THE ROLE AS CFO WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

Rikke Pihl has no doubts. Having been involved in head hunting of managers for some of Denmark's largest companies for more than 20 years, it is her clear experience that there is one member of the management group in particular whose role has undergone a major transformation.

Rikke Pihl has been among the leading experts in head hunting and executive search for more than 20 years. Partly as a partner in Laigaard & Partners and the last 9 years as co-owner and managing partner in ADVANZ, where the client list included some of Denmark's largest companies such as Danish Crown, SAP, Novo, Lundbeck and Nestlé, where she put together the entire management team.

It is based on her many years of experience that she points out that there is one member of the CxO team in particular whose role has changed significantly:

"There is definitely a before and now, and the role that CFOs play today is completely different. Which of course has meant that the competence profile that the person must have has also fundamentally changed."

From reactive to proactive

According to Rikke Pihl, the CFO's role has gone from recording and reporting to become a strategic sparring partner who, in collaboration with the rest of the CxO team, contributes to business development.

A look forward instead of back:

"Of course, the CFO still has an obligation to ensure full compliance and maintenance of correct accounting practices, but as we have increasingly gained access to, for example, highly developed BI solutions and the ability to analyse Big Data, the CFO can deliver some enriched insights that can be used to develop future initiatives and strategic benchmarks."

But according to Rikke Pihl, this also means that the CFO must work in a completely different way than before:

"Naturally, this introduces a number of new requirements. The CFO's new role, where he/she is now more included and acts as a value-adding key player in the management group and in a close dialogue with, for example, a board of directors, means that he/she must have a much broader and deeper understanding of both the company and the market it operates in”.

The new requirements

According to Rikke Pihl, there are two areas in particular where the CFO's new role has an impact on which skills he/she must have:

"The prerequisite for the CFO to be able to carry out his/her new tasks is partly that he/she has a broader experience base to draw on, and that he/she knows how and with what data he can qualify the insights on which he/she bases his recommendations. That wasn't part of the economics study syllabus in the old days", says Rikke Pihl and continues:

"And in fact, innovation and development is moving so fast today, with new technologies and new capabilities that are constantly transforming the CFO's role, that he/she is more or less on a constant learning curve with the addition of new skills and responsibilities. As a consequence of this the CFO is drawn more and more into the leading decision-making process and as an advisor who can contribute to the company always being at the forefront both strategically and technologically", Rikke Pihl concludes.

Read more about the CFO's new role as a strategic sparring partner to the management, and how exacto's survey amoung CEOs and CFOs in 50 Danish companies confirms this new trend that will only be strengtened in the future: The CFO guides management into the future