Expert Exchange

Earlier this month, myself, James Gherardi, and Gordon Whyte hosted a Senior Leaders Dinner at the Manor House, near Bristol. The event was attended by people from a diverse range of sectors, including high-tech engineering, product retail, high-end fashion retail, aviation, and professional services. We also had a great cross-section of people from CxOs, HRDs, MDs, and CPOs, to others in supply chain procurement, technology, and management consulting.

The biggest topic of conversation for the evening was mental health. It was a really emotive and open conversation, and one that probably wouldn’t have flowed so easily a few years ago. We also discussed the demands of the workforce today and what companies are doing to build their brand and improve retention, as well as what digital means to different sectors and the importance of making sure your business is prepared for the next piece of technology.

Here’s a more detailed rundown of the key takeaways.

In an environment where there are fewer and fewer roles in finance because of outsourcing, transformation is one of the best areas where you can still give people succession development opportunities to make them ready for the next step.

Transformation projects mean exposure to different experiences and dealing with a variety of people. It means working across different functions, whether it’s IT or HR, as well as with external parties like consultancies and systems integrators. This experience will be vital when you get to the top and need to engage and liaise with the board.

Companies have more data than ever at their disposal. But knowing how to interpret this data to inform strategic and operational decisions is easier said than done. And organisations are grappling with how to fuse together meaningful data from a plethora of systems.

Often the responsibility falls to finance, because it's numbers. But these numbers aren't just financial - they come from all areas of the business.

It’s here that we can expect the world of decision support to come into its own. This function will be made up of a number of different skills. There will be finance expertise; data specialists who can find patterns and theories in the numbers. But then you need people who can paint that picture and explain the patterns in the numbers to the board.

The silos of technical, commercial, and shared services in the finance function are creating a problem. In ten years’ time, it will be much harder to find well-rounded finance talent. As discussed in a previous post, this increasing focus on specialisms within the function are hindering succession planning.

Currently, the most common route to becoming CFO is to come up through a group finance role, move into FP&A, followed by getting divisional FD experience, before heading finally towards the number one position. But with the development of specialisms, what does the future path to the top look like? Where will the next CFO come from?

Commercial finance and FP&A were the top areas that organisations were looking to invest in during 2018, according to BIE's Finance Succession Planning and Transformation Report. 

This is no real surprise as we see organisations drive towards an increased use of technology and decision support functions, as well as using analytics to predict and develop decisions for the future. Everyone is looking to the future which naturally means the focus is on planning and commercial support.

CFOs today need to be focused on more than just the numbers. They need to be able to play a central role in enabling the business to operate effectively, especially when going through business transformation.

But how much of a role are CFOs playing when it comes to succession planning and people development within the function? And how much of a role should they be playing?

As we explored in a recent post, the development of finance specialisms means organisations are at risk of not being able to find someone rounded enough to become CFO.

In a PLC environment, unless you have previously been a CFO of a listed company, the shareholders are wary of anyone being promoted internally because they are worried they don’t have the necessary experience. Additionally, in a PE environment, if you haven’t been the CFO of a PE-backed business, PE houses don’t want to talk to you.

So how can organisations find a better balance between breadth and expertise across all financial disciplines, to allow senior finance executives to step up into the number 1 role?

In a recent survey by BIE, 43% of respondents felt that the development of specialisms within finance was hindering CFO succession planning.

This highlights a challenge for the future leaders of finance in today’s heavily siloed business environment. They need to find a balance between specialising in a financial discipline and getting broad exposure across all aspects of the function in order to develop more rounded experience necessary to progress to the top.

Chief Financial Officers are finding themselves at the epicentre of large-scale transformation and therefore need to be the conscience of the business when going through this transformation. They have to understand and allow it to happen; yet, at the same time, make sure that a company’s balance sheet can afford it.

It can be a difficult role, acting as both the accelerator and the brake. Traditionally, many CFOs don’t necessarily feel they are trained appropriately to be aware of the longevity of business transformation. Much of the time, the stop button is pressed at just the point when it’s gathering momentum and the end is in sight.

Recently our Finance team hosted a roundtable dinner discussion with a number of CFOs within our BIE Community. The discussion led to some stimulating debate and it was clear that certain themes resonated with everyone around the table, regardless of their sector.