Skip to content
Schedule an introductory meeting
Menu

Mentoring · 02

All programmes

Finance & CFO Mentoring

Discuss the finance chair's agenda with someone who knows that chair.

Duration
6 months12 sessions of 90 minutes
Format
One-to-onealso as a first-100-days or peer-circle format
Agenda
The mentee brings itthe real work, that week’s issue
Mentor

A one-to-one programme in which finance directors, heads of financial affairs and finance managers preparing for the CFO role discuss their own real agenda regularly, for six months, with a mentor who has sat in that chair. The mentee brings the agenda: a bank meeting, a budget going to the board, an auditor's finding, an argument over numbers with the general manager. The mentor shares experience and views openly and leaves the decision to the mentee.

How the six months unfold

  1. 45 minIntroduction
  2. Month 1Start: agreement and opening three-way meeting
  3. Months 2–5Deepening: two sessions a month, mid-point review
  4. Month 6Close and closing three-way meeting
  5. +3 monthsFollow-up session

Topics most often brought to the table

  • Decision partnership with the general manager and the board
  • Cash and working capital
  • Bank relations and financing
  • Budget, forecast and business control
  • Management reporting and profitability visibility
  • Currency, interest and inflation risks
  • Audit, tax and internal control
  • Investment and capital allocation
  • Building and transforming the finance team
  • Independence, pressure and saying “no”

After six months, the executive

  1. 01

    Takes not numbers but the decision options the numbers call for to the general manager and the board.

  2. 02

    Manages cash with a weekly view ahead; resolves working capital squeezes together with sales and purchasing.

  3. 03

    Builds relationships with banks in good times and talks to them without surprises, and with options, in bad times.

  4. 04

    Makes unit managers own their budget variances; updates the forecast regularly during the year.

  5. 05

    Protects the accuracy of the numbers under pressure; says “no”, with reasons and in time, where it is needed.

  6. 06

    Grows the finance team from closing and booking towards analysis and business support; prepares a successor.