Being a top finance boss is more than just about meeting performance targets, with the scope of the chief financial officer now being much wider than before.
Nicola Taylor, co-founder of Tax Traders, said traditionally, a CFO was a technical function and almost separate from the rest of the business.
However, this was no longer the case, said Taylor, with today's CFOs needing to have a deeper understanding of the business, sustainability and social justice practices and leadership skills.
"A truly great CFO has the X factor with finance and with people," Taylor said.
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Advertise with NZME.The ability to be deeply empathic and listen well to those around them and remain open to a diverse range of views were all important traits of a CFO, she said.
"It's not just a numbers role any more. CFOs need to understand the business context brilliantly, shape the strategy, use data insights for growth, and have the skill to communicate to their team and the wider business ecosystem.
"A truly great CFO is one who is not just good with numbers but can also listen, support, and inspire, their team and the entire organisation."
She said CFOs also needed to be increasingly agile and able to adapt quickly to change.
"Change is a constant for CFOs now, whether through disruption from new technologies, an intensification of regulation, a rapidly changing business or economic context, or the wholesale change brought by the global pandemic we are living in," Taylor said.
"This means the ambit of the CFO is also much wider and a great business sees their CFO as a strategic partner."
On March 2, Mercury's William Meek, Fletcher Building's Bevan McKenzie and Skellerup Holdings' Graham Leaming will be vying for chief financial officer of the year at the 2021 Deloitte Top 200 Awards.
Taylor said CFOs also have an important role to play in driving an organisation's sustainability transition.
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Advertise with NZME."Where traditionally the work of a CFO was focused on financial KPIs, we know now that a company's value and risks are not just found in financial statements but also in a much broader range of measures with sustainability, people and environmental concerns at the heart," Taylor said.
"The role of the CFO has changed to provide not just strong reporting on sustainability and social justice practices, but also to weave initiatives into strategy and operations and lead and advocate for business as a force for good."
Great CFOs were not just collating, analysing and delivering data, but communicating the why of that data, Taylor added.
Taylor said CFOs had to make decisions with less-than-perfect information, so "gut" feel, or intuition, needs to be used.
She also noted that accounting standards were always changing, and the reasons and background to them was something CFOs needed to understand.
"As with legislation, the intent of the standard is just as important as the actual wording to understand. CFOs should not only understand how any such changes impact financial reporting, but contextualise such changes and how they may affect the wider operations of a particular business," Taylor said.
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Advertise with NZME.Now in its 32nd year, the Deloitte Top 200 Awards honour companies and business leaders across a wide range of sectors, with the Company of the Year, Chief Executive of the Year, Chief Financial Officer of the Year and Sustainable Business Leadership among this year's awards.
Last year's winner for the CFO award was Mainfreight's Tim Williams.
The winners of the 2021 Deloitte Top 200 Awards will be announced virtually on Wednesday, March 2.
Tax Traders Chief Financial Officer of the Year finalists:
• William Meek - Mercury
• Bevan McKenzie - Fletcher Building
• Graham Leaming - Skellerup Holdings
