Your First 90 Days as CFO
A successful tenure begins with getting to know the finance function and establishing a vision to guide value creation.
Chief financial officers have to juggle two primary tasks: driving transformation within the finance group and orchestrating the function’s everyday activities. BCG’s Center for CFO Excellence draws on the firm’s extensive experience in working with finance functions across diverse industries to help clients master both challenges.
BCG has developed a comprehensive approach to help CFOs and their teams achieve the highest standard of performance and efficiency—something we call finance excellence. Our CFO consulting approach, which has been the basis for in-depth collaborations with finance leaders around the world, focuses on six core topics.
Structure for Excellence
The role of the CFO should include building and overseeing a framework that aligns finance with the company’s overall strategy through clearly assigned mandates, roles, and skills. We work with CFOs to design well-defined operating models that provides structure for functions, carving out distinct processes and establishing clear rules, guidelines, and procedures for finance interactions
Steer Performance Effectively
BCG’s Center for CFO Excellence helps finance leaders develop a clear understanding of the company’s business models—both conventional and new—as a means of actively steering performance. We also work with CFOs to find ways to translate steering models into value-adding actions, such as by choosing the right incentive scheme.
Maximize Value Through Effective Capital Allocation
Effective capital allocation, aligned with a company’s strategic priorities, forms the basis for long-term value creation. We partner with finance leaders so they can carefully select investment categories and guide major business decisions by efficiently allocating resources beyond the classic decisions about capex, such as marketing expenditures.
Create World-Class Digital-Finance Processes
Digitization allows a company to systematically counter weaknesses and capitalize on unique opportunities, such as robotic process automation and artificial intelligence. BCG’s CFO consultants have the expertise to help finance leaders integrate digital into their businesses, complementing new processes with updated and agile ways of working.
Improve Capital Market Perceptions
In addition to creating tailored strategies, the CFO must proactively and continuously monitor all internal activities that could potentially diminish shareholder returns. Effective communication of large-scale transformations is also key.
Lead a Successful Finance Transformation
BCG’s Center for CFO Excellence helps finance leaders navigate the three phases of transformation: quick wins in the near term that generate reliable and steady funding; a transparent roadmap for the medium term, with meaningful milestones; and, for the long term, the integration of a flexible culture centered on performance and continuous improvement.
A successful tenure begins with getting to know the finance function and establishing a vision to guide value creation.
Only a few CFOs lead finance functions that truly outperform in both efficiency and effectiveness. Here’s what sets them apart.
Armed with foresight into how conditions will change, a company can take actions to preempt unfavorable outcomes and promote competitive advantage.
By combining technology and human capabilities, a finance function can orchestrate the work of other departments and help the company achieve its strategic objectives.