Making the Leap From CFO to CEO
As a CFO, you may have focused on risk management and cost control; as a CEO, you’ll have to balance those priorities with the demand for innovation and growth.
As a CFO, you may have focused on risk management and cost control; as a CEO, you’ll have to balance those priorities with the demand for innovation and growth.
“If you’re talking about generating belief and followership as a leader, presenting people with clear logic isn’t how you get them excited about a strategy,” says Sam Kemp, CFO of Built Technologies.
“Is a senior leader making the best decisions when they’re mentally overwhelmed, lonely or depressed? Probably not,” says the IMA’s Sunil S. Deshmukh.
“By putting people first, you take care of all the other stakeholders,” says Waste Management’s finance chief and 22-year veteran.
“CFOs should already be demonstrating their competency level in their daily role if they want to transition seamlessly to CEO when the time comes,” says Arun Dhingra of Egon Zehnder.
“The CEO had installed SAP in the months before my hiring,” says Eric W. Neumann. “Upon my arrival, it was easy to see that the system had not been used correctly and all the figures were wildly wrong.”