Top 25 PE CFO Articles & Resources of 2023

I've compiled the top 25 CFO articles and resources from 2023 from the Private Equity and CFO Report.

1. AI VALUE CREATION AND RISK FOR THE CFO
2. AI FOR FINANCE AND BEYOND
3. THE CFO AS COO
4. SPONSORS AND CFOS ARE MISALIGNED ON CRITICAL AREAS
5. HOW A PRIVATE EQUITY CFO SUCCEEDS
6. 5 PE LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES FOR THE CFO
7. 5 LEADERSHIP SHIFTS FOR A NETWORKED WORLD
8. CFO TO CEO
9. PROFILE OF THE ALL-STAR CFO
10. CFOS AND TECH ROI
11. THE NEW GROWTH PLAYBOOK: DISCIPLINED COST AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
12. TOP FINANCE PRIORITIES FOR 2024
13. CAN CFOS CAN BE MORE HUMAN, DRIVE PERFORMANCE AND BE MORE DISCIPLINED?
14. CFOs GETTING OPTIMISTIC, GROWTH FOCUSED AND DIGITAL
15. CFOs GRAPPLE WITH CAPITAL (RE)ALLOCATION
16. DIGITAL FINANCE TALENT HARD TO COME BY
17. HOW WILL AI IMPACT FINANCE (AND ORGANIZATIONS)?
18. SEVEN KEY MINDSETS AND PRACTICES FOR NEW CFOS
19. HOW TO ADVANCE WOMEN INTO FINANCE LEADERSHIP ROLES
20. THE CFO OF THE FUTURE
21. CFOs CONTINUE TO DRIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
22. CFOS ON THE HOT SEAT
23. CFO AS THE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL RIGHT HAND
24. WHAT FINANCE PROFESSIONALS WANT
25. FIVE CHALLENGES FACING CFOSBonus: PE CFOs ARE FOCUSED ON TALENT

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• 75 NPS (world class)
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If you're interested in our March cohort, sign up for an intake here: https://www.pexcelerate.com/cfo-accelerator-mar-24

Without further adieu. The top 25 articles and resources for PE CFOs of 2023.

1. AI VALUE CREATION AND RISK FOR THE CFO

I hosted FairNow's Guru Sethupathy for a conversation on AI value creation and risk for the CFO. Guru highlighted 3 general AI use cases: Efficacy, Experience and efficiency. He also talked in-depth about the risks and implementation challenges.

"Just finished a fantastic webinar on AI with industry experts Scott Engler and Guru Sethupathy. This was, by far, the most helpful to me" ~ Ed Franowicz, Leaderboard

It's still available for replay: https://www.dhirubhai.net/events/aiandthecfo-governanceandvaluec7138369822626680832/comments/

2. AI FOR FINANCE AND BEYOND

McKinsey sees AI impacting the finance function in 3-ways: Automation, augmentation and acceleration.

• Automation: performing tedious tasks
• Augmentation: driving productivity
• Acceleration: extracting and indexing knowledge to speed decision-making and innovation

They advise CFOs to think about implementation in three ways:

1. CFOs must strategically identify and prioritize high-value investment opportunities in gen AI, ensuring a balanced focus between gen AI and other significant projects.
2. Integrating gen AI into business processes, as exemplified by Microsoft and Morgan Stanley, can enhance various aspects from customer attraction to operational cost reduction.
3. CFOs should proactively engage with gen AI, staying innovative and managing risks, by understanding new technologies and allocating capital for profitable, visionary growth.

Pulling out to the organizational level, here's how organizations are currently using gen AI by function.

3. THE CFO AS COO

I've long argued that the best CFOs are defacto COOs, especially in mid-market companies where the job is arguably more strategic and more interesting from an impact perspective. Operational #CFOs take many of the COO activities on this chart (via Nicolas Boucher) and work hand-in-hand with the#CEO on the activities on the left. CFOs who step into this breach create enormous value.

Crist/Kolder's Clem Johnson and Russell Reynold's Jenna Fisher see a blending of CFO and COO responsibilities and a new demand for CFO-Plus, operationally focused CFOs. RRA data shows that 39% of S&P 500 companies have a COO with CFOs often stepping into the breach.

4. SPONSORS AND CFOS ARE MISALIGNED ON CRITICAL AREAS

There's a whole lot to unpack in Accordion Partners "The State of the PE Sponsor-CFO Relationship" report.

Some of the more interesting findings were around data, cost and transformation.

1. CFOs believe their KPIs are more illuminating and that their data sets are cleaner than their sponsors do. Might want to pressure test that if you're a CFO.
2. CFOs are more focused on cost-cutting than their sponsors.
3. CFOs are behind sponsors in their perceived role in scaling and transforming the business.
4. Sponsors are far more focused on M&A than their CFO counterparts.
5. CFOs are not reporting on a cadence that meets the needs of their sponsors.

The report also has three broad recommendations for CFOs:

1. Get clear on priorities with your sponsor.
2. Be prepared for a bigger remit. Sponsors want CFOs to drive transformation and that means playing across the enterprise.
3. Fix your data. You don't get extra credit for this, but if your sponsor doesn't have confidence that 1. you have the right data and 2. it's clear what to do with your data, you might be rightfully nervous about your job.

5. HOW A PRIVATE EQUITY CFO SUCCEEDS

I fed CHATGPT a summary of my interviews with over two dozen PE CFOs and Operating partners about how to succeed in PE CFO role... here's the interview CHATGPT created:

Can you tell us about the challenges that impact value creation in the PE CFO role?

CFO: When you step into the role of a private equity CFO, time is a critical factor. The main objective is to achieve the investment goals within the expected timeframe. However, there are strategic, operational, and cultural challenges that can hinder value creation, and as a CFO, it's essential to address them early and effectively.

How do you ensure that strategies and operational actions translate into financial performance in a private equity portfolio company?

CFO: The CFO plays a unique role in establishing clarity. It's important to quickly identify the key drivers of the business and understand the challenges related to people, processes, and technology. Fixing the data infrastructure to enable visibility and insightful reporting is crucial. Most importantly, the CFO takes accountability for metrics and promptly addresses any deviations from the expected performance. They analyze different scenarios and provide advice on the best course of action to tackle underlying issues and make informed decisions.

Do CFOs help align the organization to the investment thesis?

CFO: CFOs need to go beyond numbers and spreadsheets to create a compelling narrative. They connect the investment strategy with the financials and distill it into a clear and concise message that resonates emotionally. This conviction helps drive alignment and effort throughout the organization. By helping team members understand how their work impacts value creation, CFOs empower them to make informed decisions every day. They engage leaders, align perspectives, and show how different parts of the company fit together, considering different scenarios aligned with the investment thesis.

How do CFOs earn the respect and trust of the entire team, including frontline leaders, the CEO, and the board?

CFO: Building credibility and trust is crucial for CFOs to be effective. They have to have a deep understanding of the business at every level, from the ground floor to the strategic and investor levels. By actively engaging with various departments, such as product and sales, and experiencing firsthand the operational aspects of the business, CFOs establish themselves as trusted advisors. Encouraging early communication of both challenges and opportunities allows CFOs to inform strategic decisions, mitigate risks, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

How do CFOs effectively capture and leverage data?

CFO: Data is critical in private equity, and CFOs need to prioritize financial infrastructure to support decision-making. Great CFOs and finance teams are respected across the enterprise not only for their mastery of numbers but also for their business acumen and guidance. They build dedicated data teams, leverage advanced databases, and collaborate with data scientists to measure and predict performance. However, it's important to remember that data must be used in conjunction with influence and leadership. CFOs must turn information into action and ensure their role as a strategic partner is recognized throughout the organization.

How do CFOs navigate challenging cultures within portfolio companies and foster a data-driven operational environment?

CFO: When CFOs enter new roles, they often face cultures that may conflict with the investment goals and timeline. Creating a data-driven operational environment requires cultural transformation, and the CFO plays a crucial role in driving that change. By analyzing and communicating cross-functional data against external trends, CFOs help the organization see beyond immediate challenges and shape a forward-looking business perspective. They focus their team's efforts on proactive decision-making and future-oriented strategies.

How do you drive transformation and growth as a CFO?

CFO: Driving transformation and growth requires reallocating resources and prioritizing areas that drive value. Working closely with the CEO, board, and leadership team, we identify bottlenecks and determine the necessary changes to unlock value. This involves rationalizing unprofitable parts of the business and freeing up resources for high-value initiatives. As CFOs, we foster executive focus, risk management, and experimentation to uncover new opportunities. Collaboration with HR to align objectives and adjust processes is also crucial. We model leadership behaviors and align incentives to drive cultural change and replace legacy behaviors when necessary.

Maintaining alignment among stakeholders is vital. How do you facilitate the progress of the investment cycle and ensure ongoing alignment?

CFO: CFOs play a critical role in maintaining alignment among stakeholders. We work closely with the PE sponsor, leveraging their resources and guidance to determine the most important aspects of the PE playbook for our organization. By leveraging our enterprise-level view and framing abilities, we reinforce our perspective using numbers and storytelling. This helps build credibility and guides the board while energizing the organization. We ensure that the right conversations take place between stakeholders, addressing both short-term and long-term scenarios. This forces us to make hard trade-offs and maintain focus. Ultimately, as CFOs, we act as the north star, translating progress against the investment thesis to all stakeholders involved.

Adapting to changes is crucial in the business world. How do you navigate shifting assumptions and changing strategies?

CFO: Being agile in decision-making is essential because business conditions are constantly changing. As CFOs, we need to flex when the assumptions underlying the investment thesis change. We provide valuable advice to stakeholders on how these changes impact execution. We recognize when the investment time horizon may need adjustment, pivot strategies when necessary, and seize emerging opportunities. The ability to adapt and capitalize on unseen value is crucial for us in the private equity industry.

Lastly, what role do CFOs play in fostering collaboration and constructive tension between CEOs and boards?

CFO: As CFOs, we act as bridges between CEOs and boards, bringing constructive tension to the table. We embrace the partnership with the CEO and the PE firm and ensure effective communication. Managing two reporting lines, we keep both the sponsor and the portfolio company informed. By bringing valuable insights and challenging decisions constructively, we promote healthy discussions between CEOs and boards. This collaborative approach drives the organization forward, aligning vision, strategy, and execution among all stakeholders.

6. 5 PE LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES FOR THE CFO

I distilled down > two dozen operating partner and PE CFO interviews to identify the leadership capabilities most mentioned.

5 important leadership capabilities for a PE CFO

1. Pattern recognition and anticipating challenges: ability to identify patterns and anticipate potential obstacles or risks. They proactively address issues before they become significant problems.

2. Catalyze growth: identify opportunities for growth, develop and execute plans to achieve growth targets, and ensure financial resources are effectively allocated to support growth initiatives.

3. People development, influence and EQ: possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills to effectively collaborate with various stakeholders, including the CEO, PE sponsors, and other executives. They should be able to build relationships, influence decision-making, and lead cross-functional teams. They take pride in developing their finance team and people across the organization.

4. Financial acumen and business contribution: CFOs must have a deep understanding of the business and its drivers, enabling them to provide strategic insights, analyze data, and translate financial information into actionable recommendations.

5. Effective data management and technology expertise: ensure accurate and timely financial information, implement improved data capture and analysis systems, and embrace technology solutions that enhance efficiency and provide meaningful insights.

7. 5 LEADERSHIP SHIFTS FOR A NETWORKED WORLD

McKinsey's Aaron De Smet, Arne Gast, Johanne Lavoie, and Michael Lurie identified five fundamental shifts in mindsets and ways of working to lead thriving organizations in the new disruptive-networked era. These shifts include moving beyond profit to impact, beyond expectations to wholeness, beyond command to collaboration, beyond control to evolution, and beyond competition to co-creation.

The Five Roles: Visionary, Architect, Catalyst, Coach, Human

8. CFO TO CEO

Big companies are increasingly seeking CFOs who have the potential to become CEOs in the future. CEO succession is now a criterion when recruiting for some CFO roles. In North America, 17% of CEOs had previously served as CFOs, and among Fortune 500 companies in 2022, 18% of newly appointed board directors had previous CFO experience. CFO searches now often include the expectation of CEO succession potential, given the expanded strategic importance and scope of the CFO role. Data-centric industries such as financial services, telecom, and B2B technology are seen as natural environments for CFOs to transition into leading the organization"

Clem Johnson of Crist|Kolder Associates sees the best CFOs looking for more responsibility: “Often top financial officer talent is looking for broader roles than the CFO seat—CFO/COO or CFO-plus roles or roles that would position them for CEO - We absolutely see a spike in the number of finance executives who will not contemplate making a move unless there is a CEO succession element to the opportunity,”

And some interesting fodder on when and how a CFO makes a good CEO

9. PROFILE OF THE ALL-STAR CFO

A16Z has an informative take on hiring for the CFO role. They argue any all-star CFO should:

• Move an organization toward more strategic financial planning
• Maintain frugality while investing in the areas necessary to grow
• Define business strategy and where/how to invest capital or slow spending
• Share insight and analysis across the management team and down into the organization, so that decisions are made using sound financial data
• Secure capital from the right investors at the right price
• Improve returns from real estate, technology, and infrastructure investments

They also argue there are 4 archetypes of CFOs:

• The career finance executive is a traditional CFO with experience in investment banking or private equity. They excel in strategic financial planning and leading finance groups.
• The broad-based operator CFO comes from capital-intensive companies or private equity firms, with a broader view of industry and operations.
• The M&A and capital markets expert CFO specializes in raising capital and completing M&A deals.
• The career accountant CFO has a strong technical background as a CPA and expertise in regulatory issues and risk management. They often join hardware-focused companies with complex accounting processes.

Scott Kupor, Caroline Moon contributed to this article.

10. CFOS AND TECH ROI

Sixty-four percent of CFOs believe autonomous finance will be a reality in five years. Yet 70% of technology investments fail because of an outdated technology mindset in finance. Gartner argues that finance should

• Think top down by identifying where innovation is most urgent in finance and encourage experimentation. Execute from the bottom up?by building the foundation and promoting composable thinking across the organization to accelerate agility.
• Think about technology solutions and best-fit vendors that deliver specific finance capabilities.
• Drive standardization in core capabilities and differentiation in value added capabilities.
• Enable a technology governance that supports experimentation and a fail-fast culture in innovative technologies, such as AI, while sticking to traditional implementation approaches in stable technologies such as ERP.

11. THE NEW GROWTH PLAYBOOK: DISCIPLINED COST AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

PE-Xcelerate recently hosted Insight Operating Partner Roxi Wen to talk about growth with cost discipline. Roxi highlighted the fact that disciplined growth is not only an imperative, but a team capability that creates competitive advantage.

12. TOP FINANCE PRIORITIES FOR 2024

Gartner listed the top priorities for CFOs in 2024. Note #4, increasingly change management (traditionally HR) is landing on the CFOs remit.

13. CAN CFOS CAN BE MORE HUMAN, DRIVE PERFORMANCE AND BE MORE DISCIPLINED?

Gartner is arguing that CFOs who take a more human centered approach can drive performance and efficiency. These "human leaders" (are they implying the rest are inhuman?) drive employee intent to stay up by 12 percentage points, employee wellbeing by 30 points and engagement by 37 percentage points, respectively. A human leader exhibits these traits:

• Adaptivity: Employees now seek a personalized and flexible work experience, including control over when, where, and how they work. Finance leadership needs to recognize and respond to these demands to attract and retain talent.
• Empathy: Empathetic leadership goes beyond mere kindness and involves understanding the motivations and experiences of others, leaving biases behind. CFOs need to cultivate empathy, especially considering the high burnout rates among their direct reports and the expectations of emotionally intelligent leadership from the emerging Gen Z workforce.
• Authenticity: Leaders should be personally vulnerable and authentic, fostering an environment where employees feel comfortable taking calculated risks without fearing negative consequences. Overcoming fear and promoting authenticity can help drive innovation and create a more inclusive work culture.

They argue that by putting people at the center and considering the broader impact, CFOs can effectively balance financial goals while being human leaders, making tough economic tradeoffs, and protecting financial outcomes for the entire organization.

14. CFOs GETTING OPTIMISTIC, GROWTH FOCUSED AND DIGITAL

CFOs attending an EY conference are focused on efficient and cautious growth with continued digital investment. 87% of CFOs said they are focused on driving growth over the next 6-12 months with 40% citing cost reduction and 27% citing digital transformation.

15. CFOs GRAPPLE WITH CAPITAL (RE)ALLOCATION

According to Gartner, over two-thirds of CFOs (68%) report their organizations’ operational resources are insufficiently responsive to capital shifts. This is partly because the majority of business leaders (71%) have significant autonomy over how their operational resources are allocated and finance lacks visibility into the business’s operational resource availability.

They recommend 4 Steps:

1. Weight business incentives toward enterprise performance to overcome resistance to shifting operational resources.
2. Track resource utilization by services and skills rather than budget categories to increase finance’s visibility into operational resource deployment.
3. Classify operational expenses into strategic categories to analyze resource use against strategic objectives.
4. Use metrics cascades to put resource trade-offs in perspective for business leaders.

16. DIGITAL FINANCE TALENT HARD TO COME BY

Gartner also finds that only 16% of CFOs believe their teams are proficient in digital skills and they expect that talent to be harder to come by.

Gartner also tries to define digital talent across a spectr

17. HOW WILL AI IMPACT FINANCE (AND ORGANIZATIONS)?

As everyone rushes to figure out how to employ new AI technology, finance offers a unique use case. Any work that is based on consistent decision rules, has a history and doesn't require a high degree of strategic thinking, collaboration or creativity will 'eventually' be done better by AI. If a work problem has "edges" and a usable track record, you can train a computer to figure it out. Legal and finance offer robust opportunities, but also come with risk as noted in the Financial Times:

1. One is opacity: AI tools are utterly mysterious to everyone except their creators.
2. The second issue is concentration risk.?The rise of monocultures in the financial system due to agents optimizing using the same metrics
3. The third issue revolves around “regulatory gaps”: a euphemism for the fact that financial regulators seem ill-equipped to understand AI, or even to know who should monitor it.

Five years ago (when I was with Talent Neuron) I worked with a large multi-national that was planning to automate 35% of finance by 2025 - and the technology has some a long way in five years. It's not a question of if, just how and when and CFOs will need to balance the risk reward ratio. There are early versions of Finance AI already up and running. And while finance is ripe for AI, expect CFOs to push to use more AI capabilities throughout organizations vs. headcount. As those use cases materialize, adoption will happen rapidly.

If you want to take a macro look at your workforce for AI impact, look at roles across these two dimensions: 1. How fast do the rules change for this role? 2. How much creativity, collaboration and strategic thinking are involved? If both are low... it will be eaten by AI. We did this for HP and they said it changed the way they looked at their workforce planning.

18. SEVEN KEY MINDSETS AND PRACTICES FOR NEW CFOS

Ankur Agrawal, Michael Birshan, Christian Grube and Andy West of hashtag#McKinsey argue that CFOs have to be extremely pro-active when they are new to role to drive strategic value. Here are their "7" ideas:

1. Form a clear-eyed picture of the gaps in resources, activities and support structures needed to achieve value and get early buy-in from the business, to the c-suite to the board.

2. They have a bias for action against the "to be" state of the organization.

3. Drive the organization to make bold bets and counter risk-aversion.

4. Educate your key partners in financial consequences and tradeoffs.

5. Be proactive about risk-mitigation.

6. Develop a strategic mindset around ESG.

7. Collaborate closely with their colleagues, particularly their CEO and chief human resources officer (CHRO), to allocate capital toward attracting, teaching, and retaining talented employees.

19. HOW TO ADVANCE WOMEN INTO FINANCE LEADERSHIP ROLES

Only 13% of companies in a recent BCG study have a woman CFO. According to BCG's Juliet Grabowski and Anna Overauer there are four things companies can do to advance women in finance.

1. Rethink the CFO background to source finance executives from non-traditional paths.
2. Promote female CFOs as role models.
3. Demonstrate a commitment to equal treatment (standardize pay grades, have clear success metrics.).
4. Create a leadership commitment to advancing women. BCGs research showed that women finance professionals boost growth, returns and valuations.

20. THE CFO OF THE FUTURE

The Future of Finance Leadership Advisory Group (a group of 40 senior finance leaders at large corporations) highlighted 7-skills for CFOs of the future:

1. Leadership DNA: The CFO is increasingly the co-pilot of the business alongside the CEO steering the direction of the company
2. Digital and tech-savvy: Financial systems and software, cloud computing, analytics, and other digital technologies.
3. Effective stakeholder engagement, communication, and collaboration skills: highlighting experience with inter-departmental collaboration.
4. Ability to drive value: Strategic planning, business development, and performance management.
5. Strong financial acumen: Experience in financial management, budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis.
6. Storytelling and experience with data-informed decision making: The ability to tell the story of the business to executives, board of directors, and the Street, if applicable, using data.
7. Strategic knowledge of industry trends and regulation reporting

21. CFOs CONTINUE TO DRIVE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

In the CFO.com CFO survey, 84% of CFOs plan to be more involved in technology strategy as companies continue to drive for digital efficiencies and impact and fail to achieve their ROIs. One thing we've learned is that most digital transformation fails on culture. CFOs need to work with both Tech and HR to drive adoption.

And CFOs themselves are spending on tech. 75% of CFOs surveyed are planning to increase their capital spend in Technology for the finance team. A note here, AI will be particularly effective in finance. Any area that's "rules-based" with a long history of patterns will be ripe for the burgeoning bot/AI world. Many companies are already planning to have parts of finance performed by AI.

22. CFOS ON THE HOT SEAT

91% of Private Equity CFOs report being concerned about their jobs after receiving PE Investment with 97% of sponsors reporting the same. This dovetails with our own conversations at PE-Xcelerate revealing that less than 20% of CFOs are considered A-players.

23. CFO AS THE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL RIGHT HAND

Forbes Research surveyed 500 global executives from organizations with at least $1 billion in revenue.

In addition to finding that CFOs and CEOs view each other as their most important relationship, CFOs also identified agility, demand and tech as their top strengths to navigate volatility.

They also identified where CxOs tend to disagree:

1. Capital Spending on Technology
2. Where to Focus Digital Transformation
3. Pace of Innovation

And how CFOs work cross-functionally:

And finally what CFOs view as the most important part areas of focus for finance:

1. Strategic Risk Management
2. Implementing Advanced Technologies
3. Continuous Financial Reporting.

24. WHAT FINANCE WANTS

Finance professionals are interested in job stability, financial health of the company, leadership commitment, and product relevance. The also want clarity on career paths, use of technology, and their potential impact according to the CFOs that took part in CFO.com's Peer Audit. CFOs are looking for self-motivated problem solvers and team players.

25. FIVE CHALLENGES FACING CFOS

Gartner highlighted the 5 challenges that CFOs face in a "deadweight"(tepid demand growth, stubbornly higher costs and constrained access to capital) economy.

1. Zero-Sum Growth: CFOs must redefine market segments to identify new growth opportunities in cooling demand conditions and underserved customer segments.
2. Waning Pricing Power: Increasing price sensitivity among consumers and B2B customers necessitates a reevaluation of pass-through pricing strategies in response to cost pressures.
3. Expensive Productivity Challenge: To combat productivity stagnation, organizations must extract scalable outcomes from costly digital investments while fostering a stronger collaboration between humans and technology.
4. Institutional Knowledge Erosion: Aging workforce and labor market trends threaten the erosion of vital tacit knowledge required for digitalization, making it essential for organizations to bridge the gap in a competitive digital talent market.
5. Bank Lending Alternatives: CFOs need to explore unconventional financing options like secondary equity issues, public-private consortia, venture capital, and peer-to-peer lending as organizations face higher costs when refinancing maturing debt and credit lines.

Bonus: PE CFOs ARE FOCUSED ON TALENT

CFOs in the 2023 EY Private Equity Survey identified talent management as their top strategic priority (aside from asset growth) with retaining talent the focus of firms > $2.5B and hiring the right talent the focus of firms < $2.5B.

But PE CFOs are also focused on D&I, with the "I" finally receiving it's just due. Having worked on this issue for many years, I know that hiring for diversity means little unless the culture is inclusive enough to let them thrive. Conversely when you're known for an inclusive culture, hiring for diversity becomes much easier. CFOs are also thinking about hybrid work, but there's a bid-ask gap here as well with CFOs wanting their workforce in the office 3x a week and workers thinking they like they're remote offices just fine.