CFO Buzz is a news feature capturing top stories affecting CFOs. This feature is published Fridays so that CFOs can gain perspective over the weekend, allowing them to challenge themselves and think about how to improve their lives, careers and companies.

1) How long should it take to hire a CFO?

Here is one story of a well-known company that has been taking its time, and some of the potential reasons for it. In my experience, companies that take a long time to hire a CFO usually don’t know what they want or need in the first place.

The world’s most valuable private tech company hasn’t had a CFO for almost a year – Business Insider

2) Easy Money: Reducing audit fees?

Good advice is given on how to minimize those pesky audit fees. A word of caution to CFOs that want to be aggressive with your auditors – Be careful. You want a good relationship with your auditors. Don’t piss them off – It might be career limiting.

7 Ways to Keep a Lid on Rising Audit Fees – FEI Daily

3) Supply Chain Hero

This blog, while certainly a sales piece, brings to point that CFOs can be their company’s Supply Chain Hero. Are you a supply chain hero?

How The CFO Can Be A Change Agent In The Supply Chain – BlueGrace Logistics

4) Board meetings from hell

One of the worst things a CFO can do is to be unprepared for a board meeting. Marc MacLeod shares some good advice on how to make sure you are best prepared to deal with what could be a very challenging board meeting.

The “Oh Shit” Board Meeting – StartupCFO

5) The invisible CFO

Visibility is critical to the long term success of a CFO.  In today’s age, you can easily take steps to be more visible and let opportunities find you. This article points to more reasons why you need to be visible online to be successful in your career.

Job Hunting? Why You Need a Strong Online Footprint – [email protected]

Some of Samuel’s other CFO stuff this week

CFO Moves – Moves across the USA – week ending January 29, 2016

Tweet of the week

Cell Phones: Addiction or Habit? from @APQC https://t.co/seyvK9lF8V pic.twitter.com/UqoWath5hd

— Dergel CFO (@DergelCFO) January 29, 2016

Dear Readers,

You will notice that I took a break over the holidays publishing CFO Buzz that lasted a little longer than the holidays. We are now back on what I expect will be a regularly scheduled weekly update (once again).

Wishing you a very successful 2016!

Samuel

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CFO Buzz is a news feature capturing top stories affecting CFOs. This feature is published Fridays so that CFOs can gain perspective over the weekend, allowing them to challenge themselves and think about how to improve their lives, careers and companies.

1) CFO: Chief Fear Officer?

Cybersecurity is becoming more of a topic of conversation for those wanting to catch the attention of the CFO. Is this because CFOs are great at being the corporate lead on the topic of “what if this goes wrong”?

Risk-Averse CFOs A Natural Fit For Cybersecurity – PYMTNS.com

2) Do CFOs ever retire?

I have had numerous discussions with CFOs over the years that are moving towards the sunset of their careers. This article brings out some key points to ponder.

What, Me Retire? – FEI Daily

3) Procrastination: CFOs favorite tool?

CFOs are so busy that they have a todo list filled with things that will never get done. Here are some good ideas as to how to overcome procrastination. Make sure you get to read this eventually.

5 ways to overcome procrastination – CGMA Magazine 

4) Flexible work: Code for slacking off?

It would not surprise me that CFOs of a certain generation would think that “Flexible work schedules” means that staff are not pulling their weight. When discussing this, they would continue the conversation by saying “You know, when we were younger…”. Here are some ways to make “Flexible work” work.

How to Make Flexible Work Schedules a Reality – Bloomberg

5) Are start-ups bad at hiring the right CFOs?

This article caught my attention because I see start-ups hiring the wrong CFOs. I could rant, and maybe one day I will. In the meantime, these are good points.

Are start-ups bad at hiring the right CEOs? – ITPRO.co.uk

Some of Samuel’s other CFO stuff this week

CFO Moves – Moves across the USA – week ending January 22, 2016

Samuel’s CFO Blog – A Solution for Lonely CFOs

Tweet of the week

Love this! The Jedi CFO https://t.co/Ot5U7scrBN #CFO #Leadership @dergelcfo

— David Matre (@DavidMatre) January 21, 2016

CFO Buzz is a news feature capturing top stories affecting CFOs. This feature is published Fridays so that CFOs can gain perspective over the weekend, allowing them to challenge themselves and think about how to improve their lives, careers and companies.

1) CFOs continue to find it difficult to hire and retain

Supply and demand are not new concepts to CFOs. While CFOs are able to apply this in innovative ways to operational and financial issues in their business, they continue to face challenges in solving the supply and demand side issues for talent hiring and retention. From my perspective, the focus on short-term results continues to hamper good talent planning and decision making.

Companies Seek to Acquire and Hire – CFO.com

2) Executives need to build a leadership brand

When an executive starts at a new company, they inherit a team. Building leadership and trust is one of the key immediate challenges a new executive has. Many CFOs I speak with realize this is a challenge when they begin, but some do not give it the priority it needs. If you lead your team to where you need them to go, you will succeed. There are good ideas in this article.

Executive transitions: Your team is your brand – Deloitte University Press

3) Fixing ethics in a company culture

This is one story of a CFO fixing a broken company culture to rebuild a strong, ethical group that would impact the business positively. These are important lessons to keep in mind to ensure the culture of the organizations we are responsible for stay ethical.

5 steps one CFO took to fix a broken culture and build strong ethics among employees – Business Insider

4) CFO: Add “Storyteller” to the job description

It is no longer sufficient for a CFO to know what the numbers mean. She has to be able to tell a story, and be convincing, authoritative, authentic and trustworthy. This is all part of the transition of the CFO role from keeper of the numbers to leader driving the business.

The fine art of telling the story behind the numbers

5) Communication: It’s not about you

The ability to connect well with others is a strength that top CFOs have. CFOs accomplish a lot when they are able to get different parties with varied interests working together towards a common goal. Communication skills development is a worthy investment. Here are some good tips on connecting well with others.

5 Ways to Instantly Connect With Anyone You Meet – TIME       

Some of Samuel’s other CFO stuff this week

CFO Moves – Moves across the USA – week ending November 27, 2015

Tweet of the week

Pragmatic leaders get things done, but at a cost? 3 signs your #leadership style is too tough https://t.co/TAgmEQk42W via @ChiefExecGrp #CEO

— Cathy Logue (@CatLogueAmbit) December 2, 2015

CFO Buzz is a news feature capturing top stories affecting CFOs. This feature is published Fridays so that CFOs can gain perspective over the weekend, allowing them to challenge themselves and think about how to improve their lives, careers and companies.

1) CFO Decision Making – Gut Feel or Analytics?

CFOs are called upon daily to make decisions. The modern CFO who has invested in access to data and proper analytics is able to make decisions based on the facts or trends, while the CFO who does not have this ready access to this information is making decisions based on a feeling. CFOs need to move towards decision making based on information. How do you make decisions?

Are CFOs Relying on Gut Instinct Too Much? – C-Suite UK

How ‘Data-Driven’ CFOs are Leading the C-Suite – CFO.com

2) CFOs can Impact HR

Finance and HR are both important support functions in an organization. I find that there is always work to be done to improve the relationship and the impact both have on the organization by work. Here are 4 tips for Finance to immediately improve HR.

CFOs can immediately improve HR with these 4 simple changes – Business Insider

3) More Strategy, Less Spreadsheets

How does the CFO move beyond the traditional number-crunching and have an impact across the organization in areas of strategy, people and culture? By spending more time across and outside the organization as listeners and advisors. Remember, if you are being hired just to manage the numbers, you are not adding value.

The New CFO: Performance and Culture Champion – Forbes

4) Why Interim CEOs are not good for your business

CFOs can find themselves having to work with an interim CEO. When this happens, it is important to be aware of the potential biases and challenges that exist when your boss is not committed for the long term. What has been your experience?

Interim CEOs Are Prone to Inflating Earnings – CFO.com

5) CFOs called on to integrate major acquisitions

This interview with Mark McCollum of Haliburton allows us to appreciate some of the challenges he faced when his company acquired their largest competitor, Baker Hughes. There are some good lessons shared here.

CFO as Chief Integration Officer: Mark McCollum of Halliburton – Deloitte Wall Street Journal

Some of Samuel’s other CFO stuff this week

CFO Moves – Moves across the USA – week ending November 13, 2015

Tweet of the week

Finance execs need to be aware of the changing winds @DergelCFO from @StantonChase https://t.co/xqQNB0j9ko pic.twitter.com/Wf5Q7bUl5U

— BlueSteps (@BlueSteps) November 10, 2015

CFO Buzz is a news feature capturing top stories affecting CFOs. This feature is published Fridays so that CFOs can gain perspective over the weekend, allowing them to challenge themselves and think about how to improve their lives, careers and companies.

1) 9 Key Elements for CFO Communications

A big part of a CFOs responsibility is to communicate properly with various internal and external stakeholders. It is not enough just to share information with others, but communication is a two way street, allowing you to get the information you need to manage expectations and add value. Deloitte CFO Insights discusses nine key elements for successful CFO Communications. How many of these elements do you do? How many of them do you do well?

Creating an effective communications program – Deloitte CFO Insights

2) What should a Director get paid?

This article spoke to me, specifically because a CFO of mine asked me this very question recently. While a lot of information on executive compensation is available, director compensation is difficult to compare. It is easier to compare executives working full time with similar responsibilities in companies that are in similar industries and similar sizes. The biggest challenge for comparing director compensation is that the time spent and risk involved can vary significantly. This article is worth the read.

How Much to Pay a Director? There’s No Clear Answer – New York Times

3) Is it worth cutting out office snacks?

We have seen or heard of companies that cut office snacks and drinks to staff when under budgetary pressure. While the dollar value of the cost can easily be quantified, the negative impact on employee productivity and goodwill may be significant. As CFO, have you cut these costs? Did the cost savings outweigh the impact?

Why Getting Rid of Free Office Snacks Doesn’t Come Cheap – Bloomberg

4) Should your children become Accountants?

If the future of accounting will be automated and based on artificial intelligence, maybe recommending that your children become accountants is not a good idea. While I personally believe there will continue to be room for added value from people with real intelligence in accounting and finance, the perspective is worth considering.

Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Accountants – Forbes

5) Do CFOs care just about the numbers?

Mark Garrett, CFO at Adobe, shares his perspective on the importance of people to the CFO. Garrett thankfully takes the position that all business decisions impact people, and even tough decisions need to take the people impact into account. I guess CFOs are human after all.

Why People Matter to a CFO – Adobe Blog

Some of Samuel’s other CFO stuff this week

CFO Moves – Moves across the USA – week ending November 6, 2015

Tweet of the week

Good news #CFO s: The Future of Finance Looks Bright (But Only if you Plan + Act) @DERGELCFO https://t.co/NyjdEQAMfH pic.twitter.com/pG8lLvVvEB

— SAP Finance (@SAPFinance) November 12, 2015