How coffee and conversation could build careers by Maureen O'Connell, CFO at Scholastic Corporation

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3 Essential Steps to Taking Over as CFO
Effectively

• Maureen O Connell
• Executive VP, CFO and CAO
• Scholastic Corporation
• Nov12th, 2014
• Note The views expressed here are my own.

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Taking Over as a CFO

• There is no single formula for taking over as
  CFO successfully.
• CFOs are appointed in a variety of ways promoted
  from within or hired from outside in family-run
  business or multi-national corporations. The
  sheer variety makes it impossible for all new
  CFOs to follow a single path.  Here, I only wish
  to point out 3 essential steps that would benefit
  new CFOs regardless of their backgrounds.

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 Step 1- Learn

• New CFOs must start by gaining deep understanding
  about the business, its strengths, imminent and
  long-term threats and stakeholders.
• This learning process starts as soon as they lace
  their CFO shoes on the first day and lasts for at
  least 3 months. The best way to learn is also the
  simplest just listen. Listening will help you
  understand pain points. It may also help you find
  the solutions hidden within the issues.
• Be a student, be willing to learn and accept
  contributions from key stakeholders. A great
  by-product of this process is that you will start
  forging healthy relationships with them right
  from the outset.

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 Learning about Business

• The greatest challenge you need to learn to
  tackle will be to adapt to the culture, both
  across the business and within your team.
• Corporate literature and reports are just the
  starting point. The most useful inputs will come
  from meetings with the rest of the C-suite, your
  team, auditors and industry analysts.
• It is important for you to reconcile the
  analysts perception and the reality
  expeditiously. The moment analysts and
  shareholders feel confused after your
  communication, they tend to distrust and neglect
  your business stock. Streamline reporting
  processes such that they say exactly what the
  business wants to communicate.

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 Learning about Stakeholders

• You have already listened to the perspectives
  shared by the C-suite, your team and auditors by
  now. Also invite inputs from other functional
  heads. Learning about the challenges they are
  facing can help you create your agenda of focus
  points. Assess the utility of all these opinions
  and how they might affect your decisions.
• In addition, try to spend a large chunk of time
  learning from the CEO in the days leading up to
  your formal appointment. It will help you gain
  clarity about your profile, stakeholders
  expectations and how you can make a difference.

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 Learning new Skills

• A CFOs role often puts you into unfamiliar
  territory, where you need a whole new set of
  skills to chart your path.
• To develop these skills, you could get formal
  training from experts  informal tips from former
  CFOs or peers and learn a whole lot on the job.
• Remember that no matter how talented and
  experienced you may be, you cannot be an expert
  at everything within your range of
  responsibilities.
• Thus, you must build relationships with those
  within your team who can execute various tasks
  superlatively. The aim is to fill up all the
  skill gaps to attain your corporate objectives
  efficiently.

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Step 2 Select

• It helps to remember that you represent an
  opportunity for improvement.
• The second you are crowned monarch of the
  financial function, you are expected to expound
  words of wisdom that will transform the landscape
  in your organization.
• Within two quarters of the year, you will be
  required to show results. The challenge lies in
  choosing what to do now, what to save for later
  and what not to do at all.

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Select your Victories

• Like in Step 1, this process will start with
  listening. Conversations with your CEO and other
  executives would reveal a list of points you
  should address immediately and establish
  immediate victories.
• Whether it is tax savings, cost control,
  increased profitability, technology
  implementation or talent upgrade the
  opportunities are yours to exploit.

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Select What Not to Do

• Sit back and reflect upon tasks that have a low
  probability of success.
• Perhaps some tasks will drain resources but add
  little or no value. It is possible they remained
  undone or were left on the back-burner
  intentionally.
• Weed out such tasks and make the tough decision
  of letting them go. Instead, focus resources in
  activities that will yield results.

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Select your Team

• When you set about assessing the finance team,
  you might be surprised to know how much bright
  talent remains untapped and how much deadweight
  the business has been carrying over the years.
  Insist on retaining only the best and do all
  you can to keep them happy and motivated.
  Reshuffle the non-contributors so they can do
  meaningful work, too.
• You may have to perform the unpleasant task of
  letting a few of the least contributing members
  go hopefully, to other departments in which
  they can thrive sometimes, out of the business.
• If done with unambiguous vision and empathy, this
  exercise could leave your team sharper and more
  passionate to achieve the clearly defined goals.

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Select your Message

• Now comes the time to make a critical move
  communicating the agenda of tasks simply and
  clearly with well-defined roles for each key
  player.
• The more critical the task, the clearer its
  guideline message needs to be.
• From time to time, redirect your team towards
  this message so they remained aligned to the path
  you have charted.

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Step 3 Change

• In this step, you can optimally utilize resources
  and skill sets to finally deliver your agenda of
  change for the world to see.
• One of the best ways to bring about change is by
  assigning the highest skilled and best performing
  team members to execute the most important
  priorities. This will not only improve your
  likelihood of attaining success but also
  distinctly showcase your commitment to
  improvement.

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Step 3 Change

• The secret to effective delegation, the type that
  brings desired results, is to have complete
  confidence in the delegate but take complete
  responsibility of checking that the task is done
  right. Faith and monitoring are the two scales of
  a perfectly balanced, flawlessly delivered task.
• Finally, destroy the barriers to communication
  between various functions. Short yet frequent
  face-to-face meetings that measure progress,
  celebrate triumphs, rectify issues and chart out
  next steps are the best way to achieve this. The
  more the separate functions are involved in
  working towards common goals hand-in-hand, the
  more transparent and accountable they will be
  towards each other.

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Finally

• Trying to implement these 3 steps will bring
  never-before demands on your time, abilities and
  patience.
• Give the role your all persevere through these
  steps within the short 6 months that you have to
  show significant results.
• After all, nobody said taking over as CFO was
  going to be easy. But, then,  nothing worth
  achieving ever is.

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Maureen O'Connell

• Maureen OConnell is the current Executive VP,
  CFO and CAO of Scholastic Corporation. When not
  working, Maureen loves running, Skiing, Scuba
  Diving or Travelling.