The CFO'S Perspective

One of your most important tasks as a business leader and manager is mitigating risk. Understanding what kind of risk exists, planning for the impact of this risk, and executing continuity plans to keep the organization operational during a disruption is of paramount importance. The earlier risk can be identified, assessed, managed, and integrated into strategic planning, the better.

Typically, this burden falls on the C-Suite, but leaders at all levels should be included in the planning stage to ensure buy-in across the company. While it is easy to task an individual with overseeing risk management, ideally, it should not roll up to a single person. An emphasis on risk mitigation should be ingrained across the organization with alignment and compliance at every level. CFOs leading the charge can get their organizations on board to share the responsibility by taking a four-step approach to business continuity planning.

Today’s executive financial hiring numbers reveal a surprising trend! Recent data shows that the rate of companies hiring externally for their Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role is at a 10-year high. The prevailing theory as to why so many companies are looking outside their organization to hire a CFO is that succession planning for CFOs has been deprioritized in recent years as they have focused on tackling their organizations’ more pressing needs instead. And yet, succession planning remains a critical activity to avoid the disruption and cost associated with needing to look externally for a replacement when an organization’s CFO leaves or retires.

“My finance leader is leaving! Now what do I do?!”

In some sense, it’s tempting to offer the platitude, “a debit is a debit everywhere we go!” (which is a colloquial way to suggest that all accounting is created equal). However, while there’s some truth to that fact that every organization replacing a leader will need to take some core actions, you don’t need to drill down very far to realize that each business has unique elements to consider as well. Those unique facets will add complexity to how you respond to the reality of a financial leader leaving your organization.

The following guide will help your organization evaluate how ready it is for turnover in a finance leadership role, offer suggestions for how you can be better prepared in case your executive finance leader leaves, and provide key insights into what to do next if the loss of your financial leader happens suddenly.

There's an interesting quote I hear quite regularly regarding how to act in times of strife or turmoil.

The only way out is through." – Robert Frost

If you think about it, it's a simple allegory for a moment when you may face a challenge, whether work, personal, or otherwise. Given that this is a business-related article, I'll limit my thoughts to the work environment, specifically examples facing business financial executives. The point, however, is that bemoaning the issue, or moment, or whatever the challenge may be, does very little to help you move on from that issue or moment. Action is what helps you more than any other element. Doing something is better than doing nothing almost all the time.

Are you thinking about selling your business? Some business owners hear this question and respond, “No… well, not any time soon anyway.” But, if the answer is yes, even if you don’t plan on selling it soon, the time to start planning is now. If you think that selling your business might be in your 3-year, 5-year, or even 10-year plan, start getting the pieces in place now. Preparing ahead of time makes the process go more smoothly and quite often helps owners to get more value out of the sale of their business.

It’s never too early to plan for selling a business because there are a lot of steps that need to happen before coming to the table to sign the paperwork. Getting your financial house in order involves cleaning up your books, assessing the overall financial health of your business, putting together the information that buyers will need to enter into an agreement, working through the details of the deal, and then closing out the sale. From the early planning stage to final sale completion, the whole process can take several years to complete.

According to CFO.com the most common reasons for a CFO change are:

1. As a follow-up move to a CEO change
2. A voluntary decision to pursue a better opportunity
3. To get the right personnel in place to take a growing company to the next level

The article goes on to say, “Finding out precisely how many finance leaders have been asked to take a hike in the wake of accounting fiascoes, earnings disappointments, failed mergers, or unsound investment decisions is trickier, since most of them are effectively silenced by generous severance packages.” While this article speaks directly to publicly traded companies, the same rationale holds true for private companies. We know that firing a CFO for performance-related reasons is by no means the most common reason for separating. However, it is difficult to pinpoint the percentage of companies that have let their CFO go due to underperformance because neither party is going to readily admit that was the reason for dismissal. However, it certainly happens. And when it does, the process poses a uniquely difficult scenario.

Firing an executive of any sort is a daunting task, but letting your CFO go provides an added host of challenges. Since companies task their CFO with the financial management of the company a CFO may possess critical financial knowledge and planning information that can be lost when they are terminated.

Employers that want their employees back in the office again are asking themselves the question, “How do I get my employees to return to work?” However, many employees are asking their employers, “Why should I return to work?” in response.

The resulting dichotomy has created a sticky situation for companies that are facing labor shortages and revenue challenges well over a year and a half into this crisis. For key departments like accounting and finance, the pressure is further elevated because these kinds of skilled roles are a hot commodity right now, making them even harder to replace.

With a large segment of the workforce still working from home, what does this mean for the future of commercial real estate? According to recent data, office vacancy rates are over 16% right now (up from 9% in late 2019) and subleased space is coming back on the market. This has led many analysts to wonder whether companies still need the offices they had before and what will happen to all the vacant office space if companies do not return.

What does the future hold? Will the office building survive COVID-19, or is office space now obsolete?