CHIEF VALUE OFFICER – THE IMPORTANT EVOLUTION OF THE CFO | 2. THE CHANGING CFO ROLE
‘Value in the past was very straightforward. It was “show me the money”, and actually it was real money…that you could count with your hands. We have moved away from that because we have digital value money. We also have other values and we have struggled with the concept of the value of goodwill, which only ever crystallises when somebody’s prepared to pay for that goodwill. What is the value of ESG? ‘Is the value that somebody puts on your organisation the same as my value? It is not financial value. It could be ethical value, it could be equality value through your contribution to the local community. All sorts of interactions become valuable to somebody, and it all depends on which stakeholder that is.’ UK-based CFO 2.1 The historic CFO role The public perception of a CFO role may well be of an individual in an organisation who is responsible for the production of the financial statements and the integrity of the financial information that underpins these. The individual who discharges this role has a high level of ethical standards as the member of a professional body and that inspires a degree of trust. They understand in detail, and apply, the financial reporting standards as applicable to the organisation and so they are the key contact with the external auditors. The more enlightened individual, perhaps one who has interacted with the CFO in an organisation, may well see them as the keeper of the purse strings and often, as many roundtable participants commented, as ‘Dr No’ – the person who says that the organisation cannot afford to undertake the suggestion made. In that regard, they are approached with caution. Many of the roundtables referred to this perception of the role as one of the challenges in addressing the difference between a CFO and a CVO. This is why there may be a
2. The changing CFO role
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