job title itself is losing its meaning?

The diversity of their responsibilities is evidently growing, whether the emphasis is on interacting with operational managers to a greater degree than ever in order to be effective business partners, or shouldering more of the burden of strategic thinking, or putting the company’s creative notions into a realistic and practical context, there is a need for finance directors to be more multi-faceted in terms of their skills.

This is not always easy to achieve. Given the range of different talents a CFO needs today, and their greater prominence in key decision-making processes, it is no surprise that some respondents to our survey point out just how much pressure they are under. Being all things to all men is no mean feat.

Defining the indefinable

Instead of being classified as the chief bean counters and number crunchers in an organisation, CFOs seem to be changing into connectors and communicators. The job has a broader definition than ever, but if there seems to be confusion in the results of our survey it is because we were asking our readers for just a single word to describe their job. As the role of CFO changes, it increasingly becomes too complex and varied to fit a description couched such simplistic terms.

"It would be an easy job if the role could be described in one word," remarks consultant Christoph Klein. When the job of CFO has become so broad-ranging and so challenging, and when it requires the people who fill it to be chameleon-like in their ability to switch between the visionary and the pragmatic, perhaps only one word will do to describe a finance director’s lot in life, and Tony Sellars of InBev has found it: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – because sometimes you need to be Mary Poppins to sort things out."

To read the full responses on this topic from over 100 members of the FDE Linked network, join the group today: www.the-financedirector.com/linkedin