The Power of Finance Management: 6 Things CFOs Need Now Skill

In the past, the chief financial officer's primary goal was the core business of the business: monitoring revenue and financial performance; As financial managers and financial professionals; limit unnecessary spending; and ensuring that financial decisions are made in accordance with operating procedures.

Of course, these roles are very important, but they have become the secondary part of the main role that investors are asked to play. As business gets faster and technology increases, the modern CFO needs to be broad-minded, forward-looking, and growth-oriented to do the job.

Consultancy firm Accenture identified this shift in a 2022 survey, finding that the chief financial officer now spends most of his time changing and improving business across the company, as well as increasing revenue and profit. development.

This is a new reality as I find myself taking on a variety of leadership roles at rapidly growing small and medium-sized healthcare companies. These companies expect you not only to be a CFO, performing accounting duties, but also to be a strategic CFO, working with the management team to discover growth opportunities and maximize efficiency.

So how did you develop this skill? Through trial and error, I have learned that the most effective way is to focus on your financial resources and existing responsibilities (which are already under your control as the CFO) and encourage them to provide the strategic advice the company needs.

In this article, I share six areas I want you to focus on. The skill development I discuss is broadly applicable to growing companies and some late-starting CFOs, struggling interim CFOs, and even finance professionals working at a public company.

When it comes to expanding and improving existing resources, I talk about the simplest things first. The second, especially the business vision, will take more of your time, but hopefully you will find that the business is good for you and your company. I have provided some examples to show how I put these concepts into practice.

1. Reporting And Forcasting

Reports and forecasts are a challenge for financial managers. The growth of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud services has made it easier and cheaper to integrate powerful accounting systems across an organization. Operational CFOs should ensure that anyone who needs access to these systems can access and use them, while creative leaders should look for opportunities to analyze data to provide good insights for the organization.

I can explain how to grow in this area by sharing how I showed a company that team integration is a stupidly important, even cultural step. I worked at an early-stage healthcare company where the CEO tracked the company's finances on an Excel sheet that he kept on his desktop and updated throughout the evening and day. This method creates obvious problems. First, its fiscal shadow is often missing. Second, his approach created barriers that prevented the finance team from establishing a routine process for updating information and providing meaningful and timely information to the CEO. Without this routine, CEOs will be blindsided when it comes to sales and revenue decisions.

2. Financial Planning and Analysis

The next step in the CFO strategy is to find ways to use databases and various techniques in financial planning and analysis. Financial Planning and Analysis is often used to provide information to respond to financial and operational issues faced by all aspects of the company. Some analyzes are routine, such as comparing current performance to past performance, while others are ad hoc, such as calculating the return on investment of a new sales technology platform. A strategic CFO uses the same process as an operational CFO and may address some of the same issues but takes a more holistic approach.

When I joined a pharmaceutical company as a CFO, I found that very few people in the company were doing this; The company's top management knew which customers and which business line or region was generating the highest growth or revenue. This becomes a problem when the company needs to increase its profitability quickly. After implementing the development plan, I conducted a revenue analysis across the company's various businesses and customers to begin answering common questions.

3. Risk Management and Mitigation

If financial managers think that risk management is merely a management tip for financial control, the global spread of COVID-19 and the collapse of global supply chains have left a bad impression. Today, CFOs need to play a role in guiding teams across the organization to assess risks and address risk mitigation on an ongoing basis. They also need to look at risk management through the prism of time, looking for potential business opportunities.

For example, from 2017 to 2020, I was responsible for a group of shipments sending or assembling medical equipment to China. These companies are cross-border, low-cost, and continue to increase gross profits year after year. But when I join, I can see operational, regulatory and macroeconomic risks on the horizon. We hold thoughtful quarterly meetings with senior management to anticipate potential hazards so we can allocate resources and take action to reduce the most hazardous substances. These groups regularly highlight the operational and financial risks of cross-border trade that can disrupt the supply of essential goods.

This was well demonstrated during the US-China trade war in 2018. Because we prepared for risk planning, my corporate team was able to reduce costs by outsourcing some of the remainder in Asia and elsewhere in Europe. product effect. Integrating risk management into company culture not only reduces or eliminates risk, but also limits the impact on profitability and creates work for our sales team and our business to increase business. While our competitors continue to deal with disruptions, we continue to deliver products and solutions with confidence.

4. Digital Transformation

Financial leaders often ask managers to do more with fewer resources. Finance managers can take it upon themselves to discover ways to rework employees by relieving them of repetitive work while saving time and money. Automation can also help financial institutions manage their operations as they continue to operate under tight deadlines, such as monthly closings, rapid claims reviews, and critical deadlines for mergers and acquisitions. Staff and time shortages caused great stress.

I know firsthand how necessary this change is. Following the company's global restructuring, my finance team consisted of two business analysts. This lean team is responsible for reporting and analyzing the financial performance of 25 companies over two business days each month. It is absolutely impossible for two people to complete this detail-based copy-paste process within 48 hours. Automation is the only solution.

5. Talent and Culture

An effective way for the CFO to play a more important role is to be directly involved in the hiring and development of talent. The strategic CFO not only advises HR on what employees should do, but also works with HR to create opportunities to bring more efficient financial resources to the organization.

For example, I once helped a small business find a very talented manager. My company has a company that produces medical supplies, but I know we will sell it next year. We brought this person in to be the VP of Finance, develop the company, and do sales; Even then we had no special responsibility towards him. If we don't approach this candidate with openness, honesty, and commitment to leadership, it will be a difficult sell.

One year after the sale, we fulfilled our promise and he became the CFO of our largest business. Three years later, he was promoted to the position of chief financial officer of the company, overseeing all operations of the company.

6. Strategic Planning

The company values ​​the hard data and critical thinking financial managers provide for strategic planning. The CFO may use this as an opportunity to contribute to the company's business goals or potential changes; for example, by supporting or driving partnerships to increase competitive advantage.

I had the opportunity to suggest this was implemented while working with a company that manufactures heart rate monitors and commercializes cardiac diagnostics. The company collects terabytes of heart rate data from the thousands of products it sells. This information is private, but the company does not use this information for commercial purposes. As a CFO, I look at every big data feature as a potential opportunity in a world where SaaS business models can become rapidly commoditized.

I challenged the team to use this information as the foundation of clinical services while maintaining patient confidentiality. After several months of development with a local software partner, the team introduced a new service to hospitals that provides instant monitoring, analysis and alerting if the software detects abnormal movement in a patient's heart rate. The service deepens client relationships and increases the fund's income.