Executive Search
What makes a great CFO appointment today?
The skills, experience and leadership qualities that matter most in a more complex and demanding environment.
Most CFO briefs describe a finance function. Very few describe the company the finance function has to serve over the next three years, which is the only thing the appointment is really about.
The technical floor is now assumed. Reporting, controls, capital, audit — a shortlist that cannot do those things is not a shortlist. What separates candidates at this level is judgement under pressure and the willingness to be the person in the room who says the uncomfortable number out loud.
Ask what the seat actually is
A CFO steering a business through refinancing is not the same appointment as a CFO building the reporting spine of a fast-growing company, and neither is the CFO preparing a business for sale. The titles are identical. The work is not.
Naming the seat precisely does two things. It narrows the field honestly, and it gives the person who takes the job a fair account of what they are walking into — which is the single largest predictor of whether they stay.
Test for the relationship, not just the record
The CFO's most important relationship is with the chief executive, and the second is with the board. A finance leader who cannot hold a position against a persuasive CEO will not protect the company from an expensive decision.
That is not a soft quality and it is not testable by a competency grid. It shows up in how a candidate describes a disagreement they lost, and what they did the following week.
Look at the second appointment
A strong CFO leaves behind a stronger finance team. Ask candidates who they hired, who they promoted, and where those people are now. Building capability under yourself is the clearest evidence of a leader who is confident rather than defensive.
A CFO appointment is rarely lost on capability. It is lost on a brief that described a function instead of a situation.