The changing role of today’s CFO
Egon Zehnder recently organized a forum to discuss the role and responsibilities of the CFO in dynamic environments. The global financial crisis put the spotlight on the CFO as never before. In addition to responsibilities of corporate governance, he started to involve himself in operational and strategic decisions of the company, moving from supplying financial information to actually providing business advice.
More recently, he has taken on a larger-than-life role within the organization – laying stake to areas that had previously never been considered his domain of expertise. Cases in point are the active role he plays in talent management, contributing to areas beyond finance, and assuming the role of CEO designate.
No longer is the CFO only preoccupied in building credibility for the finance function, he has to instil a sense of confidence among employees, customers, partners as the one person who has all the answers. It goes without saying that the CFO’s level of understanding of the business has evolved tremendously from what it was three years ago.
CFOs from diverse industries have convened to share their views on the emerging responsibilities of the function, encapsulating the new skills that needed to be developed to meet the growing demands.
