Insights and advice on CFO recruitment and executive finance careers
119 articles
CEOs of owner-managed and mid-sized companies are often very knowledgeable and focused on functions like sales, operations, logistics, engineering, customer service etc. Which makes sense because those functions are highly visible and obviously crucial to the overall success of the enterprise. In addition, it’s probable that the CEO built their career in one or more [...]
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In a previous post, I directed interested parties to an assessment tool so that they could benchmark their accounting function against a defined set of metrics. If you missed that post and are interested in using that assessment tool, here’s the link to the survey: https://www.osbornefinancialsearch.com/accounting-finance-performance-evaluation/. If you’re interested in a more seat-of-your-pants snapshot of [...]
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Executive search is, at its heart, a service business – you’re paying for the specialized knowledge, experience, and skill of the recruiter you’re hiring. It’s not unlike hiring a lawyer, architect, or accountant. It’s also an information management business. Thanks to LinkedIn, Facebook and other web-based research tools, executive search firms have access to pretty [...]
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My practice specializes in recruiting CFOs for owner-managed businesses. And for the majority of the searches I conduct, the title CFO usually translates as either VP Finance or Director of Finance. But sometimes an owner-managed company doesn’t need the horsepower a VP Finance or Director of Finance brings to the table. Sometimes all an owner-manager [...]
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Any finance executive who’s had experience with large corporations and who’s also worked for an owner-managed company will tell you that they are two very different things. The scale is smaller, management styles are different, support systems often much more ad-hoc – the list goes on. These differences are important to acknowledge because recognizing these [...]
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People who post positions on sites like LinkedIn tend to fall into two camps. Those who expect their posting will result in a selection of qualified candidates and those who post the job hoping against hope that they’re going to luck out. The people in the first camp tend not to have a lot of [...]
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Understanding the Role of a CFO Hiring your first Chief Financial Officer is a pivotal moment for your business, especially if you’re an owner-manager who’s built the company from the ground up. Most of the owner-managers I’ve worked with over the years come from backgrounds in sales, operations, or engineering—not finance. This lack of financial [...]
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There’s an old saying that goes: “Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” That line could also apply to recessions except that unlike the weather, there is something you can do about a recession to mitigate the negative impact it could have on your company. And a good CFO can go [...]
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There’s a very common arc to the story of how most owner-managers come to decide to hire their first CFO. Accounting 101 Pretty much all big businesses start out as small businesses. And pretty much every owner-manager I’ve ever met knew exactly what was going on in every aspect of their business back in the [...]
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My practice specializes in recruiting for the top financial position for Canadian, mid-market, primarily owner-managed companies. I work with companies as small as $5MM in revenue and companies as large as $300MM in revenue. If I had to pick the sweet spot of my market, where more than 70% of my searches come from, it’s [...]
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The career path to owner-manager typically follows one of three arcs. They have a background in sales, they have a background in operations/engineering, or they were born into the business. The path almost no owner-manager follows to owning their own business is finance and accounting. And since pretty much all businesses start out as small [...]
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Let’s imagine that you’re the CFO of a largish, successful, auto parts manufacturer located somewhere in Markham. You’ve recently done a bit of reorganization and you need to hire a controller for one of your divisions. You spec out the job and decide that you need to hire someone with a CPA, preferably from the [...]
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Every now and again I’ll have a finance executive ring me up and ask me to find them a new position when they’ve only been with their current employer for a matter of six or eight months. They’re almost always well-regarded professionals who’ve never precipitously jumped ship before. When I ask why they want to [...]
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Job Description: Solve My Problem Take a look at the various CFO job descriptions you see on LinkedIn. There may be a couple that tell a good story about the company and give a nuanced description of the position and the challenges involved, but for the most part, CFO job descriptions are fairly generic. They [...]
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If you’re an owner-manager who needs to recruit a CFO, it will most likely be for one of these three reasons: You already have a CFO and that person has just resigned. You have a CFO that you’re dissatisfied with and want to replace. You’re hiring your first ever CFO. Btw, I want to clarify [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I like to think that I’m a pretty well-qualified financial executive. I’ve got an MBA, I’m a CPA CMA and I’ve been a very successful VP Finance / CFO in three different companies over the past fifteen years. My resume shows that I’ve progressed through a number of challenging [...]
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I have a very specialized practice recruiting CFOs for small and mid-sized Canadian companies. The majority of my clients are owner-managed, and the revenue range of my client base tends to fall between $25 million and $250 million. Recruiting a CFO for a $75 million owner-managed company is different than recruiting one for a $750 [...]
Read More →If you are fortunate enough to own a company with revenues of $250 million, you may have issues with your CFO but you’re not struggling with the question of whether or not you should hire a CFO. If you happen to own a company with revenues of $2.5 million, you’re not struggling with the decision on whether [...]
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Every big company used to be a small company. Some of the biggest names in business, Apple, Amazon, Disney and Harley Davidson (among others), literally started out in their founders’ garage. And as these companies evolved from start-ups to market disrupters to market dominators, their executive teams not only became larger but much more sophisticated [...]
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As an owner-manager, you should pose the question as What exactly should my controller do? What your controller actually does and what they should be doing may be somewhat different things. The complexity of any controller’s job is going to vary as a function of your company’s size and complexity. But generally speaking, the controller [...]
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Your Director of Finance quit a few weeks ago and you’ve done the usual referral/job posting dance and have come up short. So you decide to bite the bullet and hire a recruiter. And now the question is: what recruiter should you hire? How do you distinguish one recruitment firm from the other? After all, [...]
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Owner-managers who are thinking of either upgrading their head of finance or hiring a qualified professional to head up the accounting function for the first time often aren’t aware of the distinctions between the various titles associated with that position. Let’s say you’re an owner-manager attending a networking event full of industry peers who you [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m currently the CFO of a $150MM food processing company. I’ve been with my current employer for six years, and previously, I’ve had twenty years’ experience in various industries including food service and consumer goods distribution. I decided to start looking at the market for a new position a month [...]
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When you started the CFO recruitment process, you put a lot of thought into what you wanted to accomplish by hiring for this position. You identified the key issues, threats and opportunities your new CFO would be addressing, and you have a good idea of the challenges your business and your CFO will be facing [...]
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Recently, I was discussing SEO keywords with the head of the firm that handles my digital marketing. Gabriel mentioned that along with the keyword recruiter, the keyword headhunter was also very common in internet searches and asked me if there was any difference between a recruiter and a headhunter. My knee-jerk response was that there [...]
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Companies based in small towns located far from major population centres face unique difficulties in recruiting qualified people in general, and find it especially difficult to recruit qualified executives. The Only Game in Town In many cases, if the company in question is of any size, they’re the town’s biggest single employer and the neighbouring [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I was most recently CFO of a good-sized public telecommunications concern. I had been with the company for seven years, the last five of which as VP Finance. Two years ago, the company replaced the CEO, my boss, with another telecommunications executive recruited from outside the company. The new [...]
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A few months ago, I got a call from the CEO of a mid-sized manufacturing concern who needed to recruit a VP Finance. The incumbent had just handed in her notice, was leaving the firm in four weeks, and he was in a bit of a panic to replace her. This CEO wanted to meet [...]
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1. Recruiters When you were a bright, young, up-and-coming accounting professional, recruiters couldn’t get enough of you. If you were in public accounting, they started calling right after you passed the UFE. If you were in financial reporting, financial planning and analysis or audit in industry, head-hunters of all stripes were in frequent touch with [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I run a $100mm manufacturing business out in Mississauga. My CFO just quit and I need to find a replacement. Frankly, I’m not sorry to see this guy go, he never really added a lot of value other than keeping the accounting function going smoothly. He was with [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Controller for a Canadian, TSX listed, software company up in Markham. I’ve been recruiting for a Manager of Financial Reporting and we’re at the offer stage with one of the candidates that we’ve been interviewing. When we started interviewing this person (let’s call him Steve), we told [...]
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Once you’ve made the decision that you need a qualified professional to head up your finance function, the next decision is determining how much horsepower you actually need in your CFO. And in order to do that, you need to realistically assess not only how much technical horsepower is required to handle the job but [...]
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In the early days of the recruitment industry (which wasn’t all that long ago), it was easy to distinguish between the two very distinct types of recruitment firms – placement agencies and executive search firms. Placement agencies were used for hiring junior and clerical staff, and executive search firms were retained to recruit executives. As [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I run a $45mm CPG manufacturing company and we’ve been recruiting for a new VP Finance to replace the incumbent who’s about to retire. I posted the job on LinkedIn and have interviewed four people so far who’ve headed up finance departments in CPG companies. Of the four [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’ve recently been interviewing with a $100mm manufacturer for a newly created Vice President, Finance position. I started the process four months ago and have had six interviews so far. I’ve met the CEO, his executive team, his father and brother (the company is family owned), the firm’s public [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: Two weeks ago, I had the final of four interviews for a VP Finance role at a mid-sized public company. A few days later, the recruiter I was working with told me the company had gone with another candidate who was a “better fit”. Yesterday, the recruiter called again [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Vice President of Finance for a fairly large retail concern with stores across Canada. I recently promoted one of my divisional controllers into a regional Director of Finance role and I needed to backfill that position. Since I didn’t have anyone in my accounting group ready to [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m currently VP Finance of a mid-sized auto parts manufacturer with over twenty five years’ experience behind me. I wasn’t really on the job market but I was recently approached by a headhunter on a really interesting CFO position with a PE owned company in the auto parts industry [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the controller of an $800mm TSX listed company and my assistant controller is going on maternity leave for a year. Normally I’d hire a contractor to fill in for the duration, but the CFO has put a moratorium on any contract hiring. We’re already running pretty lean so [...]
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In a previous article (The Invisible Job Market for Financial Executives), I discussed the lack of protocol around recruiting a finance executive in the world of small and medium sized enterprises. However, SMEs do have one common theme when it comes to recruiting a CFO or vice president of finance – they tend to take [...]
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Hiring a top notch CFO, someone who will advance your company’s agenda and business objectives, requires strategic thinking on a number of fronts, not least of which is compensation. Not only will a well thought out compensation plan bring the best candidate to the table, it will align your CFO properly with your company’s interests. [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the VP Finance of a $300mm TSX listed software services firm. My Director of Financial Reporting resigned a couple of months ago and since have the bench to replace her from within, I needed to go outside the firm to recruit for this position. As I was considering [...]
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Companies going to market to recruit a financial executive can trip over any number of small snags. Recruiting an executive tends to be more complicated than most business endeavors due to the large human component involved in the transaction. Even after all the tangibles have been addressed, like education, technical qualifications, and industry experience, you [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m a qualified CPA CA with almost three years of experience in industry since leaving public practice. I didn’t take the traditional route to getting my CA designation – I left public accounting when I had fulfilled all of my hours commitments to do some traveling and then wrote [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m CFO of a very large, diversified Canadian company and I’m trying to fill a newly created position of vice president, acquisitions. We have a lot of financial bench strength in our organization and I’ve had quite a few senior people express interest in the position. None of these [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I was recruiting for a Controller a couple of years ago and ended up hiring someone who responded to my job board posting. Long story short: that person didn’t work out and I had to replace her after 14 months. The next time out I went the placement agency [...]
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The perception exists that social media in general and LinkedIn in particular, are the solution to every recruitment question. While it’s true that LinkedIn is a very useful site and an important tool for anyone involved with recruitment, it’s not the solution to every recruitment problem. Two Ways to Use LinkedIn LinkedIn has two main [...]
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When owner-managed companies start out, their accounting needs are few and relatively simple. Cheques need to be cut, invoices need to be collected, people need to get paid, the government needs its taxes and so forth. Actually, most of what needs to be done in the name of accounting could be categorized as bookkeeping which [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: My brothers and I run a successful $35mm furniture manufacturing company in Mississauga. Our VP Finance has been with us for over twenty years and has recently announced that she’d like to retire at the end of the year. When should we start looking for someone to replace her? [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of an owner-managed cosmetics manufacturer here in Mississauga. I’ve been here for over nine years and I’m wondering if I should start looking at the market. It’s not that I’m unhappy; I like my boss, the work’s interesting and everything’s humming along pretty smoothly. My concern is [...]
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It’s Tuesday morning around 10:00am and a hypothetical VP of Finance (let’s call her Amanda) is at her desk strategizing about replacing her controller who resigned on Friday. She’d already talked to human resources who promised to post the job online and now she’s wondering what else she could be doing to expedite the process. [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $100mm automotive services company and I recently had to go to the market to find a contractor to fill in for my Director of Finance who’s going on maternity leave. Our company has been growing very rapidly so I really needed someone who could get [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Controller for a Canadian, TSX listed, software company up in Markham. I’ve been recruiting for a Manager of Financial Reporting and we’re at the offer stage with one of the candidates that we’ve been interviewing. When we started interviewing this person (let’s call him Steve), we told [...]
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When I want to buy something out of the ordinary, something not in a “pick it up off the shelf” category, I inevitably want some market intel before I make the purchase. When I was in the market for a house in Toronto many years ago, I wanted the real estate agent to fill me [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $50mm Tier 2 auto parts manufacturer. I’ve recently had to go to the market to recruit a Controller. I’ve looked at a number of candidates and there’s been one person in the process that I’m especially keen on because she would be an excellent fit [...]
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I was walking my dog recently and as I ambled down the residential streets of my neighbourhood I noticed a number of realtors’ For Sale or Just Sold signs posted on various properties I passed. And it occurred to me that on the surface, real estate and recruitment had a few things in common. Three Things in Common [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Director of Finance of a specialty foods distributor in Mississauga and I’ve recently concluded that I need to get my resume together and start putting some feelers out on the market. It’s not urgent, but I’m getting the sense that my company’s owners are starting to think [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the VP Finance of a mid-sized CPG manufacturing concern in Mississauga. I just learned that the company’s owner-managers have decided to look for a strategic buyer so I think it’s about time to start looking at the job market again. I haven’t done any active job hunting in about [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Answer: Every now and again you’re going to run into someone who zig-zags through their career, especially if you’re not that rigorous in your initial triaging of candidates. You may interview someone who’s spent a few years as someone’s Controller and then took a year off to learn Spanish in Venezuela. [...]
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A year or so ago I got a call from the CEO of a $50mm roofing contractor who needed to hire a new CFO. The CEO was the son of the founder of the firm, and had been at the helm of the family business for about five years. Dad had ostensibly retired but still [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $300mm software developer and I’ve recently been in the market for a Manager Financial Planning & Analysis. We’ve zeroed in on what I think is a very good candidate (she’s currently in FP&A with another software firm) but she’s close to the top of what [...]
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Let’s take a hypothetical situation where you’re the CFO of a thriving micro-brewing company (since we’re being hypothetical, we might as well have some fun). Your controller resigned a couple of months ago, giving you two weeks’ notice and you’ve been busy trying to fill their chair ever since. And now, finally, after a long, [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I run a trade association and we’ve recently had to go to the market to recruit a Director of Finance to look after all of our finance and administration functions of the association. I don’t have a finance background so I’m basically taking the advice of the outgoing incumbent (she’s [...]
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Earlier this year, I was working on two different searches that only had one thing in common: in both cases there was an issue with the references of the lead candidates. One of the searches was for a CFO of an owner-managed industrial parts distributor and the other search was for a controller for a [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m a CPA CA with twenty years’ experience in food manufacturing. I’ve spent the last ten years as VP Finance and CFO of a frozen food processor in Mississauga. My company was acquired six months ago by a private equity firm and so I decided back then that I [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’ve just taken over as VP Finance of a Mississauga based, TSX listed, software developer. Generally speaking, I like the staff that I’ve inherited; they’re young, energetic, smart as can be and generally fun to work with. My issue is that at 5:30pm around here, you could shoot a [...]
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Nerd Alert! When you google the word “benchmark”, the very first definition that pops up is: a standard or point of reference against which things may be compared or assessed. And after it runs through all of the alternative definitions (which are not to be confused with alternative facts – they may be similar but I’m [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CEO of a family owned, $50mm electrical contractor in Scarborough. Our CFO decided to move on unexpectedly and we’ve been conducting a search to replace him over the past two months. I’ve tapped into my network and have seen a number of potential candidates, some of which [...]
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If you’ve ever had the misfortune of hiring someone through a recruitment firm who didn’t work out, no doubt you ascribed the blame to your recruiter. Which may be fair but then again, it may not be. After all, if you’ve been around for any length of time in business you’ve probably hired someone on [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $300mm retail chain. I’ve been interviewing someone to fill a Director, Financial Planning & Forecasting position we’ve got open and we’re just about at the offer stage. The person I’m considering hiring is currently earning $150,000 (plus bonus) which is right at the top of [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I have over twenty years’ experience as a finance professional and like to think that I’ve excelled at every position and every company that I’ve been a part of. I’ve spent most of my career in the food service industry and I’m looking for my next challenge. I’ve applied [...]
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A few months ago I was meeting with a prospective client, the owner-manager of a consumer products manufacturer, to talk about recruiting a CFO for their organization. It was an important hire for the company but from what I could tell from my initial discussion with the owner-manager, from a recruiter’s point of view, it [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I was most recently CFO of a mid-sized food manufacturer in Mississauga. Due to a change in corporate ownership I’ve been on the street for the last six months or so. I haven’t actually kept track but I’d estimate that I’ve responded to more than two dozen CFO and [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m a CFO in the food service business and I’ve just started to look around for a new position. I haven’t looked for a new job in quite a few years and I’ve been asking my pals for input on the best way to present myself to prospective employers. [...]
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Every now and again I’ll have a finance executive ring me up and ask me to find them a new position when they’ve only been with their current employer for a matter of six or eight months. They’re almost always well regarded professionals who’ve never before precipitously jumped ship. When I ask why they want [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I just left my position as CFO of a $70mm owner-managed environmental reclamation company. We haven’t been doing very well lately and the owner has been asking me to take our accounting and financial reporting direction that I’m just not comfortable with. There may be fifty shades of grey [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I was having lunch with a couple of pals, both of whom are on the market for a new position and the subject of position tenure came up. One of my friends, Andrew, is the CFO of an industrial parts distribution company that’s just been acquired by an American [...]
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It’s axiomatic in executive search circles the quality of the hiring authority’s decision is a direct function of the quality of the short list they interview, which in turn is a function of the number of candidates canvassed. If you use an executive recruiter to recruit your next CFO, you will be accessing a very [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: After ten years in my current company as CFO, I’ve decided I need a change of venue and pace. I’ve got my resume together and am ready to start my search. How many recruiters should I reach out to and what should I be expecting from them? Answer: As to how [...]
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Reflexive Recruiting When you have an opening for a financial executive, you can look at filling that position in one of two ways. The most common approach is to replace the person who’s leaving. The better approach is to fill the position that’s open. They may sound like the same thing, but they’re not. When [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m an experienced financial executive, with over twenty years’ of industry experience since getting my CA designation. My last position was CFO of a $100mm logistics company which was sold a year ago to a strategic buyer in the U.S. I stayed on for a while to help with the [...]
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There’s no “one size fits all” formula when it comes to hiring a CFO. But there are some traits and qualifications that you should be looking for when you’re putting together your hiring criteria. Industry Experience The more senior a finance professional gets, the less they are defined by their accounting knowledge and the more [...]
Read More →Some time ago I met with the executives of a $40-million automotive service company to discuss recruiting a CFO for their business. The owner-managers were the sons of the company’s founder, and the reason they wanted to conduct a CFO search was to replace someone who was essentially the Controller. The incumbent had been with [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the VP Finance of a $300mm TSX listed software services firm. My Director of Financial Reporting resigned a couple of months ago and since I don’t have the bench strength to replace her from within, I needed to go outside the firm to recruit for this position. As I [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the owner-manager of a small but rapidly growing food services business. We have a controller who’s been handling my accounting since we started the company six years ago. However, I realized a few months ago that because of our growth curve and ambitions for the future that [...]
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As an industry insider, I’ve tracked trends and practices within the recruitment industry pretty closely. I remember the mid-nineties when various and sundry pundits pronounced the advent of the internet and job boards to be the death knell of the recruitment industry. I’ve applauded the trend towards hiring more professionally designated people into the industry, [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I own a $35mm environmental remediation company and I’m in the market for a VP Finance to replace the incumbent who’s leaving for greener pastures. I was thinking about using an executive search firm to do a search for me but before I actually did anything about it [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I run a family owned commercial construction company and we’re recently had to go to the market to recruit a new CFO to replace the incumbent who’s retiring in a few months. I posted the position on LinkedIn and I’m currently in the process of sorting through all the [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I hired a new Director of Finance about a year ago. The person we brought on board seemed fine in the first couple of months but now I’m having some doubts. He did seem to be a bit on the quiet side when I interviewed him but I [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the COO of a $45 million owner managed industrial tool manufacturer out in Mississauga. The company is run by the three brothers who started the firm twenty five years ago. Our Vice President, Finance resigned a few months ago and I’m having a heck of time trying to [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Director of Financial Planning and Analysis for a big box retailer with stores right across Canada. I haven’t had occasion to hire for a few years but recently we’ve needed to recruit a Senior Financial Analyst to replace someone who’s been promoted out of my department. I’m [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m a second year Manager in the Assurance Services practice of a Big 4 firm. I don’t have any aspirations to make a career out of public accounting so I think it’s time for me to leave the nest and look at a career in industry. I’ve done a [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I am the Vice President, Human Resources in a $100mm high tech, TSX listed, manufacturing firm in Markham. Our CFO has asked my assistance in recruiting someone for a newly created Director of Finance role. She’s given me a lengthy laundry list of attributes and qualifications for the type of [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’ve just joined a $600 million retail company as their CFO. Among other things, I was given a mandate to sort out the finance department. To make a long story short, I’m going to have to get rid of a lot of driftwood at all levels and bring in [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m CFO of a very large, diversified Canadian company and I’m trying to fill a newly created position of vice president, acquisitions. I’m very fortunate in that we have a lot of financial bench strength in our organization and I’ve had quite a few senior people express interest in the [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Vice President, Finance for a $60mm CPG manufacturer in Vaughan. The company’s been doing quite well but the owners are getting close to retirement age and are talking about looking for a strategic buyer. The new owners, whoever they may be, may want to keep me [...]
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Industry Canada applies the term SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) to businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Firms with 500 or more employees are referred to as “large businesses”. Of course, 1 to 499 employees covers a lot of ground so Industry Canada further defines a small business as one with fewer than 100 employees [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $75mm consumer products distribution company in Mississauga. I’ve been here eight years and although I still enjoy my job I’m getting a bit stale and think I should start looking at the market. My kids would tell you that I’m a classic, old-school [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I took a pretty big drop in base salary a few years ago in order to join a high-tech start-up as their CFO. My compensation is heavily weighted towards incentives tied to company performance – base salary, plus variable pay up to 100% of salary, plus stock options. Unfortunately, [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m a Canadian CPA CA working in Israel where I’m the CFO of a $200mm industrial concern with subsidiaries in Europe and Africa. I got my CA designation with E&Y in 1998 and had six years’ experience as the controller and then VP Finance of a mid-sized manufacturer [...]
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In my thirty years of experience in recruiting controllers, there are a few factors I consider to be table stakes. Here are the three essential elements you should evaluate before hiring your next controller: 1. Core Accounting Knowledge First and foremost, your controller needs to have a CPA designation and solid knowledge of all aspects [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $200mm food services company and we’re in the last stages of hiring a controller. Before we make an offer to our finalist candidate, I’d like to check references. Should I ask the recruitment firm I’m working with to conduct the reference checks or should [...]
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One of the most frequent questions I get from financial executives looking for a new position is: “Can I switch industries?” Why Make the Switch? There are usually three reasons that a VP Finance wants to change industries. If they are actively on the job market, they want to increase their field of potential employers. If they [...]
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I recently attended a networking event for financial executives. Most, if not all of the people attending this event were Controllers, Directors of Finance or VPs of Finance in smaller or owner managed businesses and many of them were actively on the market for a new position. This group meets every other month or so [...]
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Almost all finance and accounting recruitment firms make some claim to being able to find the “right fit” for their clients. Some firms tout a proprietary psychological / personality test they run candidates through. Other firms highlight their high degree of market / technical specialization. However, as much as every placement agency advertises their mystical [...]
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There are any number of factors to consider when hiring a member of your executive team. Hiring the top financial person for your team, whether you’re hiring a CFO, Director of Finance or Controller, can be especially challenging. Your final decision will ultimately hinge on “fit”, but step one is to establish the criteria that [...]
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Most small businesses start out using the services of bookkeeper to look after their accounting needs. And if a small business remains a small business, a good, qualified bookkeeper is all that company will ever need. However, small businesses often grow into larger businesses. At some point the business you may start to sense that [...]
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The accounting function for most small business starts out being handled by a part-time bookkeeper. As the company outgrows the part-time bookkeeper, the accounting function is brought in-house and a full time accountant is hired. As the company continues to grow, the accounting function expands to keep pace and is eventually headed by a controller, [...]
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There’s no question that it’s possible to find a senior financial executive without the use of an executive search firm. It can be quicker and it’s certainly a lot cheaper. And if the CFO you source on your own has all of the attributes and technical expertise you had on your wish list when you started [...]
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When it comes to benchmarking compensation, big companies have it relatively easy. They have human resources departments, access to compensation consultants like Mercer, and the best tool built-in tool available for compensation benchmarking: on-going turnover. Real-Time Market Intelligence Large companies that experience on-going turnover get periodic, market based information on what skill sets and/or levels [...]
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Hiring for the top finance spot in any organization, whether it’s a controller or vice president of finance is a big investment of time, energy and money. If the recruitment process goes the way it’s supposed to, the company gets plenty of return on their investment and they shouldn’t have to go through that particular [...]
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The role of the CFO in owner-managed businesses has being gradually evolving over the years. It used to be that the role of a CFO in a typical mid-sized manufacturer was more of what we would associate today with a controller’s role. He or she would ensure that the people and systems were in place to [...]
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An increasing trend in today’s legal marketplace is for law firms to hire CFOs. This is a response to the competitive environment, the evolving nature of the industry, and the increasing demands of price-sensitive customers. While some firms may balk at the significant additional expenditure hiring a CFO can require, others are reaping the benefits [...]
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While no business owner sets out to ignore any part of their operations, many who run medium sized enterprises confess to involuntarily overlooking the finance function. However, given the environment of increased regulation, global competition and economic uncertainty, finance has to take on an integral role in order for a medium sized business to succeed. [...]
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You’re the CEO of a mid-sized manufacturer that you’ve built up over the years by dint of hard work, market savvy and your fair share of good luck. Your sales executive is doing her part; her people are driving revenue and they seem to be able to do it without giving away too much margin. [...]
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Owner-manager’s tend be idiosyncratic, head-strong, forceful and demanding (not you of course, the other owner-managers reading this article). And while it’s important that every member of your management team keeps in step with you, it’s especially important that your CFO is in lock-step with you. Here’s Five Reasons Why Your CFO is Often the Person [...]
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When you were a bright, young, up and coming accounting professional, you probably thought that the job market was pretty good, even hot at times. Excepting the 1990-1992 recession, your impression would have been that the demand for people like you and your cohort was constant and consistent. Job boards would have been full of [...]
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In most walks of business, the customer has a pretty good idea of what to expect from the service provider, whether that provider is an internal resource or an outside supplier. If you go to your in-house counsel for advice on a contract, you can be reasonably confident that the opinion your lawyer offers represents [...]
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When owner-managers are confronted with the need to recruit for a new VP Finance for for their organization, their first reaction is usually to try to fill the position through referrals. They put the word out to their friends and fellow owner-managers, they’ll ask their public accounting partner to see who they might know and [...]
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