what ceo wants.docx

1、what ceo wantsWhat CEOs WantCharacter counts. So do vision, trustworthiness, experience, and excellent personal chemistry with the CEO. Oh, and did we mention financial skills? Julie Carrick Dalton - CFO Magazine July 1, 1999What do CEOs want in their CFOs? Would you believe finance expertise, leade

2、rship-and impeccable Little League credentials? James Lavelle thinks so. The chairman and CEO of Cotelligent Inc., a $327 million San Francisco IT consulting and outsourcing-services firm, recently spent more than a year searching for a new finance chief. Cotelligents CFO had to be someone special,

3、says Lavelle. He had to have outstanding technical skills. But he also needed the talents of a diplomat, while being tough enough to raise red flags.After interviewing more than 20 candidates, Lavelle thought he had found a candidate with just the right skills, experience, and temperament. To make s

4、ure, though, he called a few references. Lavelle discovered that in his hometown, the candidate had earned a terrible reputation as a baseball coach. That was all Lavelle needed to hear. If hes hated on the Little League diamond, think about his reception in the business world, he explains.Welcome t

5、o the brave new world of CFO searches. Like Lavelle, an increasing number of CEOs are looking for superstar CFOs- executives who are not just financially nimble and visionary, but also above reproach. Lavelle finally found his man in Herb Montgomery, the former CFO of the construction firm Guy F. At

6、kinson Co., in San Bruno, California. He describes Montgomery as having 25 years of seasoned financial experience, as well as the demeanor and personality that was compatible with my team. Montgomery, he adds, had a top-flight name and reputation in the San Francisco Bay area- an asset that was crit

7、ical to the then newly public company.As Lavelles experience attests, CEOs are demanding a lot more than financial acumen in their CFOs. These days, CEOs want finance chiefs who can fill a multitude of roles: confidant, champion, communicator, creator of value.Invariably, they say they want a financ

8、e chief who can bring their company to another level. And they are loathe to settle. In a perfect world, you want it all, admits Lavelle. I can find a financial mechanic anywhere. What I want is a financial ambassador.To better develop the portrait of todays model finance chief, CFO magazine recentl

9、y surveyed 500 CEOs about their expectations. The CEOs surveyed, drawn from companies on CFOs readership list, represent a wide spectrum of businesses, from small nonprofits to large multinationals. Despite their differences, they share common insights into what they want in a CFO. Most-75 percent-

10、hired their current CFO; 40 percent did so within the past three years. A whopping 39 percent fired their last CFO.Their wish lists, as it turns out, are long and all-encompassing. In addition to finance expertise and personal integrity, CEOs say they want CFOs with strategic vision, communication s

11、kills, and a broad business background that includes operating experience.Most important, the personal chemistry has to be just right. This is still a very personal business, says Bjorn F. Lindgren, president of BFL Associates Ltd., a Houston-based executive search firm. CEOs will almost always over

12、look experience and credentials for that strong, trusting personal relationship. Ultimately, adds Howard Karr, president of Howard Karr & Associates Inc., a San Mateo, California-based executive recruiter, basic personality will make or break a deal. If youre an ass, youre an ass.Strategic Partner (

13、with scars)When CFO magazine last asked CEOs what they wanted in a finance chief (see Measuring Up, February 1994), they were just beginning to mention strategic vision. Today, it has become a routine request. CEOs will almost always say that what they want most in a CFO is a strategic partner, a bu

14、siness partner, says E. Peter McLean, senior director in the New York office of executive recruiters SpencerStuart. What that means, says Gary DiCamillo, CEO of Polaroid Corp., the $1.8 billion imaging company, is that a CFO must be a navigator of the business, not just a custodian. He or she must h

15、elp the CEO anticipate the icebergs, and steer clear, adds DiCamillo, who hired Judith Boynton, former controller at Amoco Corp., in April 1998, to be his chief navigator.In the CFO survey, CEOs consistently ranked strategic vision as more important than such traits as experience within the industry

16、, capital-raising, and IPOs. CEOs clearly want competence, judgment, and counsel over specific expertise in, say, IPOs, says executive recruiter McLean, who reviewed the survey results. Basically, he says, theyre looking for overall competence, with the implication that judgment and style will make

17、up for lack of specific experience.The best strategic partners, however, have weathered some adversity. CEOs want to see a demonstrated track record, says Bob Gorog, managing director of Boston-based recruiters Sullivan & Co. They look favorably at candidates who list two, three, or four places of e

18、mployment rather than just one. And the more battle scars, the better.For proof, witness the parade of seasoned CFOs who have taken top reins recently-many in new industries. Debby Hopkins, a former General Motors finance executive, is now tackling problems at aerospace giant Boeing after successful

19、 finance stints at Unisys, Ford Motor, and First National Bank of Detroit (see Fearless in Seattle, April). General Mills recently tapped James Lawrence, the former CFO of Northwest Airlines and PepsiCo, as its first CFO since 1996. Ingersoll-Rand, manufacturer of construction and industrial machine

20、ry, installed David Devonshire, the former Owens Corning CFO and controller of Honeywell, as its CFO in January 1998. And Allstate Insurance just turned to John Carl, a veteran finance executive for such companies as Amoco, Kraft, and American Hospital Supply, as its new finance chief.Carls diverse

21、business background and his ability to think strategically are what sold him to Ed Liddy, chairman, president, and CEO of Allstate. At Kraft, where he had served as controller, Carl worked in a thick-margin business in which consumer advertising and marketing were crucial. At American Hospital Suppl

22、y, which distributes hospital products, he experienced a more aggressive company with thin margins. And at Amoco, he gained valuable international experience as head of the companys acquisitions and divestitures. Armed with such credentials, says Liddy, Carls inexperience with insurance is insignifi

23、cant. Would I be ecstatic if he had insurance experience, too? Of course I would. But Im not worried a bit, Liddy says.Not everyone agrees, however, that specific experience is expendable. Michael Marquez, CEO of Manatee Memorial Hospital, a Bradenton, Florida-based, 512-bed hospital with $300 milli

24、on in gross revenues last year, says industry experience is a must when hiring a CFO in health care. They have to be familiar with reimbursements and billing-and thats just the financial side. They also have to understand what is going on in hospitals, says Marquez, whose CFO, John Paul Christen-a v

25、eteran of Valley Hospital, in Las Vegas-came to Manatee in late 1995, shortly after Baptist Health Systems, of Phoenix, sold the hospital. For example, he says, Christens ability to integrate the hospitals two financial systems and prepare a budget immediately upon joining would have been impossible

26、 without a health- care background.What They Really WantThe acid test for strategic vision, however, is the way a CFO transforms a CEOs vision into action. While most-98 percent-of CEOs surveyed said their CFOs create value, the mechanisms to measure that value varied immensely. Many said that earni

27、ngs per share was the primary indicator, but others pointed to such measures as the amount of work I have to do and the synergies achieved with department heads. One CEO simply said he calculated his finance chiefs value daily.Whats apparent is that speed counts. Peter Jacobi, former president and c

28、hief operating officer of San Franciscobased Levi Strauss & Co., wanted quick results when he hired William Chiasson as the companys CFO in August 1998. Jacobi was looking for a strategic thinker to help get Levi Strauss- which saw 1998 sales shrink by 13 percent, to just under $6 billion-out of a r

29、ut. And since joining the company, Chiasson, the former senior vice president for finance at Kraft Foods Inc., has launched a shared services group in the Americas, changed compensation and incentive scales, revamped the planning process, and reorganized the finance office. He asked why we report th

30、e way we do and why we invest in what we do, and developed a scorecard for how we do business, says Jacobi. In addition, Bill is challenging long- held assumptions and looking at things from a different perspective. But he does it in a way that works with our unique culture, says Jacobi, adding that

31、 part of his recent decision to retire was based on Chiassons arrival.At Toronto-based Cott Corp., Frank Weise III is banking on Raymond Silcocks record of results to help fuel a speedy turnaround. Weise, who took over the reins last summer, says he needed a finance chief with the courage and stamin

32、a to help stem a six- year-slide. Silcock, who was hired in September, was also a known quantity: he had been Weises CFO when the latter headed Campbell Soups $1.7 billion bakery and confectionery division from 1995 to 1997, and was instrumental in a turnaround that ultimately tripled revenues.At Cott, says Weise, Silcock has already created value by implementing strong financial controls, helping to reengineer the companys supply chain, and spearheading its divestiture process. And although Cott reported a net loss from continuing operations of $29.7