It’s a good question, because you can’t build a great company without a great chief financial officer (CFO). But as a shareholder, how can you judge how well your CFO is doing? Without setting myself up for a fall, the answer I gave our investor broke down into these three questions:
- Are they keeping control? At its heart, the first part of any CFO’s role is to make sure that their business is under control and that all risks are being properly managed. They need to maintain a strong balance sheet and keep reporting and communications clear and transparent. Above all, they need to make sure there are no surprises.
- Are they improving efficiency? The second part is making sure the organisation is always working as efficiently as possible, keeping a strong hand on costs and ensuring that current revenue streams are always optimised. Above all, they need to be making sure that less money is going out and more money is coming into the organisation.
- Are they allocating capital wisely? The final task of any CFO is investing shareholder’s money in the best projects – first internally and second externally. Above all, they need to have a clear consideration of cash returns for shareholders.
So now the next time you wonder how well your CFO is doing, you know how to judge them.
This article was originally published by Will on LinkedIn.
