“Stick close to your desks and never go to sea,
And you all may be rulers of the Queen’s Navy”
The chorus of Sir Joseph Porter’s Song above, taken from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta H. M. 
S. Pinafore, is a satire said to be based on William Henry Smith (1825–1891), the Victorian businessman who made a fortune through expanding his father’s bookselling business into a national chain which still thrives today as WH Smith. Like many successful businessmen William entered Parliament in 1868 and was appointed First Lord of Admiralty in 1877 – equivalent to the American “Secretary of the Navy” – despite never having been in the Royal Navy yet alone a serving officer.
According to a recent paper, Future Pathways to Finance Leadership jointly commissioned by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants, sticking close to your desk and never stepping outside the finance function is career limiting these days if you aspire to the role of CFO. The report, which is based on a global survey of over 750 CFOs, finance directors, and C-suite finance leaders, predicts the end of the classic finance career path spent entirely in the finance function.
Here’s my snapshot of what the survey respondents recommend to get to the top:
Get a good grounding in the fundamentals of finance
Even though the business world is changing, a good educations and professional certification backed up with experience in a range of different finance roles is still essential. Ninety-five percent of current CFOs agree on the importance of future CFOs having experience in core finance areas.
Strategy skills are becoming increasingly important
Mobility in and out of finance is seen as desirable for the future, spending time in appropriate roles in business units where you can experience the cut and thrust of commerce and competition.
Understand how analytics are essential to the future of finance
Secure your reputation by performing the traditional responsibilities, such as reporting and control, supremely well, but put aside time to become a champion of performance management and analytics as they are already essential in Finance for unlocking insights that create value for the business.
Risk experience is a must-have
Business environments of the future will be high risk on all fronts from fraud management right through to reputational risk, so get involved. In the survey, risk management was identified by current CFOs as the third most important area in which aspiring CFOs will need strong experience.
Become a dealmaker
Business growth will always come from a combination of organic growth and M&A activity, so if your ambition is to become the finance chief in a major listed company, start to build experience in this area early in your career and don’t limit yourself just to the finance and due diligence as skills in business integration and change management are both capabilities that a future finance leader will find useful.
Get to know your customers
In order to better management profitability and risk, tomorrow’s CFOs will need a far better understanding of the customer base so they can provide better financially orientated decision support to their commercial peers.
Grow your footprint beyond finance
While 40% of CFOs surveyed had taken a role outside the finance function at some point in their careers, more may need to do so in the future. CFOs that have top notch finance expertise together with commercial experience and some exposure to international markets will be highly valued.
Focus on management skills that will set you apart
Systematically develop the stand-out skills that current CFOs see as relevant for the future – leadership skills, strategy skills, change management skills and communication skills came out top with the survey respondents.
Prepare for more red tape and broader reporting
The burden of regulation and taxation is going to grow and will always be a priority for the CFO so it will always be beneficial to gain experience and skills in compliance as without it, you are unlikely to figure on head-hunter’s short lists.
Embrace technology
Already newer technologies such as in-memory, cloud and mobile are changing the face of the finance organization and it could look very different within a decade. So take time to understand how these will revolutionize business practices and transform financial delivery and build expertise in the financial assessment of technologies as the CFO is already taking a leading role in IT decisions in many organizations. So much so that technology and automation was identified as the 4th highest factor influencing the role of future CFOs. We’ll come back to this next time.
And with 60% of the current CFOs in Fortune 500 companies having been promoted from within, I’ll add another couple of points to the list; get yourself noticed, and don’t hack anyone off. Is there anything that you think is missing?