CFO Transformations - It's the first 30 days that set the foundation

Setting out what you would like to accomplish in the first 90 days is a popular and enduring method set out by author Michael Watkins in the mid-2000s. He says, ‘You should focus on four effective pillars of effective onboarding: business orientation, stakeholder connection, alignment of expectations and cultural adaptation.’

When you’re in the CFO role, its less about the work you complete and more about the influence you have at all levels of an organisation. It’s useful to have a checklist for succeeding in the first 90 days of your new role or project.

First 30 Days

- Meet your key stakeholders, give them your ear

You probably already know a lot about who’s who from either interviews or previous work with the company. At a senior level you should meet with your C-level peers, understand how the finance function has been interacting well – and not so well – with their teams. Gather information that will help you form a picture of early wins, and what requires long term change. But don’t fall into the trap of just speaking to management. Developing influence within an organisation is about winning the trust of those who will help you get the job done – your team members and their peers.

- Know Your Customer

It’s easy to boil 'Know Your Customer' down to the KYC financial processes and box-checking exercises (especially if you work in a finance organisation!). But do you really know why your organisation exists, who they serve, what they need, and how your team and function deliver the best possible product or service – and therefore a profitable business? If there is an opportunity to sit in on calls with the customer service department, go on customer visits, or directly serve the customer, you cannot underestimate how this could shape your viewpoint in your new role.

- Define your top priorities

Your To-Do list will only get longer as you go on in the role. In your hiring interviews, you would have discussed issues in detail – what are the number 1,2 and 3 things the business needs you to deliver? Which are the most critical areas of the company and the Finance Department that need attention? The first 30 days are an opportunity to identify low-hanging fruit: high ROI without a long time horizon, but also to identify a project plan, a gap analysis, and a task force to deliver longer term business transformation.

- Get on top of the performance metrics

We know you’ll be on top of cash flow, accounting practice and audit issues right away. If you are a new CFO, you have studied your whole career for this, no doubt getting yourself onto key transformation projects along your career to learn what works and doesn’t to file away for future use. If you are an experienced CFO in a new role you are old hand – you know exactly what data needs to be pulled, how to present it and what are the key metrics that are going to be measured and show your business is running effectively. Make sure you interrogate and trust the data, pull together the report you want to track and be ready to discuss what is and isn’t working with other business leaders.

- Know your Systems, Suppliers and Key Investors

While you are unlikely to have time to meet with suppliers and investors in your first 30 days (though you should do this in the first 60-90), you should identify key investors, systems and suppliers that the Finance Team use to deliver their function. Good investor relations will remain key to cash flow. Improving supplier relationships and replacing outdated systems could be a key area of low hanging fruit to deliver your business transformation.

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About Caxton

Our senior teams help 100s of CFOs every week. We offer support on transforming their business from outdated manual payment processes, and make quick, effective decisions when they are working with FX.

About the Author

Trevor is a strategically focussed CFO with an innovative approach to adding value. Backed by a track record of driving growth in fast paced international business, his focus is driving the future of payments and improving the speed and efficiency of clients’ financial processes.