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Module 1: Embed finance across the company5 Lessons
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Module 2: Identify profit and cash initiatives7 Lessons
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Module 3: Oversee and drive business change13 Lessons
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Module 4: Deliver data-driven strategic insights6 Lessons
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Module 5: Challenge your Board and influence strategy9 Lessons
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Module 6: Drive key decision-making11 Lessons
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Module 7: Represent your business externally6 Lessons
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Module 8: Become a critical and influential voice5 Lessons
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Module 9: Deliver the business plan7 Lessons
The CFO’s role in delivering the business plan
Dan Wells October 11, 2023
CFOs play an essential part in the formation and documentation of your strategy. This needs to be clearly documented along with your financial plan to ensure that each milestone has been clearly defined and everybody knows their role in delivering the plan.
As the co-pilot to the CEO, one of your most important roles is to deliver the company’s business plan. This is your opportunity to work alongside your CEO to put the plan into place and deliver each of the strategic objectives.
During this lesson, we discuss the CFO’s role in delivering the business plan and provide you with techniques to help implement it effectively to achieve each of your strategic objectives within the specified timelines.
Documenting the business plan
Having worked closely to create your long-term strategy, the CFO is responsible for turning this into a well-documented business plan, alongside an accompanying financial plan.
Your business plan needs to contain the following features:
- Well-documented strategic objectives
- Clearly defined KPIs and significant milestones
- Allocated responsibilities to individuals and teams
- Targets to be delivered throughout each time period
- Performance data to track against each target
By documenting and communicating these features for each strategic objective, the CFO will be well-placed to ensure that everybody knows their exact role in delivering the plan.
Delivering the business plan
Your next task is to work with your CEO to deliver each objective of the business plan. This will involve allocating resources, setting timelines, and ensuring that teams have the necessary skills to complete their tasks.
Throughout the delivery process, it is important to monitor progress against each target and performance metric. This will help you to identify any areas where there may be slippage and take corrective action accordingly.
It is also worth noting that the business plan should be a dynamic document, subject to regular review and update in light of changes in the external environment or internal circumstances.
As such, it is important that the CFO remains involved in its upkeep throughout each year, ensuring that it continues to reflect the company’s ever-changing needs.
By following these steps, the CFO can play an instrumental role in delivering the business plan and ensuring that each strategic objective is achieved within the specified timeframe.
Summary
The CFO’s role in delivering the business plan is essential to its success. By documenting and communicating the objectives, milestones, and performance data associated with each strategic goal, the CFO ensures that everyone knows their part in achieving the company’s targets. Additionally, by monitoring progress against each metric, you can identify potential areas of slippage and take corrective action as needed. Finally, since the business plan is a dynamic document subject to change over time, you should regularly review and update throughout each year to keep it current.
