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Keeping a company’s financials in peak shape is vital to success in the world of business, as misconceptions one way or the other can inadvertently tank stock prices, wiping untold amounts of money off valuations.

As a business becomes bigger, the CEO shouldn’t have to bear responsibility for its finances alone, as there are creative tasks they need to focus upon intently if the company is to continue growing.

As they run out of room on their desk for the time-consuming but vital financial tasks, they should in-source them by handing them off to a chief financial officer.

Also known as a CFO, their primary concern is to keep a company compliant with tax regulation, ensure year-over-year rises in revenue, and to eliminate or minimize financial risks.

Kingstown Capital had the good fortune of having an exceptional CFO over the past decade, and it has catapulted them to incredible heights.

Looking to hire a quality CFO? Keep the following competencies in mind and you’ll hire one that will improve every aspect of your business.

1) Top notch analytical skills

Your CFO will be chest deep in the numbers that define your company everyday, so it is important that you hire a person who can perform analysis that produces meaningful and actionable results.

This is especially true in the age of Big Data, as there is now a wealth of information at one’s fingertips that can help make decision-making easier for those who know what to look for.

Chief financial officers who are exceptional at their jobs know what stats to analyze in order to achieve the results they are looking to get for the companies that employ them.

CFO’s that can see where companies and industries are headed will give the business that employs them a huge leg up over competitors who are trying to overtake them.

2) They must be aware of all risks to their company

Disruption has been a fact of life through most sectors of the economy since the advent of the internet, and it appears there is no end in sight. In fact, many argue that the pace of change is getting even faster.
If you need to hire a CFO, whoever gets the job needs to acknowledge this as a risk, along with all the traditional threats to the viability of a business.

Nobody is safe from having the rug pulled out from underneath them: who in the grocery business suspected that Jeff Bezos was coming for them.

After laying waste to many retail businesses with Amazon, it appears that his acquisition of Whole Foods is his beachhead into this market sector.

Your CFO must foresee threats to their market share before they come to pass – all decisions they make should be done with this in mind.

3) They must be technologically literate

In 2017, there is no reason why any executive should be ignorant about technology and how it can effect their business in a positive way.

Protecting the company against the threat of tech encroachment is vital, but using it to go on the attack will give the business a chance to rise to the top of the heap rather than treading water as competitors race past.