A CFO (part-time or full-time) is increasingly required to be a strategic and financial business partner to the Founder of a startup or the CEO of a SMB.
The recent article “True Value: 5 New Skills Required of Every CFO” summarized some of the crucial skills that CFOs must have beyond finance and accounting (especially here in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley).
A strategic player: “73% of organizations report that the CFO’s influence in supporting strategic decision-making has increased in the past two years, according to Accenture Strategy’s High Performance Finance research.
A strong communicator: Strategic CFOs must be good a communicating with crucial internal and external parties (e.g., investors, VCs, board members, banks, employees, etc.)
A forward-thinker: “The current business landscape requires CFOs to manage the present while focusing on the future. Today’s CFO must track business indicators earlier in the cycle, take a holistic view of performance and analyze financial outcomes both in terms of decisions taken within the enterprise, and in response to changes in the broader external market.”
A technology evangelist: There is a growing array of new technologies for SMBs and startups that can help drive efficient growth and scaling.
A great connector: CFOs must always monitor the entire organization and ensure that strategic and operational objectives align across the company.