CFOs Should Drive and Enable Growth
Eric Krucke
Scaling Farther & Faster | Founder Friendly Capital | Preparing for Exit | National Speaker | Building Meaningful Relationships
Three surprising ways to think about how chief financial officers can actively and strategically use their role.
The idea of a CFO as a driver and enabler of growth may seem strange. While some professionals think primarily of CFOs as finance people who manage the budget, track cash flows, and analyze the strengths and weaknesses in their firms' financial outlook, modern CFOs know they are much more than that.
Modern CFOs are active, essential members of the C-suite. Whether they serve in a full-time or fractional capacity, they are growth engines for their companies.
The smartest CFOs entrust bookkeeping and other accounting functions to their controller and accounting department. They lean on their team to transform raw data into insights that can inspire and inform forward-looking strategies. Their doors are open, their heads are up, and their mission is clear: Help the company grow.
Drive & Enable Growth
An experienced full-time or fractional CEO can drive & enable growth in a few ways. As a former CFO at Berkshire Hathaway, I know from experience that adopting these three habits translates to positive bottom-line results.
1. Forward-looking insights
Rather than backward-looking financial reports, savvy CFOs direct their teams to invest in forward-looking financial analysis. Under their leadership, the finance team develops models, builds forecasts, and conducts analyses to identify trends, opportunities, and risks.
Those insights can be used to devise new strategies, stimulate discussion, and inspire new plans and ideas for collaboration between the CFO and the rest of the leadership team.
Armed with timely and relevant insights, they can actively participate in ideation sessions, help the firm set goals and identify a destination, and support the roadmap between its present and future business goals.
领英推荐
2. Leverage all resources
Rather than withhold resources, the CFO continuously aligns and reallocates resources to areas that will drive growth. That means working actively alongside the whole team, listening to their ideas and concerns, solving problems, and finding the resources needed to fuel growth.
Part of a strategic CFO's job should be constantly looking for ways to secure enough funding to enable the rest of the organization to undertake projects that can help fuel growth. That includes developing capital solutions, fundraising strategies, and pitching new investors. Building and maintaining relationships with lenders, current investors, and shareholders all fall under the CFO's purview.
If a CFO is working on things other team members can handle, steer them back to strategic work by reminding them that the company is missing out on utilizing their skills to drive organic growth, pursue M&A opportunities, and effectively manage business risks.
3. CFOs should be out and about
This point is short and sweet. Never forget that part of a strategic CFO's job is functioning as the face of the firm in concert with the CEO during meetings with lenders, investors, and shareholders.
If you leave them out of those meetings, you are missing out.
Chief financial opportunities
If you have a back-office CFO--a silent member of your C-suite, it's time you help push them to emerge and begin driving growth as the forward-looking financial leader. Today's finance mission must be to drive and enable growth.
Finance and growth aren't enemies. In the hands of a skillful CFO, they form a remarkable symbiosis from which everyone benefits.
Account Executive @ CDSi | Database services, Cloud Services, VM Infrastructure automation
3 个月Eric, thanks for sharing!
Agreed! CFOs and their finance teams should absolutely be embraced as strategic partners driving business growth. While numbers are critical, it's how these financial insights are leveraged to inform strategy, optimize operations, and guide decision-making where CFOs bring the most value.