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IBM recently released The 2010 Global CFO Study entitled “The New Value Integrator”.  The 2010 Global CFO Study – the largest known of its kind – involved more than 1,900 CFOs and senior-level Finance professionals from 81 countries and 32 industries.  Their study points to the value to an organization of a CFO who can provide strong Business Insight as well as drive Financial Efficiency.   The CFO who can provide both, the “Value Integrators”, have been able to achieve sustained performance advantages over the other three CFO Profiles.  Over the 5 year period from 2003 to 2008, by implementing common practices across finance and from their strong business insight capabilities showcased by their mature analytical capabilities they were able to achieve a 20X (that’s right – TWENTY TIMES) better EBITDA than all other enterprises, 49% greater revenue and 30% higher ROIC than all other enterprises.  Maturity and analytical experience brought to bear on the exceptional business “opportunities” the companies faced.

The Four CFO Profiles are Scorekeepers, who are low on Financial Efficiency and low on Business Insight.  They are characterized as Data recorders (“the facts, just the facts ma’am”), practicing more Controllership – rearview mirror perspective and Multiple versions of the “truth”- great with the “what if’s” but not with the “what do they mean’s”.  Disciplined Operators are those who are high on Financial Efficiency but low on Business Insight.  They are characterized by their Finance operations focus, their ability to provide information – “you want the information, they have it”, and by Performance interpretation – “here is what happened and why”.  Constrained Advisors are those who are low on Financial Efficiency but High on Business Insight.  They are analytics focused but then have sub-optimal execution – they are simply working off of bad information. Their organizations produce incomplete data that doesn’t hold together.  Finally Value Integrators who are high on Financial Efficiency and high on Business Insight.  They are characterized by performance optimization – constantly applying lean-like principles to standardize and simplify the information gathering process.  They provide predictive insights – “if we do this, then that will happen” and use this analysis to evaluate the enterprise risk of each decision option so that management can anticipate and mitigate that risk i.e.  “if that happens, this will be the risk to the organization” and finally business decision making – they simply think like a businessman, not an “accountant”. 

Experience drives the ability to look both backward and forward, which is a key differentiator for the Value Integrator.  They look at not only what they “can” do but what they “should” do – and move towards the “should” constantly.  They automate common metrics so that the information is available on an as needed basis.  They look at key metrics for the organization that both reinforce the strategy but also reveal the competitive landscape.  No two companies are necessarily the same, based on their size, industry and competitive differences, so they don’t try to shoehorn standards that don’t apply.  Does your company spend more time arguing about the validity of the analysis than the implications? Part of the problem is how the data is accumulated – by hand in a manner that isn’t timely.  How can accounting obtain efficiencies – by eliminating spreadsheet solutions wherever possible and integrating solutions into the existing ERP system, so the data is always current, redundant keystrokes are eliminated and time spent creating data is spent analyzing data.  At B2BCFO, we excel at implementing the right size accounting systems.  Our Quickbooks background vastly improves our efficiency for companies below $50 million in sales.  By properly implementing the systems that most companies have already purchased and by training the staff in how to use those tools, information quality and flow increase significantly.  Larger organizations, as large as Unilever Europe, outsource their Finance and Administrative functions.  With B2BCFO, mid-sized companies can obtain the same efficiencies.

Why B2BCFO?  Because we are value integrators who first improve the efficiency of the financial information by cleaning the data, eliminating redundancies, putting information on line, and creating standards “The path toward efficiency often starts with a common baseline understanding of the scope of activities and services that Finance delivers, as well as the resources and costs that the function consumes. This enables the identification and prioritization of short-term, mid-term and long-term opportunities that delineate a Finance vision and the business case and implementation plan needed to gain the buy-in to proceed with a transformation program.”  When the information is good, the B2BCFO takes the “opportunity to implement key measures and balanced scorecards and use them to drive the right behaviors across the enterprise. These measures become the thread that binds the strategic, portfolio and operational planning cycles. Developing the right targets and closing performance gaps with speed and dexterity help ensure that the business as a whole is continually executing against its strategy.” Each B2BCFO has at least 25 years of experience in a variety of organizations.  This breadth of knowledge enables the B2BCFO to provide insights beyond those with single industry experience.  Each B2BCFO can draw on the experience of over 160 fellow partners to provide perspective and insight beyond what a single individual can provide.  Shouldn’t you hire a B2BCFO partner so you can have a “Value Integrator” of your own.  It is your first step to world class performance results.