Inside the Chief Financial Officer Role

Alan Kaplan, Kaplan Partners, USA

Founder and CEO

How would you describe the outlook for the CFO function in the US?

The CFO function has always been a critical role in organizations, but in the post-crisis era the finance function has taken on additional significance for a variety of reasons. During the financial crisis, a few different factors become important to a company’s financial success: 1) financial strength, 2) cost control and 3) finding growth opportunities. Overlaying all of that is a more proactive regulatory environment; this has been a huge challenge on financial institutions and those managing these companies. Any publicly-traded company is under greater scrutiny from the SEC and the investor community. All of these factors have elevated the visibility of the CFO role as being front and center in a much wider range of activities. If you’re a CFO at a growth company or a company that is a large cap company, your ability to interact with the investor community has become more important than ever.

As a result, the demands on CFOs are greater. There is high demand for well-credentialed finance and accounting professionals who can function more strategically, rather than tactically. The demand is greater than the supply for these kind of finance professionals.

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