(My Current Company)
www.BonaireAccountant.com
Finance
I’m frequently astonished at the rather limited number of competences asked for in a Chief Financial Officer:
- Budgeting
- Reporting
- Analysing
- Consolidating
- GAAP
- IFRS
All these skills, with the exception of ‘true analysis’ – and I doubt, given its inclusion in this list, that that’s what is meant here – can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of a real CFO.
However, in my eyes a true CFO, is much more: obviously he can do the above, he is a CFO! Maybe he is not conversant with the German GAAP, if that is what is specifically required, but how long, given his basic knowledge on the subject, would it take him to achieve that.
A CFO is is the (financial) conscience of the company, someone who understands who or what the company is; who or what his fellow C-suite are; where pitfalls lie, why banks / investors are enamoured, or not. Why Sales should sometimes be let to roam and other times be put on a tight leash, especially if, as happens frequently, the CEO has a true Sales heart. The CFO has to be all this, while understanding that (s)he is subordinate to the true goal of the company: it is (generally) not Finance that brings home the bacon, but it is Finance that should ensure it is still being brought home 10 -20 years hence. And in this role the CFO's role in Mergers & Acquisitions is obviously vital, not only during the due-diligence process, but also in avoiding over exuberance and actually bringing the integration to a good end.
Some of my Cases
See also: