The Route to CFO

The role of the CFO has been the subject of extensive analysis, particularly as its scope continues to expand, encompassing a diverse portfolio of responsibilities and growing demands.

Among these, CFOs now act as a strategic business partner to the Chief Executive Officer, are often relied on as crisis management experts, and more recently have needed to become specialists in evolving areas such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. While there is no singular route to attaining the position of CFO, aspiring professionals can be guided toward the key milestones that pave the way to the top leadership role in finance. 

Odgers Berndtson, the UK's largest executive search firm, supports diverse clients, ranging from FTSE100 companies to small-cap businesses, private equity firms, and not-for-profit organisations. We are committed to understanding our clients and fostering the next generation of financial leaders. As a leading global headhunter, we frequently interview both seasoned and aspiring CFOs, advising businesses on cultivating their finance talent pipeline. 

Below, we outline the building blocks to increase your chances of success as an aspiring CFO.

1. Building the Right Experience - Crucial Roles for Your Career

To secure a CFO role, aspiring candidates must satisfy three key individuals: the CEO, Chair, and Audit Chair. While their priorities may differ, two pivotal roles - Divisional Finance Director and Group Financial Controller - typically meet these broad requirements.

Richard Pennycook CBE, Chairman of On the Beach plc and 2 Sisters Food Group, also stressed the importance of expanding experience beyond finance: "Boards want their CFO to fully engage in the Boardroom agenda, not just represent the finance brief. Leading cross-business projects can provide compelling evidence of breadth".

The Group Financial Controller

The Group Financial Controller role may seem less appealing to commercially driven finance professionals, but it is essential for developing the diverse skills required by today's CFOs. This position ensures the Audit Chair receives accurate financial information and provides exposure to key influencers such as the board, investors, auditors, brokers, and banks.

Robert Hudson, CFO, Grainger plc, acted as Group Financial Controller at British Land, following on from a number of senior divisional positions at Experian. In his view, “the Group Financial Controller role touches the most areas that you really need within your skillset as a CFO versus any other role that could feed into the CFO position.” He added that his ambition to progress to CFO meant that he pushed for increased exposure to capital markets, treasury and investor relations, as well as much broader commercial matters.

Individual ambition, as well as the support of a CFO to maximise the opportunity the Group Financial Controller position can offer an aspiring CFO, are both important and will offer a competitive advantage in securing future roles.

The Divisional Finance Director

The Divisional Finance Director role is particularly significant to the CEO. It showcases ‘business acumen’, an aspiring CFO's ability to think commercially, operationally, and strategically to drive sustainable and profitable growth.

By assuming a divisional finance leadership role, aspiring CFOs demonstrate their capacity to collaborate with a business to enhance performance. They are accountable to the group for their actions, offering executives a clear view of their ability to build shareholder value and insight into their performance under scrutiny. 

Additionally, this role fosters and showcases the emotional intelligence required to excel as a CFO. This is crucial for building relationships across the business, particularly with the CEO.

What About the Chair?

In a competitive market, most Chairs will expect to see both roles on a future CFO’s CV. They need a CFO who can keep their CEO in check using their business acumen and influencing skills. However, the Chair also requires a CFO who brings the financial rigour and stewardship to allow their Audit Chair to sleep easily at night, i.e., the Group Financial Controller.

Additionally, an individual known to the Chair’s network of investors will instil confidence; an appointment that the City will look favourably on is important. An individual who has already developed this network through a Group Financial Controller role will, again, be at a clear advantage.

Building a Career Outside of a Listed Business

This message is equally important to those looking to build careers outside of PLCs. Private equity-backed businesses similarly want a CFO who brings the necessary skills to drive business performance operationally, commercially, and strategically, as much as they need a financial steward to protect their investment and bring a network. Likewise, this applies to family businesses, the public sector, and charities, all of which face intense scrutiny and increased pressure for better commercial performance.

Moreover, this is not just a box-ticking exercise - it is about building the blocks required to compete for CFO roles that are constantly evolving and becoming increasingly demanding. As one CFO pointed out: “Build a strong, broad base of experience in as many areas as you can; specialising in one area provides you too little breadth to deal with the myriads of issues a larger business is likely to need to have covered well by their CFO”.

2. Seek International Experience

Working internationally is an effective way to quickly build commercial, strategic, operational, legal, and technical expertise, as well as honing leadership skills in intense situations. International roles pose challenges that the average finance professional won't encounter in the UK.

Aside from being one of the best ways to fast-track finance careers, it can be a great life experience. We have never interviewed anyone who has regretted an international move.

3. Create Opportunities

An important attribute in a future CFO is to actively seek opportunities to positively impact the business and provide the exposure needed to be seen as a credible successor. By taking on higher-risk projects or problem tasks, aspiring CFOs become known as the “fix-it” person and gain trust at a senior level. These won’t be easy but difficult experiences can really transform your brand and set you apart from others in a CFO interview process.

4. Learn to Lead 

There are two dimensions to being an effective leader: being the trusted advisor who leads the executive and leading a team.

Leadership at a Senior Level – the Trusted Advisor

Good leaders offer sound judgement, demonstrate integrity, and have the ability to communicate with and influence each stakeholder. To offer sound judgement, a CFO needs to have a current understanding of the issues affecting all areas of the business, whether they are in a Group or divisional role.

A good CFO today is visible; they spend more time out in the business talking to people at every level within their organisation than they do locked away analysing financial information.

“The CFO is there to help the business and CEO succeed, whilst understanding what success looks like for the shareholders,” added Jitesh Sodha.

To be truly effective, a CFO needs a strong working relationship with the CEO and must provide the right balance of support and challenge. As a Group Financial Controller, prior experience business partnering Managing Directors as a Divisional Finance Director, as well as supporting and challenging a CFO, will be hugely important in honing the emotional intelligence necessary to develop a strong CEO/CFO dynamic.

Duncan Hoggett, Regional CFO Practice Partner, Odgers Berndtson, said: “A CFO should help the CEO make good business decisions and deliver. A good CFO will tell the CEO when they are about to make a bad decision; a great CFO will do so without making the CEO feel like an idiot”.

Leading a Team

The ability to build and lead a high-performing team is one of the most important skills of a CFO. 

The idea of running a large team can be as attractive as it is daunting, but there are many ways to build this experience, ranging from running a large finance function or shared service centre to managing cross-functional projects.

Leadership was historically viewed as a skill that was either inherent or not in potential candidates, hence the term ‘natural leader’. Candidates were viewed as either possessing high levels of emotional intelligence or not.

Technical skills could be taught, but it was thought that whether you were a leader or not was predetermined. This meant that less forthcoming candidates could be overshadowed. However, businesses are now placing more emphasis on developing leadership capability and emotional intelligence earlier on in their talent pool, and they are rigorously assessing leadership style and capability at interview.

In a competitive market, future leaders should be actively seeking every opportunity to develop their leadership skills and EQ. This can be through theoretical learning, including participation in leadership development programmes, and there are also excellent business leadership and EQ books available. There is no substitute for experience, however, and having practical examples to relay at interview is critical, so aspiring CFOs should seize every opportunity to lead.

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