Building Strategic Alignment as a CFO

Having diverse perspectives in a senior leadership team is integral to producing a robust strategy – the tricky part is pulling them all together. CFOs have a major role to play in making this work, but they need to balance being both objective and supportive, while having strong communication skills.

Featuring Commentary From: 

Michelle Chikanda, Senior Relationship Manager, Criticaleye
"Today’s Finance leaders need to be commercially astute, strategically minded and great communicators – being technically brilliant just isn’t enough."

Tim Doubleday, Group CFO, Burger King UK
"It is harder to build alignment in times of uncertainty, and we are seeing that at the moment with the challenging political and economic environment."

Dylan Minto, CFO, Shawbrook Bank
"As the CFO, you’re in the very privileged position of being involved from the beginning, so you are able to help shape and influence the direction."

Stuart Owens, UK FD, Europcar Mobility Group
“The key is a balance where the CEO and CFO have a very good relationship, so when the CFO challenges a topic the CEO knows it’s because they genuinely mean it, and that they’re trying to protect the business, as opposed to being a blocker or too risk averse.”

Michael Williams, CFO and COO, Glory Global Solutions  
"You have the debate upfront. You plan; you assess what can go right and wrong; everyone has an opinion, and then you make a decision."