Ask the Pro:<br>Does Your CFO Provide You with Financial Headlights?<br>With Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz, CEO of Next Stage Solutions, Inc.
CFOs face many unique challenges. Yet, if they communicate effectively inside and outside their organization, a CFO can have unmatched influence on the success of their company. This month, we sat down with Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz, the founder and CEO of Next Stage Solutions, Inc., an outsourced CFO and innovative financial advisory services company for emerging businesses, to talk about the CFO role.
Bates: What is the biggest challenge that CFOs face in working with their CEO?
Rudi:Moving from tactical to strategic may be the biggest challenge, since the CFO needs to act as the financial headlights for an organization. The CFO must be part of the leadership team, participate in value creation, understand the organizational mindset, operations and people management, and visualize what change may lie ahead. CEOs look for a business partner, coach and advisor in a CFO who provides a finance-driven perspective in how a company can set and achieve its goals.
Bates: How can a CFO who is new in the role get off on the right foot?
Rudi: By immersing him/herself in the business as a whole. Today's CFO needs to go beyond compliance by providing future-focused and proactive solutions and identifying new opportunities for growth in a dynamic business environment. A successful CEO leads a company with focus and fluidity and depends on a CFO's ability to help shape operational and strategic direction.
Bates: What if a CFO is just not able to communicate with the CEO - what are the remedies?
Rudi: In today's global competitive environment, the CFO has to communicate with the CEO on a strategic and operational business level and provide decision-making support, risk-adjusted forecasts and plans that address all the challenges facing the business. The CFO plays a pivotal strategic role and is broad-based and involved in the overall business and must communicate with the CEO on that level. In emerging businesses, CEOs do not always recognize this skill-set is required until it is too late. CFOs who are more tactical and compliance-oriented will either have to change or find themselves replaced.
Bates: How can CFOs do a better job in simplifying their messages?
Rudi: Research indicates that CFOs are too task focused and produce too many financial reports and less strategic support, whereas the new breed of CFO wants to combine the talents to a higher degree. A successful CFO can help create links within a business and must create a clear and simple strategic financial roadmap for all stakeholders to understand, both inside and outside a company.
Bates: Is there anything else that you found improves communication between the CFO and CEO?
Rudi: The CEO's communication style needs to be understood and adopted, which generally is a big picture focus. If the CFO truly understands the strategic mind-set of a growing and adaptive company and is able to translate strategy into financial data and projections, and provide the CEO with the bottom-line, they have a chance of becoming business partners and joint value creators.
Bates: For CFOs who want to move into the CEO role someday, what is your advice?
Rudi: To move into a CEO role, the CFO must be operationally driven and have leadership skills to drive change. CEOs are typically outward and forward-looking folks with a clear vision of where they want to lead their company, and a strategic CFO will be similar in these leadership traits and bring a holistic viewpoint to the future success of the business.
Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz is the founder and CEO of Next Stage Solutions, Inc., an outsourced CFO and innovative financial advisory services company for emerging businesses. Since 2002, she has advised over 100 companies from pre-revenue innovation start-ups to established companies on a myriad of business challenges and successes.
Additionally, Rudi is very active in the New England and International business community where she is a frequent speaker and panelist. Recently she organized and moderated an International Roundtable Discussion on Women and Access to Capital resulting in her review article published in L'Agefi, a Swiss Financial Daily.
Click here to visit Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz’s website: www.nextstagesolutions.com