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Strategy and innovation
Must-have CFO skills.
Pablo Vela, CFO of Rastreator, "feels that financial directors must absolutely have a comprehensive picture of the business, which requires a range of interpersonal skills that enable them to act as a go-between with other operating departments".
The work of a good CFO is vital within any company that wants to manage and make the most of its available resources. Therefore, Pablo Vela, CFO of Rastreator, believes that individuals in this role should have a range of skills that will help them to correctly analyse what each part of the company's budget is being used for.
In his opinion, the first thing a CFO must be clear about is that “resources are limited”, meaning that they need to very carefully select “what is going to help boost the company's profitability and the business's growth, and what is not”. The first step towards achieving this is clear: properly analysing the data available. In his opinion, this is the only way “to measure the impact of each of the company's actions and identify discrepancies”.
It's all about, ultimately, “going one step further” in order to gain a competitive advantage which “puts you ahead of your competitors in a constantly evolving market”. And in order to successfully translate this commitment into a reality, you need to use the right “tools and technology”, so investing in innovation “is absolutely key”.
Vela believes that a CFO must have clear “business drivers”, which are the levers and indicators that must be activated and analysed in order to ensure that future growth delivers good levels of profit. That's why you should constantly be measuring the return on each investment, which will enable you to really see how it is affecting the company's profitability, both in objective and subjective terms, as, as Rastreator's CFO explains, aspects such as “brand awareness”, where it is sometimes difficult to measure the financial return, are becoming increasingly important.
This work must be done “transversally, with close involvement in the company's day-to-day business”, as, according to Pablo Vela, these types of crucial decisions can only be made by taking this kind of approach.
He also tries to apply these principles to his company, Rastreator, where he says that they continuously “assess the market and the behaviour of competitors” in order to be able to calculate the effect that each aspect may have on the company's day-to-day operations through a constant process of “trial and error”. This is something that is particularly relevant for them, as, being a financial-product comparator, they need to move towards a “more personalised and advisory” model in order to make important decisions about “products that are sometimes difficult for users to understand”.
In his words, a good CFO also has to be “a good leader”, who supports both the CEO and the company as a whole in making decisions that dovetail into the strategy set out at all times. One the 'soft skills' that a CFO must also have, according to Pablo Vela, is being a strong communicator, as one of their fundamental tasks will involve influencing “the company's internal and external parties” around why they need to follow one strategy or another. These skills must also sit alongside being strongly “flexible and adaptable” to changes gradually appearing in the market, especially in the hugely digital world in which we now find ourselves, where everything evolves so quickly.
Finally, Vela also stresses that a good CFO must be able to “involve workers in the company's day-to-day operations”, so they should “keep them well informed of important aspects about the company, such as account movements, details for the last year-end closing or projects which they are working on”. In taking this approach, the CFO would be seeking “to empathise with them, motivate them and make them feel involved”. What's more, according to Pablo Vela, the days when CFOs locked themselves away in their offices are long gone, and that's why, at Rastreator“, they no longer have fixed premises or offices”. This is just another example, in his opinion, of how CFOs need to be closely involved in a company's day-to-day operations in order to ensure that they succeed in their role, “moving away from their traditional operating areas and taking on a 360° profile that is much more closely involved in the business”.
