CFOs urged to think beyond numbers in changing business world

Chief financial officers are no longer solely guardians of the numbers but must reinvent themselves as the growth drivers and change makers in their companies.

They need to lead integration across the entity and create added value in the face of an increasingly competitive and fast-changing market environment, experts and company leaders said.

In the past, the CFO role only focused on managing costs, budget and other financial matters, but the business world has changed quickly in the past few years bringing a new set of requirements to the role.

“Companies have to focus on growth nowadays to stay competitive, and the CFO’s role has to change as well,” said David Chan, a managing partner at Ernst & Young, who has been dealing with CFOs for many years. He was speaking during a panel session at the latest Redefining Hong Kong Debate Series forum, sponsored by the South China Morning Post, on Wednesday.

Chan said a survey done by EY showed companies want their CFO to be “a strategic partner” of the chief executive officer, with a keen awareness of the business world and the operations rather than a pure numbers person.

“For example, a lot of Chinese companies want to do M&A to grow, so as a CFO you need to understand the M&A process. If you can’t really get involved, you basically fail your job.”