Enabling Growth - Priorities of the Modern CFO

forward-looking“In the past, the role of the CFO has been quite reactive, a bit like looking into the ‘rearview mirror’ rather than being more proactive,” explains Bastienne F?ller, the CFO of TIS. Bastienne states that the role of the CFO - in the past - was more about paying bills, staying compliant and generally making sure nothing went wrong. She believes it is key to be more rather than just analyzing the past.?“Numbers can be good feed-back and a true motivator for staff. How am I doing vs plan? What’s the gap and why?” The CFO can help her colleagues understand the value of the numbers and what they mean. Bastienne feels that “the CFO should be a real business and sparring partner, and a true influencer.”?She sees the role moving from the back to the front office but admits that “this is an evolution not a revolution.” The CFO can be a steadying influence and set trends in the very volatile world we are faced with.

The CFO role used to be filled by the accounting department, but this is changing.?CFOs now come from other business areas such as business development, finance or controlling. The modern CFO is really 'integrated into the company' and if she is doing her job correctly, she is a partner to the CEO and a true peer of the management team. With the CFO better integrated, Bastienne feels this "gives me a chance to share knowledge and ideas while helping to shift company culture and mindset." Structural and reporting changes are also part of the toolkit to increase flexibility and create excellence. The modern CFO promotes a growth culture and strategy with sustainable revenues. Bastienne explains, "at a SAS tech company, this means growing the base of annual recurring revenue (ARR) with strong and healthy margins and satisfied clients."

Today's CFO is not just focused internally but is also trying to network and benchmark based on industry peers.?Bastienne remarks, "this also means constantly measuring and challenging the team as to where we stand vs annual results. Showing the facts via numbers and metrics is a powerful tool." Technology companies, B2B software firms in the SAS space are very different from, for example, businesses in the Retail arena. There are also different ways to measure an investor's success, e.g., ARR and ROI. The choice of method is strongly based on industry. Inside every company, KPIs also help steer and measure individuals and departments. Here the modern CFO needs to be able to coach and pivot, if necessary, based on new information. Bastienne knows that "one thing you learn over time is that things often turn out differently than you planned.?The key is 'simply' to deal with it! Think about what you can do and which workarounds make sense." Being flexible is important. The modern CFO must learn to embrace change and employ course corrections when and where needed. ??

The transformation in the finance area also calls for a stronger 80/20 approach, which Bastienne feels is hard for finance professionals. It will be necessary to be faster and to focus on the essentials rather than all available information. She explains that "the sheer amount of data available can be overwhelming. Easier access to a lake or sea of information means that the CFO needs to help define what is necessary and relevant, calculating how much is actually digestible!"?Another part of the job is breaking down the data into clusters or groupings to recognize patterns and root causes.?Bastienne comments that "some things are certain, i.e., projects always take longer and are more expensive than you hoped or planned for. This is to be expected and must be dealt with. The modern CFO always needs to have a plan 'B'." She explains that while hoping for the best and keeping an optimistic outlook, good planning means preparing well for what could go wrong or not as well as hoped for. Bastienne believes in 'doing' and 'showing' rather than 'telling.' Being a role model, leading the way and living the talk is very important to her.