Personal and Managerial Effectiveness: CFO Career Planning Report

This report focuses on career planning for a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role, emphasizing personal and managerial effectiveness. It explores the roles and responsibilities of a CFO, highlighting the need for skills in problem-solving, financial performance analysis, and strategic development. The report outlines a career roadmap, including pathways through CPA, MBA, and Big Four companies (Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and EY). It details the functions of a CPA, the benefits of an MBA, and the experience gained in Big Four firms. The report also touches on treasury roles and the responsibilities of a Chief Accounting Officer. It concludes with recommendations for continuous professional skill development in the dynamic employment landscape, particularly in the field of finance, and provides references to support the information presented.

PERSONAL AND
MANAGERIAL
EFFECTIVENESS
Career planning

CAREER PLANNING
• Career planning is the ongoing process in which
students explore their interest and abilities.
• Career planning is a systematic approach of meeting
career opportunities through individual capabilities
(BMS, 2014).
• Career planning helps the individual to gather
information that enables them to acquire
competencies related to their interest areas.
(Source: BMS,
2014)

finance as interest and dream job as
CFO
• My area of interest is finance amongst various career
options like human resource management, logistics
and marketing.
• After analysing career fields in finance, my interest
emerged as a CFO. I want to develop skills related to
CFO.
• After graduation, I am focusing to get a deep
understanding of operational side of the business
(Bearingpoint, 2018).
• Obtaining a degree is the first step. Degree
acknowledges closer look to various career options
related to finance interest.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CFO
• The role of CFO is to work with outside specialists and discover
solutions to problems.
• The CFO must have the ability to identify problems and
opportunities in form of mergers and acquisitions (International
federation of accountants, 2013).
• The CFO is responsible for checking the financial performance.
• CFO is responsible for developing strategies to maximise the
return on company resources.
• CFO is responsible to check financial leverage to build a efficient
capital structure.

Roadmap of CFO
CPA
MBA
Workin
g for
big four
Treasury
role
Controller
position
CFO

THE CPA JOB
• The purpose of CPA job is to determine whether the organisation is giving a fair
representation of its financial statements or not.
• An CPA provides internal auditing services, income tax services and business
processing outsourcing.
• Services for company law and compliance matters, foreign collaboration with import
and export advice.
• A CFO should have a strong base of knowledge in accounting.
• To be an effective CPA, one should have a calculative and analytical mind.
• To check whether the personal expense is charged from revenue account (Abid, 2018).

THE MBA JOB
• A MBA is a graduate degree focuses on skills related
to business career. It is not at all necessary to attain
a degree of MBA, but it gives an competitive
advantage.
• Before applying for MBA degree, a student has to
earn a bachelor degree.
• MBA introduces different business topics such as
operation management, marketing, finance,
accounting, management information system. Then
after the management schools provide additional
courses and specialisation in particular fields
(Buenviaje, Encio, Refozar, Anuran, Camello, and
Laguador, 2016).
• I choose my career as finance. So, I would opt
specialisation in finance.
(Source: Franklin University,
2018)

THE BIG FOUR COMPANIES JOB
• Big four companies renowned as Deloitte, KPMG,
Pricewaterhousecoopers, and Ernst & Young.
Working in these companies would give a
competitive advantage to a student.
• These renowned companies hire students of best
schools. It is not very easy to get a job in these
huge companies.
• There is huge number of opportunities to work in
big fours. These opportunities open various doors to
enhance finance experience (Abid, Shaique, and
Haq, 2018) .
• Mostly people think of working in big four
companies because it gives great experience.
(Source: Butcher, 2018)

TREASURY ROLE
(Source: E-marketing insights,
2007)
• A treasurer is responsible for managing
risks, banking contacts, financial
investments, and cash management.

CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER
(Source: Netscafe,
2015)
• An chief accounting officer should have proper
knowledge of generally applied accounting
principles (GAAPs) (Top accounting degrees,
2018).
• To manage ledger, account receivable and
account payable is the main work performed
by the chief accounting officer. Chief
accounting manager is the first step in finance
career (preschool, 2018).

RECOMMENDATION
• Today`s employment is no longer secure because of dynamic
external environment.
• If graduates want to attain employment and move up on the
career ladder. They need to continuously develop professional
skills.
• With the emerging phase of globalisation. The market expertise
in every field. Here, the financial careers are being elaborated.
• CFO is the ahead of all. Everyone dreams to be on the higher
post, but it require personal attributes and professional
diligence.

REFERENCES
proschool (2018) 5 most trending profiles in finance. [online] Available at: https://www.proschoolonline.com/blog/5-most-
trending-profiles-in-finance/ [Accessed 29/06/18]
International federation of accountants (2013) The Role And Expectations Of A CFO. [online] Available at:
https://www.ifac.org/system/files/publications/files/Role%20of%20the%20CFO.pdf [Accessed 1/07/18]
Franklin University, (2018) Choosing a degree. [online] Available at: https://www.franklin.edu/blog/jobs-for-mba-graduates
[Accessed 04/08/18]
Netscafe, (2015) What Is the Availability for CPA Jobs in Chicago? [online] Available at: https://www.netscafe.org/what-is-the-
availability-for-cpa-jobs-in-chicago/ [Accessed 04/08/18]
Butcher, D. (2018) Why you'll love and hate life at PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG. [online] Available at:
https://news.efinancialcareers.com/hk-en/205325/why-youll-love-and-hate-life-at-pwc-deloitte-ey-and-kpmg [Accessed 04/08/18]
Buenviaje, M.G., Encio, H.A., Refozar, R.F., Anuran, A., Camello, N.C. and Laguador, J.M., (2016) Employability and Skills of MBA
Graduates fromLiterature Review asInput to Student Development Program. Journal of Research in Business and Management
Volume, 4(5), pp.16-21.
E-marketing insights, (2007) The Anatomy of a Treasury Customer. [online] Available at:
https://www.fpsc.com/marketscope/April2007.htm [Accessed 04/08/18]