Short-term CFOs, short-term strategy

Filed in archive Accounting on March 12, 2007

Just this year, I have blogged on the high turnover of chief financial officers here, here and here.

Companies pay a price for this, in more ways than one.

A recent survey conducted by Duke University and CFO magazine, and published by CFO.com, reveals that nine out of 10 (87.6 percent) finance chiefs report that companies have shortened the payoff horizons of their investment decisions. That's to coincide with the shorter tenure of executives. In other words, if they're not expecting the executive to hang around for that long, they tailor their growth strategies accordingly. And that doesn't augur well for US companies.

As I have said before, we might be seeing the growth of a new class of CFO, the gun for hire who comes in on a short term basis, usually three to 12 months. And usually companies who hire them have good reasons. They might need someone immediately, for example, to replace a CFO who is sick or who has suddenly left. Or they might need a number cruncher for a certain period of time, quite often to take on a specific project like implementing a new accounting software package.

But if the short-term CFO is becoming the norm, and if companies are basing their investment decisions around the tenure, it could become a significant problem.