Setting the destination and direction – a big CFO skill
By Andy Burrows
I’d like you come away from this article knowing how to get a clearer or renewed sense of direction.
Not only that, but I hope that you will have learnt some insights into how you can assess and define the direction you want to go in both your life and work.
Clearly, I write to Finance people, and I’m addressing this article to those who are somewhere on the continuum between Finance business partner and CFO or who want to embark on that journey. However, I’m going to be talking about principles that can be used in pretty much any walk of life or work.
The important context
This is the fourth article in a series. The first two establish the context.
So, I started by pointing out that Finance Business Partner is the new best route to a CFO role. In that article I was establishing the need to better define and support one of the most important development pathways post-accountancy.
Next, I outlined from recent literature and my own research and...
If you want to be a CFO, develop these 3 skills...
By Andy Burrows
There are three areas of skills you need to develop if you want to be a good Chief Financial Officer or Finance business partner – business acumen, technical skills and behavioural skills.
And my intention is to unpack these three areas a little bit, so that you can get to grips with planning your development journey more effectively.
In another article I shared my belief that Finance business partner is the new best route to a CFO role. That is to say, core CFO skills are Finance business partnering skills. And well-developed Finance business partnering skills are what you need to be a CFO.
(To be clear, I’m not intending to imply that Finance business partners can progress to CFO level without some training and experience in accounting, reporting and control – sorry if I’ve ever given that impression.)
That’s why I’m talking about the two together, and why I believe that if your ambition is to be a CFO, you ought to be thinking about the same areas of skill that Finance...
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