Pity the overworked finance chief. CFOs have proven so adept at juggling an astonishing array of duties—from treasury to purchasing to planning—that their bosses have happily piled on more. According to the CFO Executive Board, a Washington, DC-based firm, the typical CFO now has seven direct reports, and some have a dozen or more.
This comes at a cost. Every hour spent discussing wireless networks with a CIO or tuition-reimbursement policies with an HR executive is an hour not spent on more strategic matters. “If you are making decisions on IT, procurement or HR, you have to ask what the bottom-line impact is compared with a decision of operational or financial importance,” says Kurt Reisenberg, executive director of the CFO Executive Board. The organisation’s research shows that CFOs with fewer direct reports stay in their jobs longer and help achieve higher shareholder returns.
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