Archives for September 2012

September 28, 2012 By Samuel Dergel 7 Comments

Does Finance work too much?

CFO.com published an excellent thought provoking opinion piece called Why Your Company Should Have More ‘Slackers’ by John Boudreau, Professor at USC and Research Director at the Center for Effective Organizations.

The question the piece left me with was “Does Finance work too much?”

Last week in my blog, 5 Reasons why Talent Development is a Challenge for CFOs, I discussed the challenges CFOs face in building, retaining and developing their Team for long term success.

One point that I alluded to in my last blog, but did not mention, is that Finance is often too busy working on deadlines and projects to take the time to think and chill. Boudreau makes the point that “planned and mindful slacking off may help optimize talent performance’.

In essence, I see that in too many cases, Finance is usually too busy for thinking or planning or development. Deadlines always are around the corner (or have just passed), and there is not enough resources to make time for down time. Finance is always too busy.

When the Finance Team is burning the candle at both ends, it will burn out quickly.

A Finance Team that is not taking the time to build will fall apart. People will be less productive if they have to work 80 hour weeks on a regular basis, or will leave.

When a CFO properly plans their staffing requirements, prioritizes talent development and gives their team time to think, the Finance Team will be stronger, and so will the company.

CFOs: What do you do to keep your Finance Team fresh, focused and adding value?

September 20, 2012 By Samuel Dergel 8 Comments

5 Reasons why Talent Development is a Challenge for CFOs

Ever meet a CFO who wasn’t busy? I didn’t think so.

CFOs have lots of demands on their time. Unfortunately, when CFOs do not manage their priorities properly, they can end up with surprises.

As someone who has received calls from CFOs in a panic when a key person on their team has left, I can tell you that this happens too often.

If you haven’t seen my CFO Relationship Map, you should. A premise I have made time and time again is that a CFO needs to be able to manage all their relationships. (You may also be interested in reading my other blogs on the topic of Talent Management.)

Ensuring the success of the Finance Team is as important as meeting the demands of the CEO and the Board. Without a Strong Finance Team, the CFO will not be able to meet these demands.

I recently spoke with Mary Driscoll from APQC about their recently released results from their survey A New CFO Priority: Talent Development with a Focus on Soft Skills. This report , created in conjunction with EPM Channel, details how proactive CFOs are evolving their talent development programs so that Finance can excel at the strategy table.

(To view the report, you need to sign up with APCQ. You do not need to be an APCQ member to read their report.)

The summary findings of the survey are as follows:

There is a staggering gap between the potential value that the typical finance organization can deliver to its stakeholders and the value now being delivered.
The gap exists because finance is bogged down in transactional work and doesn’t have the time needed to produce meaningful analysis.
It is hard to add bandwidth because finance, in general, is not given the tools needed to increase productivity and free people from grunt work.
The toughest vacant positions to fill are for financial planning and analysis.
Finance people who are considered effective business partners tend to work for CFOs who have a strong commitment to professional training, including crucial soft skills such as persuasive presenting.

When I spoke with Mary Driscoll, she provided me with this interesting perspective. “Unfortunately, too many CFOs fail to make a commitment to the development of their finance talent. Many say it’s hard to devote time and budget to creating a sustainable program. Some, quite frankly, don’t see the point. But those CFOs are shooting themselves in the foot,” says Driscoll. “They’ll be sorry when the day of reckoning comes and top people walk out the door for lack of professional growth opportunities. All I can say to the CFO who lets this happen is ‘Shame on You!’”

Are you a CFO that has implemented a talent development plan of your finance team?

Do you need help with your finance talent attraction, development and retention?

September 13, 2012 By Samuel Dergel Leave a Comment

Your Next CFO

Dear Reader,

I came across this article that I was interviewed for that originally was published this past June. In doing a Google search, it came to my attention. I hope you find the article of interest.

(On a separate note, have you ever Googled yourself?)

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Too often, companies only miss good chief financial officers when they’re gone. But if you’re hiring, be prepared to make the most of it: the job’s changing, and so are the personnel

By Paul Brent

June 17, 2012

They might be the second-most important executives at many companies, but the role, demands and make-up of the chief financial officer vary immensely, as do the times—and the reasons—companies find themselves looking to hire a new one. For small- and mid-cap companies, there often comes a point when they “outgrow” their top financial executive and need to recruit their first CFO, someone who can do more than sign-off on the books every quarter. Larger companies continue to grow and evolve, and that can trigger a change. Or maybe your current CFO just up and leaves for a better engagement, CFO, CEO or otherwise.

In every case, companies should see it as an opportunity to deepen their bench strength, maybe even bring in a star. Bear in mind, today’s top-drawer CFO needs to deal with a lot—handle the crush of the public markets, steer the company through major acquisitions, come up with innovative financing schemes and serve as a reassuring information conduit for analysts and large investors. As a rule, of course, the bigger the company, the more critical and demanding the job and, with it, the skill set required.

The CFO position is a hiring decision that needs to include input from the board, says Samuel Dergel, a specialist in CFO recruitment for Canadian and U.S. companies, with search firm Stanton Chase International of San Francisco. “The board should have a role, often it is the chair of the audit committee.”

In fact, some boards may be especially motivated to hire the “right” CFO, says Dergel. “Many times a CFO is hired with the idea that they are the back-up to the CEO, or sometimes you may have a cowboy CEO and the CFO is the eyes and ears of what is going on” for the board.

He points to the scandal at SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX:SNC) over $56-million worth of undocumented payments to commercial agents in Libya that have gone missing. The company’s CFO reportedly objected to the payments but was overruled by the CEO, who has since left the Montreal-based engineering giant. “From a board perspective, do you want the CFO to be the CEO’s right hand or having enough independence and power to counteract a CEO that may not be meeting with the board as requested?” says Dergel.

In Dergel’s decade of CFO recruitment, he has found that most firms have a wish list of abilities and specialized background for their future CFOs. That was certainly the case with Vancouver’s Avigilon Corp. (TSX:AVO), which designs and manufactures high-definition video surveillance systems. The company’s original CFO, who was a founder of the company, made it known that he would stay in the post until the company went public at which time it would search for a replacement. The board’s wish list was a finance head who had public company experience, was a chartered accountant if possible, had been in a fast-growing company and had been in the technology sector.

To read the remainder of the article, click here.

September 6, 2012 By Samuel Dergel 1 Comment

CFOs need to understand these HR numbers.

I was interviewed last week on DriveThruHR with Brian Wempen. (You can listen to the interview here). We discussed the relationship between Human Resources and Finance. Being that the audience was mostly HR people, I challenged these HR people to understand how to become valuable to the CFO and the Finance Team.

This week, I would like to discuss the value of HR to Finance. And I found some numbers to back it up. (Most CFOs I know like numbers).

I spotted this interesting blog by Dr. John Sullivan which brought to my attention a Boston Consulting Group study which discussed the value of HR Processes on Profit Growth, Profit Margin and Total Improvement.

I recommend reading the entire post to get the full details of which HR Processes add most value.

But I would like to bring to the CFOs attention the following results from the survey.

Recruitment is the most valuable HR function to a company.

OnBoarding and Retention is the second most valuable HR function.

Questions to CFOs:

Do you find that these HR processes are most valuable to you and your company?
Does your current solution (internal and external) provide you with this high level value?

If you’ve answered no, give me a call. We need to talk.

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Archives for September 2012

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