A company's CEO is its true leader, heading up every move a firm makes. As befitting their position at the head of the table, CEOs reap the benefits when new projects and ideas succeed — and take the ultimate responsibility when they don't.
But just as in every organization, success and failure have many contributors. And while the CEO may be a company's final decision-maker, the factors behind those decisions often boil down to matters of economics. That means the ability of a company's chief financial officer (CFO) to properly assess the capabilities, planning, and execution of new ideas, all while attaching the correct dollar amounts to potential costs and eventual returns, is just as vital.
The CFO might have the most underappreciated role in the corporate hierarchy; their contributions can sometimes get them dismissed as a glorified bookkeeper or labeled as a wet blanket on innovation. But a CFO with the proper tools and talent is the single company employee most central to making it all happen.
A mix of pragmatism and being skilled in a sort of interpersonal art make a truly standout CFO. While some of that is inherent, many qualities can be taught, as outlined in the e-book Secrets of Rock Star CFOs, which you can pick up now for free from one of the thought leaders in the CFO realm, cloud business software firm NetSuite.
Rock Star CFOs are trained, not born
For those looking for the insights that can turn an average financial mind into a truly next-level CFO genius, author Jack McCullough certainly has the resume to prove his knowledge of the game.
A product of MIT's Sloan School of Management, McCullough made his CFO bones during the birth of the dot-com era, building relationships with venture capitalists and tech gurus before branching out into a successful CFO consulting firm.
In fact, McCullough became a true CFO gun-for-hire, serving as an interim or part-time CFO for 26 different companies to help guide them toward financial stability and profit. During that time, he also founded the CFO Leadership Council and created the first-ever MIT Sloan School of Business CFO Summit.
Secrets of Rock Star CFOs boils down McCullough's decades of experience to nine concise, direct, actionable guidelines for helping finance professionals and business decision-makers navigate the tricky waters of smart corporate financial behavior.
Nine secrets every CFO should know
Based on conversations with dozens of elite CFOs from Silicon Valley startups to Fortune 500 multinationals, this 40-page e-book breaks it all down, distilling the views of McCullough and some of the nation's best CFOs into a template for helping financial pros build a strategic partnership with their CEO and make the right choices in directing a company to successful financial fortunes.
McCullough explains how to frame strategic thinking as CF-Go rather than CF-No. He examines the power of ethical leadership and the strong role of making morally correct decisions, even in the black-and-white world of dollars and cents. The e-book digs into the importance of forming elite corporate teams as well as the critical role of peer networking. Readers even get a taste of a CFO's intuition on common-sense tests that any proposal should pass to get a seal of approval.
To bolster your business finance game, NetSuite is offering a free copy of Secrets of Rock Star CFOs by Jack McCullough. Head over to download a free copy of this insightful read right now.
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