As the person responsible for all things financial in an enterprise (of any size), the Chief Financial Officer needs to combine people, process and technology to drive results across the enterprise.
Solutions for organizations and finance departments that were best in class only a few years ago may well now be obsolete, and incapable of providing companies the functionality they need to succeed in today’s dynamic business world.
Does a CFO need to master Information Technology to succeed?
I asked this question to John Kogan, CEO at Proformative, an online community by and for Corporate Finance, Accounting and Treasury Professionals. Here is his response:
Master IT? No. Truly understand how IT can be used within their organizations and across the enterprise? Yes! CFOs can’t outsource their understanding of technology and its use within the enterprise. They need to embrace it in order to understand how it is being used and how it might be used to better advantage. Armed with such knowledge they can create a plan, with help from others in their organization as well as IT, and work to make whatever they do have better and more effective. This is a never-ending process.
I also asked John the following question:
Are CFOs afraid of IT?
I’m sure they are out there, but rare. I think it’s more common for some CFOs to be so busy doing all of the other things they are responsible for that IT may fall between the cracks or they outsource it to someone else internally. They may not realize they are doing this or they may not believe IT merits more of their time. Obviously they have a lot to do and there is never enough time to do it. However, this takes them out of a very important loop at their companies – the loop that provides data upon which their company makes decisions, for better and worse.
What can a CFO do to better understand IT?
Knowledge is power. CFOs may not need to be an IT master, but they certainly need to understand where IT is going, how it affects their business and how it impacts their finance team. Staying up to date and current in the fast paced changing world of IT can be difficult. It requires reading, speaking with peers, listening to vendors and industry experts.
How does a CFO find the time to stay on top of all things IT?
A CFO makes the time. Like most successful CFOs, they are efficient and effective in how they get the best value from their available time. Finding an excellent conference that can allow you to learn from experts and speak with your peers (with an additional benefit of finding time to network) can be a very effective solution.
So where does a CFO find an all-encompassing conference like this?
One conference that can meet a CFOs need for all things IT is PROFORMATECH 2013 on March 20, 2013 in San Francisco. This conference is geared for Senior Finance Professionals like yourself who need to stay on top all things IT.
Even if you’re not on the West Coast, I recommend you make the time to attend this conference. It will certainly be worth the cost, because the conference is FREE (which is the right price for most CFOs).
Don’t delay. Register today!
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Note: I am an Advisor with Proformative and a Topic Expert. There is no compensation for these roles, unless you consider that I usually win the $25 Amazon Gift certificate each month for most popular blog on the site. 🙂
Samuel, your article is pretty close to my observations. What I have seen is that CFO’s are all across the spectrum with regarding to their understanding of IT. Some don’t understand IT, some struggle to understand it, some think they understand it (but it is not Quickbooks), and very few actually see how each of the parts, software, hardware, data, business processes, strategy and users all fit together.
You are also spot on with regard to education. I spend 2-5 hours a week staying on top of the IT world. As a consultant to CEO’s in the CFO/CIO realm it is important that I understand how IT and the world of finance interact with the business. It is important that I know what topics are trending in the press, because they are the topics that CEO’s hear about and wonder if they should be using them. But there are other IT tools that may also be appropriate, but these flavors of the day are going to be what marketing is going to throw at them.
Today, most of the IT planning I see is done from non-business persons. It just makes me laugh when I see a business ask their network administrator to make their IT plan. That is like asking your plumber to draw the plans for your new house. Yes, a CFO might let this fall through the crack, but they would never invest in a security unless they understood the return and risk. Maybe they should ask their network administrator!