CFO as facilitator

A fascinating aspect of the evolution of the profession of CFO is the interaction with other corporate management functions, calling into question the determinants of the role and how they change in relation to the specific characteristics of the company in question: its business sector, its size, and its status (listed vs unlisted). And as far as sector, can we draw distinctions between product-based and service-based companies? 

We asked Nicola Dell’Edera, Global CFO of Gi Group and recently dubbed the best CFO in the Elite Segment of the Italian Stock Exchange by the National Association of CEOs and CFOs (ANDAF). His company, which counts over 8,000 employees, provides employment services including staffing, training, career development, and health coverage & pension schemes in 34 countries.  

When discussing the mission of today’s CFO, what key aspects are we talking about, also in light of the different sectors where a company does business? In other words, is there a basic template for the role, and variations on that theme, depending on the company’s business sector?  

I think we need to start with the premise that the role of CFO can vary from company to company. In general, though, we can say that it’s becoming more common for CFOs to take on the role of strategic partner, but without neglecting their traditional tasks: compiling financial information that serves as a road map for the company; measuring performance; tapping the financial resources needed to run and grow the business. 

We have to understand this strategic contribution as the support the company needs to identify the differential skills that underpin strategic choices, and to measure both their potential and final value. This is the basic work method for a controller, for example, but it’s also valid for other activities that fall into the sphere of the CFO. Even producing a statutory report can make the difference in appraising the value that a company generates, leveraging clarity, accuracy and integrity in quantifying company performance. Likewise, it’s essential to safeguard the assets of the company which represent the continuity of that value. Bob Shanks, long-time CFO at Ford, effectively summed up all this up: ‘Operating a global business in a fast-changing world, you have to be grounded real-time in the external environment, have complete transparency, be fact based and work with a great, collaborative team.’  

In your specific case, you work in a sector that revolves around employment services for candidates and companies, and you’ve also had experience in HR during your professional career. So what kind of interaction is there between the CFO and other functions in the top management team? Are there specific targets for the CFO with respect to the others in light of the independence of the role? 

In my case, I play my role as CFO at the level of the holding. That means the activities my team and I handle are highly strategic ones on the finance front. We come up with tools, processes, policies and anything else that’s needed to make the business cycle function in the 34 countries where the Gi Group does business, and in the various organizational units that operate at a central level in the Group (in other words, top management). But we don’t just focus on strategy; we work on the ground too: we’re a bit like a construction site for a building, where we’re the contractors bidding on the development project as a whole, but we’re also the workers who are specialized in the part of the infrastructure that will make this building livable, and more importantly ‘alive.’ In all this, a critical step is listening to find out what the needs of the company are, needs which emerge in various areas. We have to fine-tune our radar to detect even the smallest signals, because often the more important information is hidden in a whisper, not a shout. So, to sum all this up in a single word, I like to think of myself as an enabler. And that’s what we try to convey to our colleagues.  

From your vantage point, which we can say is a privileged one, can you see specific dynamics in the job market for CFOs with respect to the trends in the job market in general? 

There’s no doubt that compared to 2005, when I first took up my position as CFO of the Group, a lot has changed. The bean counter of the past is now seen as a strategic partner who’s much more directly involved in the business than before.  But there is an issue where there is a real need for attention and an evolution, mainly a cultural evolution. There are different expectations for the CFO of a company with governance in the proximity of financial markets with respect to a company in which an entrepreneur firmly holds the reins. There’s no doubt that the independence of the CFO for a company that interfaces with the stock market represents a guarantee for all stakeholders, in particular investors in financial instruments issued by the market. But in some cases, there is tremendous pressure on short-term performance, at the risk of losing sight of the long game which is the basis of the strategic approach of any company. Instead, in a context where governance has an entrepreneurial influence, the CFO still has to maintain an objective approach, but he or she mainly plays a supporting role in achieving the goals of continuity and solidity. This doesn’t mean that one model is better than the other. It’s a question of differing sensitivity, which always has to be interpreted by the CFO with intellectual honesty, and clear, open dialogue. 

You also have experience in the IT sector. How has the digital transformation impacted the role of CFO? Specifically, what function should the CFO fulfill in terms of data control? 

My experience in the IT sector from a few years back helped me fill up my toolkit; it gave me the chance to see firsthand the innovation potential that’s intrinsic to the world of IT and Digital. And not only in company processes but also in how we analyze and use an incredible amount of information that forms the basis for business decisions. I’d say that the image of a data lake is really spot on: an enormous pool where valuable data is collected, waiting to be verified and organized into useful information to support the differential skills in decision-making processes. But these data also represent a source of wealth that is available to our clients, so much so that we’d even be justified to talk about the ‘monetization’ of information. CFOs have to be well-versed on these themes, so they come to understand the potential of the digital transformation, both in relation to their work and to company performance in general.