NOWADAYS, people would say that the role of CFOs is no longer just “bean counters” but more of strategist. Indeed, the role of chief financial officers (CFOs) had truly evolved and they play a very important role in the organization. They are now business partners rather than just playing a fiscal role in the organization. They should be able to help decision- makers reach a commercially viable decision and make the most of market opportunities. That means providing financial analysis that can be used by the management in working in strategic and commercial operations that are value-driven.
It is imperative, therefore, that in meetings, the CFO should be able to know how to facilitate strategic conversations, also to achieve productive meetings that will translate to growth in the company. Meetings are commonly structured meetings and oftentimes are not so efficient as to lead to effective decisions. There should be planning in the approach and the style of meetings that one should have, with due consideration to the right people who should be there and the right input and environment. In an article in Deloitte CFO Journal, Chris Ertel mentioned about strategic conversations, adding benefit to reaching and implementing decisions that will provide effective results.
In regular corporate meetings I had experienced in the past, the CFOs are just there to provide financial reports and explain these reports. Although I am also impressed with CFO s who may not know what strategic conversations are but are actively participating in the discussions in the meetings toward making certain decisions that have proven effective and, unknowingly, are actually facilitating a strategic conversation. But these are just hit-and-miss activities. To ensure discussions that are strategic, one should be able to deliberately create one.
But conversations or discussions like these are not fit for meetings which need to decide urgently on a certain matter. And certainly you don’t need to have one, if the questions are more technical in nature such as the impact on the financial condition of the company will hire more people or the new marketing target to achieve the desired bottom line for the year.
The agenda for the meeting should be important but not urgent and needs more time to reach a decision. But certainly a timeline should be set so as not to drag and delay the decision. For instance, concern such as where the next investment should be made. The right people should be there and we should not waste the time of people who do not need to be there.
What is also important is that people will be able to understand the issue first, discuss the alternatives and trim it down before decisions are made. If we are chairing the meeting, we should act more like a facilitator rather than a dictator encouraging more inputs from the others but controlling the meeting so as not to go astray to unrelated topics. I think this is where usually the fault lies. I attended meetings where the chairman allows the conversation to drift to other topics that, at the end of the day, nothing had been accomplished or worse dominated by the more outspoken so there are others who were not able to contribute their thoughts.
Effective decisions are not usually made on the first meeting, particularly if it is a huge project, to give more time to the involved players to deliberate on it. In the aforementioned article, it mentioned about decisions being made by leading players “offline” and are just ratified in the next meeting. It mentioned, therefore, the importance of strategic conversations or discussions (italics mine) in the early meeting/s of understanding the issue and shaping choices or what I term as “alternatives.”
Nowadays, when we are constantly tight on schedules for meeting, the need for strategic conversations or discussions can certainly spell effective and productive meetings.
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Wilma Miranda is the chairman of the Media Affairs Committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines; managing partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associates, CPAs, treasurer of KPS Outsourcing Inc. The opinions expressed herein are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of these institutions.