Is your new CFO just an overpaid accountant?

As an entrepreneur you may very well recognise yourself as an energetic doer, a visionary star and a master of social skills. Are we right? These are some of the most common strengths among successful business founders.

On the other hand, there is conclusive evidence that most entrepreneurs are weaker in two aspects:

• The analytical capacity to break down a vision to efficient action plans
• The ability to follow up and verify that actions are executed properly

These abilities are however a spot-on description of strengths in a typical “CFO personality”. Hence, there is no surprise that an analytical and high-capacity CFO is number one on the wish list for many start-up CEOs when building a professional management team.

Unfortunately, too many of the CEOs just want someone to handle the accounting, despite the actual need of someone who can provide strategic advice and proactive financial forecasts. They miss out on the potential of using a CFO properly, and as a result, they will pay a large CFO salary for someone operating as an accounting assistant, have a huge amount of wasted knowledge within the company and have an understimulated and unhappy senior person with a big title on the payroll.

How do you prevent this mistake from happening to you?

1. Shift your mindset from title to function. Titles developed for large corporations do not capture the complexity of a position in a fast-moving start-up, where you need flexibility and where every position is broader.
2. Stay true to the profile of requirements. Define the tasks and responsibilities and stick with them throughout the process.
3. Believe in the person you have hired. You have invested heavily in assessing a person and you have agreed upon responsibilities in the meantime. Now it is time to realize the full potential of your CFO.

Do you need more insights to make sure your CFO recruitment is successful? Ask someone who has recruited CFOs to more than 50 growth companies. Ask us.