Tuesday, December 1, 2009

CFOs as leaders

Recently, I hosted a panel discussion in Melbourne with three prominent CFOs in the Australian business community, I was joined by Matt Bekier (Tabcorp), Tony Connon (Australia Unity Limited) and Peter Meehan (Australia Post). The session was extremely well received with over 260 in attendance.

The aim of the panel discussion was to examine how CFOs dealt with the issues of the global economic downturn along with the lessons learnt and the processes which need to be put into place in order for their company to be well positioned for the upturn.

The panellists were also asked about the one piece of advice they had for CFO's of the future with the most notable observation being, 'I wouldn’t worry too much about accounting standards...the priority for CFOs is that they need to know their business inside-out.' While this observation is strong it gives some sense into the important role CFOs play to the overall success and operation of the business - it is no longer adequate to just oversee the financial viability of an organisation. CFOs of the future need to know all there is to know about their company in order for them to provide strategic, financial and non-financial guidance.

The Institute is dedicated to providing further resources and guidance in the future to the CFO audience. The guidance will form part of a '20 issue series' that the Institute will be launching next year. Stay tuned!

I am interested to hear what other people think about the skill set required of CFOs now and for the future. Your thoughts?