From Informed Decisions: Conversations and Q&A with Randall Craig and Ronja Francoeur

From Informed Decisions: Conversations and Q&A
with Randall Craig and
Ronja Francoeur

Beyond Numbers: Business Leadership for CFOs

Hiring a Business Growth Speaker:
10 Good Questions to Ask

About this episode: 

Calling all CFOs: You have a seat at the table, but are you “just” accounting and finance, or have you built your role to be more strategic? (Not every CFO has, or even knows where to start.)

• From focus on numbers to focus on strategy and growth (shedding the “bean counter” label)

• Building credibility through functional leadership in non-financial areas of the business (IT, Operations, HR, etc.)

• The differences between top-flight CFOs… and those who are not yet flying

• Succession planning: Stay where you are, transition to CEO, or transition to ____?

Part 1

Part 2

Topics Discussed (with timestamps)

• 01:03 Opening comments: How is the CFO role fundamentally different from every other role; how do you get the experiences needed to be successful, and “is this really want you want?” i.e.. What are the alternative career pathways?

• 08:72 The lifecycle of CFO: Average CFO tenure, and what can a CFO expect from their career

• 11:00 Removing barriers that prevent CFOs from operating at full capacity

• 14:27 Many CFOs “fudge the numbers”, and see “playing with the numbers” as a job expectation: What is your advice to a CFO if this is commonplace?

• 17:48 Managing the CEO/CFO relationship

• 20:55 What do you see as the biggest difference between being a CFO in a nonprofit versus a for-profit organization? Are there specific things to look out for if moving from one to another?

• 24:50 CFO and HR: Joint functions, and opportunities

• 00:30 How to get the experiences to be an expert and influential CFO

• 05:16 Is there a perceived conflict of interest that has to be managed if the CFO is allocating budget for their professional development? And does coaching for CFOs have better outcomes if their employer pays for it vs if they pay out of pocket?

• 09:05 In the tech sector, rapid scaling often involves taking on significant debt, which can lead to boom-bust layoff cycles (especially in the transition between low and high interest rate environments). How can CFOs play a role in breaking or mitigating these cycles?

• 13:33 Opportunities for collaboration between CFO and marketing

• 18:55 Featuring employee retention and engagement stats, etc. in marketing

• 21:08 Signal to noise ratio: Advice to stay focused on what’s important

• 23:25 What can a CFO do to be more successful?

What people said about the session

Hiring a Business Growth Speaker:
10 Good Questions to Ask

"Great discussion. The answers (including the answer to my question) were extremely helpful. It made me think a little bit about the maturity of finance executives at small startups in general, and how it may contribute a bit to those large boom bust cycles we face." –  Ruth Birman, Advisor, Open North

"Thank you for this discussion." – Jennifer Apple, Director of Finance and Operations, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc.

"Thank you so much for this conversation!" – Sara Dethloff, Senior Program Manager, Bostrom

Tariffs & Your Business: How should we react?

Beyond Numbers: 
Business Leadership for CFO

About this episode: 

Calling all CFOs: You have a seat at the table, but are you “just” accounting and finance, or have you built your role to be more strategic? (Not every CFO has, or even knows where to start.)

• From focus on numbers to focus on strategy and growth (shedding the “bean counter” label)

• Building credibility through functional leadership in non-financial areas of the business (IT, Operations, HR, etc.)

• The differences between top-flight CFOs… and those who are not yet flying

• Succession planning: Stay where you are, transition to CEO, or transition to ____?

Part 1

Topics Discussed (with timestamps)

• 01:03 Opening comments: How is the CFO role fundamentally different from every other role; how do you get the experiences needed to be successful, and “is this really want you want?” i.e.. What are the alternative career pathways?

• 08:72 The lifecycle of CFO: Average CFO tenue, and what can a CFO expect from their career

• 11:00 Removing barriers that prevent CFOs from operating at full capacity

• 14:27 Many CFOs “fudge the numbers”, and see “playing with the numbers” as a job expectation: What is your advice to a CFO if this is commonplace?

• 17:48 Managing the CEO/CFO relationship

• 20:55 What do you see as the biggest difference between being a CFO in a nonprofit versus a for-profit organization? Are there specific things to look out for if moving from one to another?

• 24:50 CFO and HR: Joint functions, and opportunities

Part 2

Topics Discussed (with timestamps)

• 00:30 How to get the experiences to be an expert and influential CFO

• 05:16 Is there a perceived conflict of interest that has to be managed if the CFO is allocating budget for their professional development? And does coaching for CFOs have better outcomes if their employer pays for it vs if they pay out of pocket?

• 09:05 In the tech sector, rapid scaling often involves taking on significant debt, which can lead to boom-bust layoff cycles (especially in the transition between low and high interest rate environments). How can CFOs play a role in breaking or mitigating these cycles?

• 13:33 Opportunities for collaboration between CFO and marketing

• 18:55 Featuring employee retention and engagement stats, etc. in marketing

• 21:08 Signal to noise ratio: Advice to stay focused on what’s important

• 23:25 What can a CFO do to be more successful?

What people said about this session

"Great discussion. The answers (including the answer to my question) were extremely helpful. It made me think a little bit about the maturity of finance executives at small startups in general, and how it may contribute a bit to those large boom bust cycles we face." –  Ruth Birman, Advisor, Open North

"Thank you for this discussion." – Jennifer Apple, Director of Finance and Operations, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc.

"Thank you so much for this conversation!" – Sara Dethloff, Senior Program Manager, Bostrom

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