Nowthat the recession can be seen in a rearview mirror, ChrisBallinger, CFO and group vice president of Financial ManagementSciences and Global Treasury, Toyota Financial Services (TFS),finds he is taking on a new role at the automotive lender–ChiefValue Officer. Okay, so there is no such C-level title–as yet–butBallinger says it reflects the shift in his responsibilities nowthat TFS is back in both a growth and spending mode.

Treasury & Risk asked Ballinger to elaborate.

T&R: So how has the role of CFO changed foryou since the recession ended?
Ballinger: During the recession, many CFOshunkered down to conserve capital and pare expenses, causing growthto take a back seat. The CFO was looked upon as the personresponsible for finance efficiency, transaction processing andaccounting. This continues but the responsibilities have enlarged.I see my role now more in terms of performance management as theChief Value Officer.

T&R: CVO–we like the term. Now tell us whatit means?
Ballinger: Sure. What distinguishes finance fromother parts of the organization is the metric we use–the metric ofvalue, which is additive. Sales groups, for instance, have targetsthat are set in units, such as 'If we sell x number of thisproduct, then we will have y market share.' Those things aren'tadditive across an organization. Finance, on the other hand, usesthe metric of value, which is the common denominator and makeseverything additive. This makes the CFO uniquely qualified to bethe Chief Value Officer, and to communicate this value metric toour constituencies.

T&R: And who are theseconstituencies?
Ballinger: There are two constituencies. The firstis your equity, debt and capital holders, and you communicate tothem through the financial statements and earnings calls, which aregoverned by rules-based GAAP–the traditional stuff. The other part,which is becoming more important, is to communicate the 'outside'to the 'inside.'

T&R: Another cool turn of phrase. So whatis the 'outside' and what is the 'inside?'
Ballinger: OK, so prices in the external marketdetermine the marginal costs of doing business across variousbusiness lines–right? Well, that's the 'outside.' It is the CFO'srole to communicate the marginal costs that the corporation facesto the inside decision makers to help them make the best decisions.This way the decision makers at each level of the corporation knowthe marginal level costs insofar as value creation or destruction.A corporation can be thought of as the aggregate value of all theindividual decisions.

T&R: So another of the CFO's roles is toensure that all decisions going on inside the corporation aremoving it in a positive direction?
Ballinger: Yes, and CFOs do that through transferpricing, profitability metrics and value metrics, and exposingthese throughout the corporation as a way of changing behavior. Ithink a corporation is less a product of a few big decisions thanthe product of almost an infinite number of very small decisions.Each one has a small impact, but cumulatively they produce a largeimpact. Added up they should assist the corporation to become moreviable and successful.

To learn about the work that won Toyota Financial anAlexander Hamilton Overall Excellence Award in 2009, readSeeingAhead of the Curve.

And about Toyota's winning Liquidity Management project,see Building a Better Model: Toyota.

Read about other CFOsto Watch in 2011.