Over the previous decade, extra CFOs have moved into CEO roles because the place evolves to incorporate better strategic and management obligations. This development displays a rising demand for executives who can navigate financial volatility with monetary self-discipline.
Within the first half of 2024, 7.1% of CEOs at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 corporations got here from a CFO position, up from 5.3% in 2013.
However whereas many Fortune 500 CEOs have finance backgrounds, the transition is just not all the time seamless as a result of the CFO ability set doesn’t all the time align with the management, imaginative and prescient, and threat tolerance required to be an efficient CEO.
“Traditionally, CFOs are counted on to be black and white and by the numbers, when in actuality, a CEO is the one which has to navigate by way of the grey,” says Jeff Herzog, president of government recruitment agency FPC Nationwide. Profitable CEOs are in a position to thrive in ambiguity—a capability that always comes extra naturally to these with broad, cross-functional expertise reasonably than a slim monetary focus.
Hardik Sheth, who leads BCG’s Middle for CFO Excellence in North America, warns {that a} CFO’s monetary self-discipline can change into a legal responsibility in a CEO position. An over-reliance on numbers and quantitative pondering can create blind spots in areas like imaginative and prescient, expertise, and firm tradition.
Joanna Starek, chief industrial officer at management consultancy RHR Worldwide, echoes this concern, noting that many CFOs assume they’re prepared for the highest position just because they’ve labored carefully with the CEO.
“I’ve seen a whole lot of CFOs overestimate their readiness,” says Starek. “They sit so near the CEO that they really feel like they know what they should do to drive the success of the corporate, however they have not essentially shouldered the burden of development as nicely.”
Watching and studying from the CEO isn’t sufficient. Those that efficiently transition from finance chiefs to the nook workplace have already taken on technique, P&L administration, and operational obligations whereas honing sturdy interpersonal abilities. CFOs who fail to domesticate a well-rounded enterprise background and efficient communication abilities earlier of their profession usually wrestle to broaden their experience retroactively.
Kathy Pattillo, managing associate at Boyden, emphasizes that gentle abilities—like being an attentive listener and having an interesting character—are among the many most crucial traits of CFOs who thrive as CEOs.
“There are a whole lot of monetary leaders that simply plain don’t have that character, and you’ll’t go to high school and be taught it.”
The position of the CFO as a cost-cutter reasonably than a development driver additionally presents challenges for these moving into the CEO place. Actually, CFOs-turned-CEOs are, on common, slower to drive top-line development in comparison with these from different backgrounds. Analysis from Spencer Stuart discovered that solely 8% of CFOs-turned-CEOs lead their corporations to top-quartile efficiency, whereas “leapfrog” CEOs—these promoted from two or extra ranges down—and divisional CEOs have considerably increased odds of outperforming.