- Publish Date: Posted almost 10 years ago
- Author:by Laura Paterson
From Company Calculator to Cutting-Edge CFO… Are you feeling the change?
An evolutionary business change is occurring within the senior management teams of organisations across the world. Is the CFO role as we know it, paving the way for the new Strategic Business Leader?\r\n\r\nAccording to American Express and CFO Research’s sixth annual Global Business and Spending Monitor study, CFO’s across the globe have more influence than ever over the strategic direction and revenue generation of a company.\r\n\r\nIt is evident that across all sectors there is an increasing need to do more for less: business competition is fierce, the economy is still delicate, and both internal and external customers alike have requests which should have been fulfilled yesterday.\r\n\r\nThe responsibility for these key deliverables will now, more than ever, rest with the CFO.\r\n\r\nVisibility and efficiency are on-going challenges that need to be addressed by a CFO to ensure their company’s profitability and growth. To enable these changes, we see the evolution of a new type of CFO– one whose entire existence relies on innovation.\r\n\r\nBy its very nature, innovation alludes to change.\r\n\r\nThe internal factors such as driving cost reductions and improving processes and procedures will always be a priority. These are the day-to-day, bread and butter duties of the CFO but finance teams are going from being number-crunching, operational functions and becoming strategic finance business partners that drive change.\r\n\r\nLong gone are the days when CFO’s were just a calculator for their company, they are now juggling an array of responsibilities and initiatives making them instrumental to a company’s success. Not only is the CFO preoccupied with building credibility for the finance function across the organisation but they now also have to instil a sense of confidence amongst analysts, the Board, employees and advisors….they are becoming the one person who has all the answers.\r\n\r\nWhat has truly changed is the level of influence on the external factors, whether that is the launch of a new product or service offering, a move into a new market, or the acquisition of a new business. The CFO is now a pivotal point in making these strategic business initiatives happen.\r\n\r\nWhat are the CFOs of today doing to allow their teams to become a strategic finance function? Many are reducing the unnecessary accounts admin burden. Is setting up a shared service centre the answer?\r\n\r\nSome may argue in favour of this as surely a consequence of these drastic changes will result in the freeing up of resources to focus on strategic initiatives that truly focus on the delivery of business goals for growth and improved profitability.\r\n\r\nThe efficient functioning of the back office along with business transformation is the key to allowing finance to become a front office function which drives revenue and commerciality.\r\n
Latest Blogs
View All Blogs
International Women's Day at Cedar
On International Women’s Day, it’s time to #Embraceequity Wednesday, 8th March, is International Women’s Day. This year, its emphasis is on equity, and specifically the need to understand the fund...
From goal-nets to goal-line technology… tackling the UK’s productivity puzzle
As we tiptoe into 2023, there is not a scintilla of doubt that the UK economy (and indeed that of much of the rest of the world) is not in a great place. The global pandemic, with its disastrous i...
Black History Month and the Art of Black Hair
“I joined Cedar in 2012, having previously worked for a much smaller company. At the time I joined, I was the only Afro-Caribbean person in the business, although in the decade I’ve been here ther...
“Show me the Money!!!”
As the UK teeters on the brink of the recession precipice, the most commonly used phrase Cedar’s recruitment consultants hear these days is, “What with everything that’s going on…”.A year ago, we w...
Britain's surprisingly diverse leadership battle
At Cedar, we're a diverse bunch, with diverse views, including our politics. But looking at the current Government, it seems we're at an inflection point for all parties.With the resignation of Bo...
London Pride
In June 1970, up to 20,000 people gathered for what was then called a Gay Liberation march in New York. Although the battle for gay rights in the USA can be traced back to the 1920s, this march was...
DE&I at Cedar – a work in progress
If you read our previous blog, ‘The Long March to Equality’, examining the rise of DE&I within recruitment, you may have been surprised, as we were, at how far the industry has come since the first...
The long march to equality
The oldest person who works at Cedar can remember when airlines advertised for male pilots and female air-hostesses. In Northern Ireland at that time, recruitment consultants used to draw up list...
Employers are getting very choosy… A review of the recently-qualified accountancy & finance jobs market
The recruitment market and the economy more generally have had a lot of exogenous shocks over the last few years is, I can say without fear of contradiction, an understatement. Yet, despite all th...
Square pegs, round holes…and the need for genuine tax expertise in your business
As you know, the government has an Office for Tax Simplification, set up by George Osborne after he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2010. Unfortunately, as a former tax director from Grant...
Recruitment as we move into Q4 – it’s a battlefield and a buyer’s market
Last year, as the full extent of the pandemic, became apparent, many economists said it would take a long time for the economy to recover. In April 2020, The Guardian reported that the EY Item Club...
What it takes to be a successful PE portfolio company CEO
Whilst there is not a one size fits all solution for what we see in successful PE portfolio company CEO’s we are able to see some clear trends when it comes this. Below we have attempted to answer...
How to Make Your CV Stand Out
Looking for your next finance role? The first step is getting your CV right. With such a small window in which to impress recruiters, it’s vital that you’re able to make your CV stand out from the ...
