Repositioning the financial leader
Is the repositioning of the financial leader one of the consequences of the major changes brought by the digitalization of the companies?
Financial leadership helps the organization improve its financial health and make financial decisions that move it toward success. Time after time, CFOs say that financial leadership is exactly what helps the company increase its profitability.
What is important now for financial leaders
What is financial leadership? Supporting the strategic decision of the general manager by financial and accounting managers to increase the profitability and value of the company.
Why is financial leadership important in business? Because it provides a strong competitive advantage.
Repositioned in this way, the “financial” leaves the functional area of input-output accounting and moves to the strategic area of the correlations between the multiple indicators to substantiate the business decision.
Thus, the financial director rises to another level of importance: from a function whose role was discreetly recognized, he reaches the same level of importance as the operational and commercial director.
Financial leadership places a strong emphasis on financial analysis. With it, CFOs can improve visibility, anticipate evolving needs, gain deeper insight into a company’s financial health, make forecasts with greater accuracy, and ultimately improve profitability and company value.
Skills of a great financial leader
To excel as a financial leader, CFOs must have the following characteristics:
- Technology Expertise: Professional skills are great, but they don’t mean much without a solid understanding of the latest and most relevant technologies. Finance leaders need to be knowledgeable about RPA, blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence and other technologies that can impact how the company they work for operates.
- Advanced Planning Skills: Strategic planning sets priorities, reinforces operational excellence, and keeps everyone in an organization focused on the same goals. Financial leaders must be able to develop strategic plans and modify them as a company grows.
- Collaborative approach: Finance leaders must establish and maintain strong relationships with leaders of various departments within the company. After all, others rely on their understanding and skills to succeed.
In the context of accelerating globalization and increased competitiveness, CFOs are working more closely than ever with CEOs.
The high level of understanding of the financial discipline helps the CEOs, management team and the board of directors to confidently make important decisions about the current transformations.
CFOs provide the information key players in any company need to stay aligned with their mission and turn their vision into reality.
In conclusion
A company has excellent financial leadership when the CFO does his job with one goal in mind: to create competitive advantages for the company.
The CFO is the visionary who can understand financial information and consider what it means from a variety of perspectives.
Financial information, extracted from financial data, is especially crucial if management wants to raise capital or expand the company’s operations in the future.
Florentina Șușnea este Managing Partner în cadrul companiei PKF Finconta. Experiența ei profesională de peste 26 de ani cuprinde domeniile de audit statutar și IFRS, consultanță fiscală, probleme de rezidență fiscală, restructurare financiară și fiscală, documentație și politici de Transfer Pricing, fuziuni și divizări, M&A, expertize judiciare, contabile și fiscale, due diligence de achiziții. Florentina este membru acreditat al următoarelor organizații profesionale: Camera Consultantilor Fiscali, Camera Auditorilor Financiari din România, Camera Expertilor și Contabililor Autorizați din România si Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. A absolvit Facultatea Finanțe-Contabilitate din cadrul Academiei de Studii Economice, București, Facultatea de Drept din cadrul Universității ”Titu Maiorescu”, programul MBA de la Tiffin University din SUA, este doctor în economie și a urmat numeroase cursuri naționale și internaționale în domeniul fiscal. florentina.susnea@pkffinconta.ro
