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10 lessons from leading CFOs

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CPA Australia
CPA Australia

The document provides lessons and advice from various CFOs on their roles and responsibilities. It discusses how CFOs need analytical skills to understand financial information as well as social skills to present and convince stakeholders. Several CFOs offer specific advice, such as maintaining mentor relationships, understanding the business problems to be solved rather than just the financial aspects, getting involved in change programs, understanding what levers can be pulled to drive business growth, and engaging managers in budgeting. The document emphasizes that the CFO role requires both strong financial skills as well as business strategies and marketing understanding.

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intheblackleadership . strategy . business Your essenTiaL business updaTe intheblackleadership . strategy . business Your essenTiaL business updaTe 10 LESSONS FROMLEADING CFOS
CFOS ARE THE FINANCE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE OPERATIONS, CEO AND BOARD OF THEIR ORGANISATIONS. THEY NEED THE ANALYTICAL SKILLS TO DISCOVER INFORMATION AND THE FINANCIAL ACUMEN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS. ADD TO THAT THE REQUIREMENT FOR SOCIAL SKILLS TO PRESENT THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND CONVINCE OTHER STAKEHOLDERS. READ 10 LESSONS CFOS OFFER ABOUT THEIR VARIED, CHALLENGING AND STIMULATING ROLES.
10 lessons from leading CFOs
“Find mentors you can learn from, preferably in different industries where you can engage and learn different things. One thing I’ve done with every position I’ve held is maintain those relationships after I have left – they’re so important.” Jacquetta Griggs FCPA, CFO Australian Industry Standards (AIS) MENTORS MATTER READ MORE
READ MORE “Knowledge of finance is one thing, but it also takes knowledge of the business to find a solution. What’s the problem that people are trying to solve? How would you solve it in their shoes? People are not interested that there’s not enough money for their project; they want to know what you can bring to the table.” Greg Stenton CPA, CFO at Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria, Australia. ADD VALUE TO HELP SOLVE PROBLEMS
READ MORE BE INVOLVED IN CHANGE Every organisation faces some form of change agenda to ensure they’re competitive and sustainable. I recommend that finance professionals get involved in change programs – it’s a tremendous learning opportunity and you can see the intersection where planning and execution meet, and where order and chaos meet. Johanna Platt CPA, CFO Vanguard Investments Australia
UNDERSTAND THE LEVERS YOU CAN PULL “In a growth business it’s more important you understand the kind of levers you can pull, how hard to pull them, what order to pull them in and where your untapped potential is. You also need to be cognisant that if you try to pull all the levers at once, and drive too much change at one point, you could break the business.” Scott Scoullar FCPA, CFO Summerset Group Holdings Ltd, New Zealand. READ MORE
READ MORE DON’T GET LOST IN TRANSLATION “When you’re adding value, don’t get too caught up on the detail; think about the process. Translate the numbers, but don’t tell people what happened, tell them about the trends, what the impact of those trends is and how they can be used to grow the business or manage risk.” Marcell Judkins FCPA, CFO Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT), Victoria, Australia
READ MORE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DIGITAL AGE “With the internet, everyone has access to the same information, so it is up to us as to how we utilise it. Spend time each day learning something new because CFO roles and the expectations of our roles are rapidly changing.” Ronesh Dayal CPA, CFO Bank South Pacific, Papua New Guinea.
IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN FINANCE As CFO, it’s about more than the finances; the role also requires smart business strategies and marketing. Nowadays, CFOs have to truly understand their businesses so they can successfully give an opinion or lead a strategy.. Annuar Marzuki Abdul Aziz, CFO and Chief Investment Officer, KLCCP Stapled Group, Malaysia READ MORE
READ MORE TAKE YOUR OPPORTUNITIES “Be open to take an opportunity when it’s presented, even if you’re not 100 per cent sure you can do it. You really develop an ability to learn through such opportunities. Don’t pigeonhole yourself, be flexible around the industry or role you look at.” Samantha Drury CPA, CFO Bethanie, aged care and social housing, Western Australia
LEARN FROM MISTAKES “My experience working in a declining industry (the automotive sector) enables me to engage people with a narrative to motivate them to change. It’s not so much presenting a pessimistic scenario, but sharing real-life situations where historically stable and profitable business models can, over time, become not only unstable but actually go out of business.” Dennis Grech FCPA, COO and CFO of Geofabrics Australasia READ MORE
GET PEOPLE INVOLVED “Engaging with your managers in preparing budgets, and working with them on their financial reports, is crucial. Everyone in this small organisation, albeit with different degrees of financial literacy, is very involved in the budget process and engaged in getting their finance reports. It makes my job a whole lot easier.” Max Meikle CPA, CFO of Variety WA, Western Australia READ MORE
To read more CFO stories, visit https://www.intheblack.com/topics/meet-the-cfo Job positions were accurate at the time these articles were published in INTHEBLACK, but some of the CFOs may have changed roles since.
INTHEBLACK.COM

More Related Content

10 lessons from leading CFOs

  • 1. intheblackleadership . strategy . business Your essenTiaL business updaTe intheblackleadership . strategy . business Your essenTiaL business updaTe 10 LESSONS FROMLEADING CFOS
  • 2. CFOS ARE THE FINANCE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE OPERATIONS, CEO AND BOARD OF THEIR ORGANISATIONS. THEY NEED THE ANALYTICAL SKILLS TO DISCOVER INFORMATION AND THE FINANCIAL ACUMEN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS. ADD TO THAT THE REQUIREMENT FOR SOCIAL SKILLS TO PRESENT THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND CONVINCE OTHER STAKEHOLDERS. READ 10 LESSONS CFOS OFFER ABOUT THEIR VARIED, CHALLENGING AND STIMULATING ROLES.
  • 4. “Find mentors you can learn from, preferably in different industries where you can engage and learn different things. One thing I’ve done with every position I’ve held is maintain those relationships after I have left – they’re so important.” Jacquetta Griggs FCPA, CFO Australian Industry Standards (AIS) MENTORS MATTER READ MORE
  • 5. READ MORE “Knowledge of finance is one thing, but it also takes knowledge of the business to find a solution. What’s the problem that people are trying to solve? How would you solve it in their shoes? People are not interested that there’s not enough money for their project; they want to know what you can bring to the table.” Greg Stenton CPA, CFO at Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria, Australia. ADD VALUE TO HELP SOLVE PROBLEMS
  • 6. READ MORE BE INVOLVED IN CHANGE Every organisation faces some form of change agenda to ensure they’re competitive and sustainable. I recommend that finance professionals get involved in change programs – it’s a tremendous learning opportunity and you can see the intersection where planning and execution meet, and where order and chaos meet. Johanna Platt CPA, CFO Vanguard Investments Australia
  • 7. UNDERSTAND THE LEVERS YOU CAN PULL “In a growth business it’s more important you understand the kind of levers you can pull, how hard to pull them, what order to pull them in and where your untapped potential is. You also need to be cognisant that if you try to pull all the levers at once, and drive too much change at one point, you could break the business.” Scott Scoullar FCPA, CFO Summerset Group Holdings Ltd, New Zealand. READ MORE
  • 8. READ MORE DON’T GET LOST IN TRANSLATION “When you’re adding value, don’t get too caught up on the detail; think about the process. Translate the numbers, but don’t tell people what happened, tell them about the trends, what the impact of those trends is and how they can be used to grow the business or manage risk.” Marcell Judkins FCPA, CFO Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT), Victoria, Australia
  • 9. READ MORE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DIGITAL AGE “With the internet, everyone has access to the same information, so it is up to us as to how we utilise it. Spend time each day learning something new because CFO roles and the expectations of our roles are rapidly changing.” Ronesh Dayal CPA, CFO Bank South Pacific, Papua New Guinea.
  • 10. IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN FINANCE As CFO, it’s about more than the finances; the role also requires smart business strategies and marketing. Nowadays, CFOs have to truly understand their businesses so they can successfully give an opinion or lead a strategy.. Annuar Marzuki Abdul Aziz, CFO and Chief Investment Officer, KLCCP Stapled Group, Malaysia READ MORE
  • 11. READ MORE TAKE YOUR OPPORTUNITIES “Be open to take an opportunity when it’s presented, even if you’re not 100 per cent sure you can do it. You really develop an ability to learn through such opportunities. Don’t pigeonhole yourself, be flexible around the industry or role you look at.” Samantha Drury CPA, CFO Bethanie, aged care and social housing, Western Australia
  • 12. LEARN FROM MISTAKES “My experience working in a declining industry (the automotive sector) enables me to engage people with a narrative to motivate them to change. It’s not so much presenting a pessimistic scenario, but sharing real-life situations where historically stable and profitable business models can, over time, become not only unstable but actually go out of business.” Dennis Grech FCPA, COO and CFO of Geofabrics Australasia READ MORE
  • 13. GET PEOPLE INVOLVED “Engaging with your managers in preparing budgets, and working with them on their financial reports, is crucial. Everyone in this small organisation, albeit with different degrees of financial literacy, is very involved in the budget process and engaged in getting their finance reports. It makes my job a whole lot easier.” Max Meikle CPA, CFO of Variety WA, Western Australia READ MORE
  • 14. To read more CFO stories, visit https://www.intheblack.com/topics/meet-the-cfo Job positions were accurate at the time these articles were published in INTHEBLACK, but some of the CFOs may have changed roles since.