The finance function is playing an increasingly pivotal role incorporate operations. In many companies, the leader of finance isseen as a prospective successor to the CEO, and more and more CFOsare beginning to serve on corporate boards of directors. These bitsof conventional wisdom are borne out by a recent survey byKorn/Ferry International.

The firm's Chief FinancialOfficer Center of Expertise polled 86 CFOs at large organizationsand found that these leaders' scope of influence is growing. Whenasked “Are you being asked to take on more or less operationalresponsibility?” three-quarters said they're taking on moreoperational responsibility; one-quarter said they're currentlyexperiencing no change in their level of operationalresponsibility; and not one said they're being asked to reduce theoperational side of their role. (See Figure 1.)

Perhaps even more telling were the CFOs' responses when askedwhat keeps them up at night. Their top concern—cited by just overhalf of survey respondents—is revenue growth. Cost managementworries only 16.5 percent of respondents. (See Figure 2, below.)“The natural play for the CFO has historically been around costcontainment and cost control,” says Josh Wimberley, head of theFinancial Officer Practice, North America, at Korn/Ferry. “Butright now, it's all hands on deck for revenue growth andinnovation, and the CFO has to be involved in that.”

Wimberley sees two primary drivers behind the shift to moreoperational responsibility for finance. “First, CFOs need to bemore involved in the operational drivers of the business,” he says.“Boards, CEOs, and management teams are looking to CFOs to playmore of an operational role. At the same time, there's a push forboards and CEOs to be more proactive around succession planning.Because the CFO's position is one of the potential successors tothe CEO position, there's a push—whether formal or informal—to haveCFOs take on more operational responsibility in the business. Insome cases, that means going out and running a business aspresident and general manager. In other cases, the CFO takes on asmall P&L in addition to their CFO responsibilities.”

Proactively expanding their horizons is a good idea for financeprofessionals, because talent management is something many of the survey respondentsstruggle with. The second-most-common response to the survey'squestion “What keeps you up at night?” was “Talent to achieve theorganization's goals.”

Explains Wimberley: “Finance executives need analytical skills,including the hard technical skills around accounting controls andforward-looking FP&A [financial planning and analysis] skills.They also need the leadership piece, which includes being able toinfluence and develop people, working well across the organization,and having the leadership stature and communication style tocommunicate at a board level when necessary. The combination ofboth of those skill sets can be hard to find.”

For those who do build a solid skill set in both areas, thesky's the limit. One-fourth of CFO respondents to the Korn/Ferrysurvey serve on the board of another public company, and Wimberleysees that number growing. “Our financial officer practice championsthe idea of CFOs or retired CFOs serving on corporate boardsbecause we think they make some of the best board members,” hesays. “We're seeing continued momentum in that direction; companiesare increasingly recognizing the skills that current and formerCFOs can bring to a board of directors. That's positive for thefunction in general.”