What Is a Chief Finance Officer?

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is the inevitable product of the development of the corporate governance structure to a new stage. A governance structure without a CFO is not a perfect governance structure in the modern sense. From this perspective, China should also establish CFOs and other positions when constructing its governance structure.

CFO

(Chief Financial Officer (CFO))

In the rapidly changing market environment, in the process of increasingly fierce competition and the transformation of enterprises to modernization and groupization, entrepreneurs are thinking more deeply: how to maximize the use of corporate resources, information and financial management and control methods, so that shareholder value can be sustained Growth, organizational capabilities can be continuously optimized, corporate risk governance can meet demand, and enterprise development is invincible.
All of this determines that the transformation of the financial management system in the current environment is imminent. Resources, information and control methods are not related to financial management. Financial management has become the core of business management. To establish a business model suitable for the development of an enterprise, the construction and transformation of a financial management system is crucial. While entrepreneurs seek help from the financial director, they also put forward higher requirements on the ability of the financial director. As the chief financial officer, are you thinking the same way as entrepreneurs?

Under the modern business environment and modern corporate governance system, the Financial Directors' Seminar explores the responsibilities and positioning of the financial directors in an all-round way, builds a financial management system that adapts to the business model of the company, closely integrates the company's strategic planning, and deeply integrates the business operation model of the company. In the new environment, how does finance change from a simple "counter" to a "business analyst" and "future forecaster", from a passive "financial steward" to a "strategic manager" and "future manager" Planners "; it also illustrates how the mission and functions of the chief financial officer should be structured and realized during this transition.

Mission and functions of the chief financial officer Corporate strategic planning and financial strategy Undertake financial management report and analysis system to provide decision support Plan future comprehensive budget management system Full value chain working capital management system Comprehensive risk management system Enterprise investment M & A value management Create value Tax Management Leadership and Organizational Capabilities of the Financial Controller Financial Director's Team Building Planning and Capability Development Financial Director Capabilities Practical Exercises

In order to conform to the trend of world economic integration and conform to the international vocational qualification standard system, the June 13, 1999 Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening Education Reform and Comprehensively Promoting Quality Education states: A certificate-based system. " The Sino-British project was first carried out by the National Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (formerly the Ministry of Labor and Social Security) in the training and identification of financial management talents in China, (approval document No. [2003] No. 343, The registration number of the certificate is Lao Zi Zi [2003] No. 003), which achieves the integration of Chinese financial management with international advanced professional qualification standards, trains our financial personnel in accordance with international advanced professional qualification standards, and conducts qualification evaluation and certification in accordance with international advanced qualification assessment methods. In order to provide enterprises with qualified senior financial managers with international working ability and knowledge ability, to improve the competitiveness of China's financial managers as a whole, mainly to train high-end financial management talents.

In the 1980s, CFOs first appeared in the United States, but their effect was not obvious.

In the 1990s, CFOs were in a transition period and faced unprecedented challenges.

1. The strength of institutional investors makes CFO the company's center of communication with shareholders.

2. The earth has become a village. Economic globalization has led to the globalization of company production and operation, logistics systems, cash management, and capital operations.

3. The advancement of IT technology has improved the efficiency of financial management and made financial outsourcing services and centralized services popular.

4. The economic growth of developed countries has slowed down, and emerging markets are full of energy. What is the company's new strategy?

The 21st century is a period when CFOs are fully functioning. The latest survey of US institutional investors shows that 62.5% of respondents believe that CFO is as important as CEO and chairman.

At present, there is no clear and authoritative explanation for this in China, and there is no unified understanding in the theoretical world. The financial controller of the company performs the owner's financial function. In theory, any company can set up a financial director, because this is the need for the owner of the company to solve the "internal control" problem and supervise the company's financial accounting activities. Therefore, the chief financial officer must be determined by the owner or owner's representative of the business.

From the perspective of professional quality, corporate financial management is a highly professional job. A large number of businesses need to use professional knowledge to make judgments. It is impossible to complete this job without systematic financial, accounting, and auditing knowledge. In addition, you must also master corporate planning, value chain management, products, and human resources. In the financial work process, a lot of economic and legal matters will also be involved. These have put new requirements on the CFO, and financial expertise alone is far from being a professional CFO. In addition to being an integrated manager of corporate finance, like any other manager, it must have comprehensive management capabilities.

The chief financial officer must not only monitor the legality, authenticity, and effectiveness of the company's financial activities, but also monitor the compliance, authenticity, comparability, consistency, etc. of the company's accounting, because the financial results of the accounting Obviously it is closely related to the interests of business owners. In addition, although the chief function of the chief financial officer is financial supervision, supervision is always contained in management. When the chief financial officer exercises the supervision function of a series of financial activities such as fundraising, investment, capital utilization, and consumption of an enterprise, he must always cooperate with Financial planning, cost control, accounting, financial analysis, and many other financial and accounting specific organizational management tasks are closely integrated, so the financial director must also have certain management functions. Therefore, in a general sense, the chief financial officer is the senior manager who is determined by the owner of the enterprise or the representatives of all owners and reflects the owner's will and is fully responsible for the overall supervision and management of the financial and accounting activities of the enterprise.

How to Generate the Group Chief Financial Officer

Since the chief financial officer of an enterprise is determined by the owner or owner's representative of the enterprise, for an enterprise group, any chief financial officer determined by the owner or owner's representative of an enterprise group can theoretically be established . Enterprise groups can be divided into state-owned enterprise groups (including state-owned holdings) and non-state-owned enterprise groups by economic nature. According to the degree of equity concentration, they can be divided into equity-concentrated enterprise groups and equity-decentralized enterprise groups. Obviously, state-owned enterprise groups belong to equity concentration Business group. For a stock-intensive enterprise group, its board of directors is controlled by major shareholders. Whether a corporate group has a chief financial officer or not is determined by the major shareholder and the board of directors. No shareholder has complete control over the board. In this case, whether the corporate group has a chief financial officer can only be determined by the board of directors of the corporate group.

Some people have argued that the chief financial officer of an equity-intensive enterprise group should also implement the appointment system of the board of directors instead of the appointment system of the property rights department. The author believes that the implementation of the appointment system is more conducive to improving the effectiveness of financial supervision, reducing the cost of financial supervision, and more conducive to safeguarding and protecting the rights and interests of owners.

Relationship between the Group Chief Financial Officer and the Board, General Manager and Chief Accountant

For decentralized enterprise groups, the relationship between the financial director of the group company and the board of directors is relatively clear, that is, the financial director is determined and appointed by the board of directors. Since the chief financial officer can be appointed by the property rights department, what is the relationship between it and the board of directors? This issue should be examined in conjunction with the authority of the board of directors.

According to the provisions of the Company Law on the powers of the board of directors, the financial powers of the board of directors include: (1) determining the company's business plan and investment plan; (2) formulating the company's annual financial budget plan and final account plan; (3) formulating the company (4) Formulate plans for the company to increase or decrease its registered capital. In order for the board of directors to successfully perform these functions, it is obviously inseparable from the cooperation and support of the chief financial officer. In this way, the board of directors must exercise leadership in the daily work of the chief financial officer; . In practice, for the convenience of work, the property rights department usually recommends the chief financial officer to the board of directors when appointing the chief financial officer.

The relationship between the chief financial officer and the general manager is closely related to whether the group company has a chief accountant. The chief accountant is responsible to the general manager as a member of the operating team, while the chief financial officer is generally responsible to the property rights department or the chairman as a member of the board of directors, both of whom are their own. The chief financial officer and the general manager are both leaders of the board of directors, and there is no relationship between the two leaders.

Although the chief accountant and the chief financial officer have different service targets, the scope and content of their work are mainly in the fields of finance and accounting. They have many similarities, but they have different focuses on working methods and work priorities. The chief accountant focuses on financial management and accounting, while the chief financial officer focuses on financial supervision and financial auditing. At present, some companies and enterprise groups combine the chief financial officer and chief accountant into one, and only have the position of chief financial officer, so that the chief financial officer also has a "dual identity" serving both the owner and the operator. In such cases, the chief financial officer is often nominated by the general manager, determined and appointed by the board.

The quality of a financial director

(A) basic literacy

1. physical fitness. That is, a qualified financial controller should have a healthy physique. This is a prerequisite for being able to fulfil the functions of the job and fulfill its role.

2. Morality. The good ideological and moral qualities of the chief financial officer are the inherent guarantee for the performance of his duties. First of all, integrity and decent work style; second, good professionalism. Professionalism comes from good life goals, character and personality. The chief financial officer should love his job and see it as a need and the realization of self-worth. Loyal to the business again. Loyalty is the personality basis of the chief financial officer. The chief financial officer executes the orders of the superior without hesitation, personal obedience to the team, and corporate interests come first.

3 Psychological quality. The financial director should have good psychological qualities, be brave enough to take responsibility, be able to withstand various pressures, and properly handle various crisis conflicts. The finance director must maintain a normal mindset. The usual mentality is the professional mind of the financial director. The chief financial officer means to take the lead and strictly enforce laws and regulations, not blindness for colorlessness, and not being deaf because of the five tones. This requires the chief financial officer not only to become an ascetic, but also to have an ascetic mentality.

(Two) professional skills

1. Mastery and application of professional knowledge. First, you must have knowledge of micro and macro economics. This knowledge gives the chief financial officer a correct way of thinking, grasps national policies, and analyzes the economic environment, so that he can better grasp the impact of the economic situation on business operations. Secondly, you must be proficient in financial accounting, financial regulations and other professional knowledge, which is the basis and technical platform for the financial director to carry out work; and company policies, corporate accounting standards and other national policies and regulations are the basis for corporate financial directors to carry out their work.

Third, we must also be proficient in marginal knowledge in finance, trade, law and management, sociology, psychology, and information technology. This is the handy and full-fledged wings of the chief financial officer.

2. Has rich work experience. The chief financial officer should be someone who has accumulated rich experience in other enterprises and can play a role immediately in the workplace. Continuously innovating management experience, increasingly complete configuration models, and introducing new operating methods are all summaries of work experience.

The professional ability of the financial director

(A) analysis and judgment ability

An important function of corporate finance is to control risks and make risk-benefit tradeoffs. The chief financial officer must have a keen sense of political smell and analytical judgment to control the risks of the enterprise within a certain range. Externally, the chief financial officer should have the ability to analyze and judge the development trend of the overall national economy and changes in the market environment, and make financial decision recommendations for enterprises based on financial opportunities and financial risks in the market. Internally, the chief financial officer should have the professional judgment of accounting policies, and should find out the existing problems and propose solutions from various financial activities of the enterprise.

(II) Communication and coordination ability

The work of the chief financial officer determines that he has to deal with everyone in the company, and often communicates, communicates, and coordinates with shareholders, creditors and other stakeholders outside the company. Therefore, the chief financial officer needs to have good interpersonal communication skills and good coordination. Interest relations among various interest groups.

1. Ability to coordinate relationships with government agencies. It is mainly the ability to properly handle relations with the finance and tax authorities. The chief financial officer should take the initiative to communicate with government functional departments to understand the government's macroeconomic policy developments, so that enterprises can grasp the preferential policies and make countermeasures against policies that are not conducive to the survival and development of enterprises.

2. Ability to coordinate relationships with owners. The chief financial officer's goal is to maximize shareholder wealth, but the company belongs to shareholders. The financial management activities of the company are restricted by the owner's investment plan. Whether the owner accepts the proposal to change the investment plan depends on his trust in the financial director.

3 Ability to coordinate relationships with creditors. For enterprises to invest, the source of capital often requires external financing. Whether or not debt capital can be obtained is related to the development of the enterprise. The chief financial officer should have the ability to coordinate the relationship with creditors, maintain his own credit rating, and establish a good partnership with him.

4 Ability to coordinate relationships with internal departments. In the daily work, the financial director must coordinate the relationship with the accounting, purchasing, production, and sales departments, effectively communicate and communicate with others, reduce differences between them, and thus obtain the support of others and other departments. This is a direct relationship. To the effective play of its functions.

(3) Organizational Leadership

1. Organizational capabilities . Organizational ability is one of the important talents of the financial director. As the highest head of the corporate finance department, in order to obtain ideal social and economic benefits, the ability to effectively manage and control the managed person. It includes two levels of meaning: one is management. That is, familiar with various organizational forms, and good at using the power of the organization to coordinate all aspects of human, material and financial resources to achieve dynamic balance, so as to obtain the best social and economic benefits; the second is control. That is, effective control measures are adopted to enable the managed person to develop the movement in the specified direction according to the intention of the leader to achieve the desired effect.

2. Reform and innovation capabilities . The chief financial officer is the main promoter of corporate change. It is necessary to be able to discover new situations and new problems in a timely manner from the apparent calm, explore new ways, summarize new experiences, and put forward new ideas and new plans. In the entire field of finance, finance personnel attach great importance to innovation and believe that innovation can create more value. From the perspective of the entire enterprise, seeking development in reform and innovation makes the enterprise more dynamic and vital.

3 Team building ability . As the senior manager of an enterprise, the chief financial officer should have the ability to cultivate a sense of collective honor among the employees of the enterprise. The chief financial officer should have a team spirit, turn the subordinate organization into a strong cohesive and combative group, realize the decision of the group goals, and lead them to complete the established tasks and the work required by the highest decision-making level of the enterprise. The chief financial officer should proceed from the overall strategy of the enterprise, organize and coordinate various relationships between the finance and production, marketing and other departments impartially, form a joint force, and achieve effective management of internal accounting control.

4 Implement internal control capabilities. The chief financial officer should undertake the establishment of the internal standardization system of the enterprise, and control the key links and positions such as the most sensitive fund raising, utilization, investment, and withdrawal. To carry out financial supervision and inspection in the work, to find deviations, to find out the reasons, and to take effective measures in a timely manner, the director of finance must have a high degree of organizational control. Only in this way can the entire enterprise operate methodically and efficiently.

(4) Ability to participate in decision-making

1. Decision-making capacity. Decision-making ability is derived from profound knowledge and rich practice, and is an organic combination of various comprehensive skills such as personal literacy, cultural literacy, social and natural science knowledge, and direct and indirect experience. It is mainly manifested in three aspects; the ability to investigate and predict the future; the ability to find problems and propose goals; and the ability to judge. The chief financial officer will often participate in various decision-making activities of the company. His main responsibility is to be a good staff and provide advice and financial and financial support for the highest decision-making decisions. The financial director's ability to make decisions has dual meanings. On the one hand, it is a reflection of specific financial management work, and on the other hand, it helps the general manager and the board of directors to conduct business management requirements.

2. expression ability. Expressiveness is an important ability of the chief financial officer and a basic skill. Especially when the chief financial officer refutes the decision of the general manager, he needs super expressive ability to persuade the members of the board of directors so that the board of directors can support his decision. At some international CFO summits, those who are fluent in eloquence are mostly CFOs of foreign companies, while China's CFOs are more reticent. Whether it is language skills or written skills, these two aspects are indispensable for the financial director.

(5) The ability to use people and develop people

As the head of a department of the company, the chief financial officer must effectively cultivate and use backbones. "People do their best to make the best use of them." With the help of backbones, they become their own hands, legs, ears, and ears. The extension of the brain changes the wisdom and talents of each individual into the collective wisdom and talents, thereby driving the smooth development of the entire financial work. At the same time, it is necessary to appropriately decentralize and let subordinates take charge of part of the work so that they "do their best and perform their respective duties", and can take effective control measures to implement "remote control" of their behavior direction and effect, so that they are free from tedious Free from fragmentary and specific affairs, and concentrate on considering and doing a good job in overall strategic decision-making.

(6) Learning ability

Today is an era of information explosion, the freshness period of knowledge is getting shorter, the timeliness of diplomas is getting worse, and new knowledge is emerging more and more. The financial director always deals with the latest trends, finds a smooth road in the arduous trek, and splits the path of maximizing the benefits at the edge of the policy. This professional life-and-death game is increasingly demanding on personal knowledge and skills. The ignorant "Mr. Account House" cannot adapt to the changing economic environment. Enterprises are facing a rapidly changing world, and new things are emerging endlessly. Therefore, it is very important for the financial director to have the ability to learn and accept new things. Only by establishing the concept of lifelong learning, constantly learning new knowledge, mastering new skills, and increasing his own Only with gold content can we keep up with the trend of the times, stand in an invincible position, and move towards the international stage of the chief financial officer.

Economic development is calling for a large number of finance directors to appear on the stage. With the international capital flow and the development trend of world economic integration, the functional position of the chief financial officer and the effective connection between corporate development strategy and finance have been increasingly valued. He has an international vision, accounting, finance, finance, marketing, Management, social relations and other multi-disciplinary knowledge background, good professional ethics and strong organizational coordination ability are gradually becoming the basic requirements of an excellent financial director in today's society.

Duties and authority of the financial controller

To give full play to the role of the chief financial officer, it is necessary to scientifically and clearly define and standardize the duties and authority of the chief financial officer. On the premise of ensuring that the financial director's work goals are achieved, it is not possible to blindly expand the powers of the financial director, and at the same time, care must be taken to prevent the financial director from being responsible or not. Under the condition that an enterprise group independently establishes a chief financial officer (ie, separate from the chief accountant), its main powers and responsibilities should include:

1. Review the important financial statements and reports of the group company, and be responsible for the quality of the financial statements and reports with the general manager of the group company;

2. Participate in the review of the group company's financial management regulations and other economic management systems, and supervise and inspect the group's subsidiaries' financial operations and fund revenue and expenditure;

3. Jointly approve the business, financing, investment, fixed asset purchase and construction expenses and remittances of overseas funds and guaranteed loans with the group company general manager within the prescribed limits;

4. Participate in reviewing major financial decisions of group companies, including reviewing group company financial budgets and final accounts, reviewing major operating, investment, and financing plans and contracts of group companies, as well as asset restructuring and debt restructuring programs, and participating in formulating group company profits Distribution plan and compensation plan;

5. To supervise the implementation of major business plans and programs of the group company approved by the board of directors;

6. Check the legality, authenticity and validity of the group company's financial and accounting activities and related business activities in accordance with the law, timely discover and stop violations of national financial laws and regulations and business activities that may cause significant losses to investors, and report to the board of directors;

7. Organize various audits of the group company, including internal audit and annual statement audit of the group company and its subsidiaries;

8. Examine and approve the appointment, removal, promotion, transfer, reward and punishment of the heads of the financial, accounting and auditing institutions of the group company and its subsidiaries in accordance with the law.

The above eight rights and responsibilities are regulated from the pre-, inter- and post-monitoring of the financial activities of the group company, and the control of the system, funds, and personnel of the group company's financial activities is also clear. But in order to ensure that the group company's chief financial officer fulfills these eight rights and responsibilities, it must also clarify its economic and legal responsibilities. These responsibilities include: (1) Responsibility for the authenticity of the reported financial statements and reports of the group company and the general manager; (2) Responsibility for the economic losses caused by the group company's financial management confusion and financial decision errors Responsibilities; (3) Responsible for economic losses caused by mistakes in decision-making of major investment projects of the group company; (4) Responsible for serious violations of the law of financial brokerage by the group company.

In the case where the group company's chief financial officer and chief accountant have not been separated, in addition to performing the above eight powers and responsibilities and undertaking the above four economic and legal responsibilities, the chief financial officer should also perform the corresponding powers and responsibilities in accordance with the Regulations of the Chief Accountant issued by the State Council. Take corresponding responsibility.

Problems in the Operation of the Group Chief Financial Officer System

It has been more than five years since the company's chief financial officer system has been operating in Shenzhen since 1995. Since then, other provinces and cities have also tried it out. It should be said that this system has played a very good role in strengthening the financial supervision and management of enterprise groups and improving the economic benefits of enterprises. However, during the operation of this system, the following problems also exist:

1. The position is not in place . As mentioned earlier, the company's chief financial officer should be a senior executive who fully reflects the owner's will to supervise and manage the company's financial and accounting activities. However, in practice, the chief financial officer is often confused with positions such as the manager of the financial department and the chief accounting officer. The consequences of not having the job in place will not only confuse the nature of the chief financial officer and reduce the status of the chief financial officer, but also have a very adverse impact on the establishment, soundness, standardization and implementation of the chief financial officer system in China.

2, power and responsibility are not in place . As the "financial role" of the financial director, its powers and responsibilities cannot naturally be the same as those of the financial director in the true sense. Even some financial directors, as determined by the property rights representative or the board of directors, often have deviations in their responsibilities in actual operation. If it is proposed that the financial director should exercise economic supervision over the general manager of the enterprise, he has the right to take measures to stop the general manager of the company from abusing his powers and making mistakes in decision-making; In the sense, the supervision of the chief financial officer is far from the management activities.

3. Quality is not in place . As the high-level financial supervision and management personnel of an enterprise, the chief financial officer must inevitably require high professional quality and ideological quality. In accordance with Shenzhen's practice, in addition to the political, ideological, physical, and age requirements for the appointment of the chief financial officer of the enterprise, specific qualifications for academic qualifications, professional titles, professional work experience, and actual performance are also specified according to the enterprise classification. However, some places have low requirements for quality, which has affected the role of the financial director team.

4. The system is not in place . So far, the state has not issued a general guideline on the status, powers, and qualifications of the chief financial officer similar to the "Chief Accountant Regulations", which has led to the recognition and operation of the appointment of chief financial officers by state-owned enterprises in various places. They are not consistent, which is also a very important reason for the above three "not in place".

To give full play to the role of the chief financial officer in the operation of the business, the role of the chief financial officer must be clear. The specific functions of the financial director in the enterprise can be divided into two categories.

Case 1: The role of the chief financial officer in a state-controlled company [2]

The chief financial officer is a senior manager of the company who is employed by the ownership representative to manage and supervise the company's financial and accounting activities. The chief financial officer is an important member of the company's operating management, and at the same time shoulders the responsibility of monitoring the entire process of the company's financial operations. From the perspective of corporate governance, the chief financial officer supervises the operator on behalf of the owner, mainly performing supervision duties; and as the main person in charge of the corporate financial accounting system, the chief financial officer must also participate in and lead the management and control system of the enterprise at all times. In order to achieve the value-added services of corporate assets. Specifically, the role of the financial controller of a state-owned holding company includes the following.

Ensuring the safety of state-owned assets and avoiding asset loss

The chief financial officer is the chief executive of the state's implementation of the appointment of chief financial officer to strengthen financial supervision of state-owned enterprises. As the main owner of a state-owned enterprise, the state exercises the rights of shareholders of the state-owned enterprise and appoints the chief financial officer to represent the interests of the owner. Through the financial director's supervision of the company's finances, the owner's financial constraints on the operator are strengthened, so that all the decision-making and management activities of the operator are in the owner's interest. Prior to the establishment of the chief financial officer, the power of some legal representatives was too concentrated and the lack of restraint mechanisms led to many amazing cases of loss of state-owned assets. The establishment of the chief financial officer strengthened internal control, protected the safety and integrity of state-owned assets, and guaranteed the preservation and appreciation of state-owned assets. In specific work, the chief financial officer has strictly controlled loans and guarantees, cleared internal borrowings, and reduced financial risks. The chief financial officer approved new investment projects, changed the past phenomenon of overinvestment and random investment, and reduced scientific and rigorous investment arguments. In addition, investment risks have also increased significantly. At the same time, the return on investment has also increased significantly. The chief financial officer strictly controls corporate expenses according to the needs of the company's financial plan and actual operations, and eliminates unreasonable expenditure items. The joint signing has implemented effective monitoring of corporate financial operations to prevent significant waste and losses caused by improper fundraising and use, and strengthened management constraints on operators.

Improve the quality of accounting information in state-owned enterprises

(1) Guarantee the authenticity of accounting information. The implementation of a financial system jointly financed by the chief financial officer and general manager and jointly signed by the chief financial officer and general manager of state-owned enterprises' financial activities has greatly improved the credibility of accounting statements and annual accounts, and curbed the distortion of accounting information. The chief financial officer is responsible for the truthfulness of the important financial reports disclosed by the company through joint review and joint signing of the company's accounting statements, shares responsibility with the operator, effectively eliminates falsely reported accounting information, improves the truthfulness of accounting information, and holds assets for all assets. And other report users provide a reliable basis for decision-making. Through guidance and supervision, the chief financial officer is conducive to improving the basic work of corporate accounting, urging accountants to better perform their accounting duties, and strengthening the daily supervision of corporate operating activities. It can timely detect and correct improper and illegal situations in corporate financial accounting. It provides a favorable guarantee for the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of accounting information, and is conducive to managing the problem of distortion of accounting information from the source.

(2) Improving the timeliness of accounting information disclosure. At present, the disclosure of accounting information of state-owned enterprises has a serious lag. Even if there is no artificial delay in the disclosure of information, except for listed companies that disclose intermediate reports, annual reports and quarterly reports every year, general state-owned enterprises only provide accounting statements once a year. The information provided on the operation status of the company is very limited, it is difficult for external information users to understand the actual situation of the business operation, and it is difficult for the owner to discover the illegal acts of insiders, even after the disclosure of the accounting statements, This lagging supervision has lost economic significance to some owners and lost good investment opportunities. The chief financial officer is at the management level of the company. He is very familiar with the financial plans and important investment decisions made by the company. At the same time, he can supervise the company's financial status and the generation and disclosure of accounting information at any time, and timely report violations to relevant departments. Therefore, the chief financial officer Enables owners to quickly obtain information on state-owned enterprises.

Improve corporate management

The selection of the financial director must meet the relevant regulations, and the quality of the individual is also very high. On the one hand, the chief financial officer must be a professional in financial management who can be very familiar with the company's daily financial activities and implement effective control over the company's finances; on the other hand, the chief financial officer must have a high management ability and be familiar with the company's production, sales, Only with the knowledge of manpower assessment can we truly monitor the whole process of the company's business. Therefore, the chief financial officer's participation in the management and decision-making of the enterprise will help the company avoid making mistakes in decision-making, cultivate the awareness of financial management, and improve the financial management level of the enterprise. The chief financial officer can use his professional knowledge to help companies standardize accounting work, establish and improve corporate financial management systems, strengthen training of accounting staff, participate in forecasting and decision-making activities in the business process of the enterprise, make suggestions for enterprises, and open up markets to seek new profits. growth point. The role of the chief financial officer is not only supervision, but also the organic unification of supervision and management. It serves on behalf of the owner's rights and interests to maximize the owner's interests.

Strengthen supervision of enterprises

In the past, due to weak monitoring and lagging, insiders' use of information asymmetry and personal rights for personal gains have caused huge economic losses to owners. As a user of external information, it is difficult to obtain sufficient information, and rarely has the ability to return the packaged accounting information disclosed by the enterprise to its true situation, so it is very difficult to implement effective external supervision of the company's operations; Due to the lag of supervision, even if the insider's illegal behavior is confirmed, it has caused irreparable economic losses to the owner. The chief financial officer, as the representative of the owner, is stationed in the enterprise and has the mission to exercise supervision power on behalf of the owner. It is an effective way to solve the problem of absence of supervision by the owner of the state-owned enterprise. The financial director who is deeply in the enterprise can timely discover the illegal activities in the enterprise and avoid internal fraud to bring greater losses to the enterprise.

As the CFO's functions have changed and its role has increased, their income has also changed dramatically. According to the US "CFO" magazine, under normal circumstances, the company's stock options enjoyed by the CFO is almost equal to the CEO. In the United States, the compensation composition of CEOs of large companies with a value of more than 10 billion US dollars is roughly: basic annual salary accounts for 17%, bonus accounts for 11%, benefit plans account for 7%, and stock option-based long-term incentive plans account for 65%. %. The average stock returns of the 50 highest paid US presidents in 1999 accounted for 94.92% of total compensation. In 2000, 87% of the salaries of CEOs of many large Internet companies were replaced by equity. In some people's view, the CEO in the true sense is the symbol of human capital on the historical stage, which has epoch-making significance. So let the CEO, CFO hold

The relationship between employees and checks and balances is the most important institutional relationship in corporate governance. If the chairman and general manager are all-rounders and can handle many businesses, there is no need to have other professional deputies or department heads. To play the role of the CFO in corporate governance and business operations, it is necessary to reasonably define the terms of reference of the CEO and the CFO, and require the chairman and the CEO to respect the boundaries of the CFO's rights. In a rapidly changing economy and society, and in a complex business environment, CEOs do nt have to do everything by themselves. They should give full play to the expertise of various professionals, empower them with due power, trust their capabilities, and give play to their expertise Respect their boundaries of rights and lay down their responsibilities.

How can CFOs be qualified

The chief financial officer is a symbol of the success of financial personnel in their careers, which not only means high positions and high salaries, but also has always been a hot item in the talent market. Many finance and accounting staff have CFOs as their career development goals. So how does a modern finance person become a qualified financial director? Is there a fast and effective training method? In this regard, this newspaper had an exclusive interview with Zhang Zhengfu, the person in charge of 3C advanced application financial training who specializes in financial personnel training.

Two capabilities that CFOs cannot ignore

The head of the corporate finance department is often called the chief financial officer internationally. The chief financial officer shall comprehensively manage and lead the financial work of the enterprise, provide a rational basis for decision-making for the profit of the enterprise, and bear the main responsibility for the financial work of the enterprise. As a senior talent in the financial field, what comprehensive qualities must the CFO have? With many years of experience in senior financial management and training, Zhang Zhengfu said that the ability to manage and lead financial work, social resource advantages and professionalism are the necessary comprehensive qualities for financial directors.

CFO must be good at 11 management skills

That is: the ability to build financial organizations, the ability to build internal controls, the ability to raise funds, the ability to analyze investment decisions and management, the ability to tax planning, the ability to budget,

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as a very important senior management position in the enterprise, is an indispensable role interspersed between financial markets and value management. They stand between shareholders and operators and are one of the company's important strategic decision-makers and executives. In the modern sense, the chief financial officer (CFO) must have a super-learning ability to take on the corresponding responsibilities. It is necessary to break through the traditional financial perspective and examine financial and accounting issues from a strategic perspective; understand the knowledge of corporate governance, capital operations, and other means of operation; effectively control and prevent corporate risks; Information; in-depth understanding of relevant international rules and lessons learned from international companies.

This course not only has rich financial knowledge, but also focuses on the characteristics of the future financial director's work, combining many financial courses and strategic macro courses, so that the future financial director is not only a financial expert, but also a financial expert and strategic decision maker. The financial director we train is no longer just a financial management staff, we train decision makers in corporate strategy. This course will make you a gorgeous turn from a finance person to a strategic decision maker!

The understanding of CFOs by many people in China and some companies is actually inaccurate, at least not comprehensive. Only listed companies in the United States have a CFO. Many CFOs do not specialize in finance. The Finance Department is just a department they are responsible for. It is the most basic task; the key to its value is to play a leading role in strategy.

CFO has three main tasks:

One is to carry out strategic-level operations through financial means. If the work is excellent, the value added by the company will be more than the value created by business operations;

Second, it is to sell the company like sales, to sell the company to investors, and the people who really determine the fate of a listed company are fund managers and large institutional investors, so investor relations are a very important issue for CFOs;

3. Implement the company's strategy with the lowest cost through mergers and acquisitions;

From this, we can judge the criteria of an excellent CFO: independent judgment, strong business sense, thorough understanding of the business, easy operation in the capital market, and strategic vision.