CFOs’ role is not like any other position, as they are in-charge of overseeing the financial well-being of an entire firm.
As organizations grow and the industry evolves due to changes in regulations and technologies, it becomes crucial for modern CFOs to acquire and develop new skills to keep up with their evolving roles and responsibilities.
In this blog, we will shed light on the importance of CFOs in a company and discuss the important skills they need to acquire today.
As mentioned above, CFOs hold a prominent position within an organization. In this case, they can easily relate to the saying, “The higher position, the bigger responsibility”.
However, in a survey by NetSuite, 38% of CFOs revealed that they are struggling to manage their workload and consider it as their biggest challenge. In fact, over half of CFOs (54%) admitted to having 11 to 15 major day-to-day responsibilities.
Traditionally, CFOs are responsible for providing the strategic direction of the company and managing its financial aspects such as budgeting, auditing, and reporting. Today, they are also expected to stay on top of all the recent developments in data analytics and technology to properly manage forecasting and predictive insights.
So, with more and increased responsibilities than they can already handle, CFOs must develop essential skills to remain effective in their respective fields.
To better excel and succeed in their roles, CFOs will need to acquire several skills in 2024. Here are the key skills they should focus on:
Having a strategic mindset is important for CFOs today. Aside from focusing on the company’s financial figures and how financial decisions align with their organization's long-term goals, they must also analyze market trends, and identify opportunities that drive and support the growth of the organization.
As someone who holds an executive position, a CFO must be a good example and lead the entire organization toward growth. This includes maintaining data integrity, fostering a culture of honesty, and effectively communicating with team members.
As finance chiefs, having sufficient knowledge of business intelligence is necessary. CFOs must take charge of facilitating accurate and up-to-date data across the organization and ensuring that other business leaders receive meaningful insights when making crucial financial decisions.
With proper use of business intelligence, CFOs can correlate and visualize large amounts of disparate data from multiple sources to reveal financial and operational insights and make it available to anyone in the organization.
In addition, CFOs can also take advantage of business intelligence through:
Communication remains as a fundamental skill for CFOs. Through effective communication, finance chiefs can convey strategic information and financial concepts to various stakeholders in a clear and concise manner.
As the firms grow and undertake various projects, CFOs will need to excel in project management. From mergers and acquisitions to implementing new systems and processes, CFOs will need to effectively oversee these projects and ensure their successful completion and execution within the allotted budget and timeline.
Like any successful business relationship, building and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders is necessary as it will help CFOs to manage expectations, ensure compliance with relevant regulations, and foster a collaborative environment.
CFOs indeed are important to the success of an organization. Hence, CFOs must continually enhance their skills and stay updated on industry advancements to remain competitive in the job market.
By acquiring and enhancing essential skills such as strategic thinking, leadership abilities, proficiency in business intelligence, effective communication, project management, and stakeholder management, CFOs can successfully navigate challenges, make informed decisions, and contribute to the long-term growth and profitability of their organizations.
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