BUSINESS GUIDE

4 Skills CFOs Need Now and

How to Strengthen Them

Tips to excel at communication,

collaboration, data analysis and FP&A

Learn more at NetSuite.com

 Grab a seat and enjoy.
Read Time: 14 minutes

4 Skills CFOs Need Now and

How to Strengthen Them

Tips to excel at communication,

collaboration, data analysis and FP&A

The best CFOs are always looking for feedback on
how finance can better serve the business. Based on
NetSuite’s Spring 2022 Survey data, there are four
domains where peer executives see room for growth:
communicating with stakeholders and employees,
scenario planning and forecasting, collaborating to
improve business functions and analyzing data.
Of the 10 skills we asked about, these were also areas
with the biggest gaps between how CFOs rated
themselves and how other executives, finance
managers and departmental leaders graded them.
Finance heads should not see this as a slight on their
expertise or abilities. First, much is expected of CFOs
today, and a similar survey on others in the C-suite would
likely have similar results. CFOs can also take comfort in
knowing they generally earned high marks from their
peers — finance leads scored lowest on communication,
yet still just 17% of non-finance executives gave them the
lowest rating of “could use work.”
Additionally, CFOs’ self-assessments did not vary
dramatically from that of their colleagues, suggesting
that finance leaders are aware of their weaknesses.
In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at communication,
data analysis, scenario planning/forecasting and
collaboration, explaining why these functions are
especially important in a uniquely challenging business
environment created by a confluence of challenges
and fast-shifting macroeconomic world events. We’ll
also provide practical steps to improve in these areas,
including tips provided by fellow CFOs.

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Table of Contents

1 2
Overview Why These Skills Making
Matter Now Meaningful
Improvements

Page 2 Page 4 Page 7

3
How NetSuite The Bottom Line
Helps With
These Skills

Page 13 Page 15
CHAPTER 1
Why These Skills Matter Now
Market conditions have changed quickly after a long
period of economic growth and low inflation interrupted
only briefly by the pandemic. Fears of a recession are
brewing as inflation sits in the upper single digits, the
highest rate in 40 years, and supply chains continue to
stall as interest rates tick higher.
These conditions have added stress to the CFO role,
according to nearly half of finance executives who
report their jobs have become much more or somewhat
more difficult since 2019. But they also make these skills
all the more important. Consider “communicating with
employees and stakeholders,” for example, where there
was an 11-point gap between how CFOs rated themselves
and how the three other groups rated them — the largest
delta of any area we evaluated. Proactive and frequent
communication is critical during a time of such
uncertainty. Employees appreciate transparency from
leaders. It reduces the fear that bad news or major
changes that directly impact them are being withheld.
All-hands meetings led by executives to explain how
these broader economic forces affect the company and
what they’re doing in response can go a long way.
Communication with your board of directors is just as
important; CFOs must be able to effectively characterize
their business’s financial position and how it’s changed or
could change in the near future due to current conditions.
They understand the numbers in a way few others do, but
that holds little value if they can’t convey insights to others
in understandable terms.
“I think being able to effectively communicate, no matter
what your role is, just adds so much value,” said Glenn
Hopper, CFO at eDiscovery software company Sandline.
“Think about if you were an engineer or a physicist or
whatever; half of what you do is so obscure and abstract
that nobody understands it. But if you can take it and
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make it applicable to the audience, you become like
the Neil deGrasse Tyson of the industry.”
A related but distinct skill is collaboration. For CFOs,
getting out of the departmental silo and soliciting input
from other teams requires open lines of communication
and frequent conversations with colleagues. This has
been an area of focus for many finance executives as
they become business partners rather than simply the
“numbers guru,” but our survey suggests there’s more
work to do. Sixteen percent of all executives said the CFO
could use work here, though only 2% of CFOs agreed.
Alignment among departments is critical when
business conditions toughen. These shifts affect
different functions in different ways, so keeping
everyone informed of big-picture changes is critical as
businesses target greater efficiency and profitability.
Strong collaboration also helps CFOs perform other core
job functions well.
“You’ve got to be able to communicate
across your functions to be able to
really put together a solid forecast.
That’s the key, because that’s the only
way that people are going to buy into
it as well.” John Cappadona, CFO, School of Rock
The CFOs we spoke to about these survey results
noted that individuals who came up through the FP&A
ranks have a clear advantage here. The nature of their
prior work, like building budgets and putting together
financial models, required regularly collaborating
Page 4
 CFO Self-Assessment: Proficiency

100%

90% 22% 23%

29% 26% 26% 28% 30% 30%
33% 35%
80%

70%

60%
38%
45%
50% 39% 44% 43% 41% 39% 34%
41% 34%
40%

30%
31% 28%
20%
16% 25% 22% 22% 22% 24% 26%
27%
10%
10% 7% 8% 9% 8% 8% 5% 7% 7%
0% 2%
Analyzing Communicating Understanding Managing the Ensuring Collaborating to Scenario Driving new Driving Financing
data with employees my company's �nance team accounting improve business planning and initiatives with adoption of
and stakeholders business excellence functions forecasting partners new tech

Could use work Ge�ing the job done Highly pro�cient Expert

Data: NetSuite Spring 2022 Survey (500 respondents)

CFO Assessment by Other Execs

100%

90% 18% 17% 19% 19% 20%

22% 22%
30%
80%
51%
70%
34%
38% 40% 31%
60% 37% 42%
45%
50% 41%
40%
25%
30% 25% 27% 36% 31%
31% 23%
20% 18% 25%
19%
10% 17%
16% 12% 16% 15%
10% 10% 8%
0%
5%
Analyzing Communicating Understanding Managing the Ensuring Collaborating to Scenario Driving new Financing
data with employees my company's �nance team accounting improve business planning and initiatives with
and stakeholders business excellence functions forecasting partners

Could use work Ge�ing the job done Highly pro�cient Expert

Data: NetSuite Spring 2022 Survey (500 respondents)

© Oracle | Terms of Use and Privacy Page 5

with other departments. Those with deep accounting
backgrounds, on the other hand, may not have that
same experience of being “embedded” in the business.
Companies are also keeping an especially close eye on
their numbers and how they’re trending as the economy
slows. This is where data analysis comes in. The right
technology can track any metrics you might need, but
finance chiefs need to know what that data means for
the business. Calculating burn rates and cash runways
is easy enough. Now let’s answer questions like, “Are
expenses expected to go up or down in the next
quarter, and how does that affect the runway?” or “We
saw a substantial change in a certain KPI over the last
month — what explanations does the data provide?”
Working with their teams, finance chiefs must be able
to tease out the most important data points from
vast amounts of information. They must be able to
contextualize it and know what it means for the overall
business, then share those insights with others, which
goes back to communication.
That data analysis will then inform forecasts and
scenario plans, and the increased importance of both
in a slowing economy is clear. Forecasts are always
uncertain estimates, of course — Cappadona jokes
that the only thing he can guarantee is that his forecast
will be wrong. But landing as close as possible to actual
numbers is essential when conditions put cash flow and
profitability into question. If sales are expected to sink
15% while expenses climb 7% over the next quarter,
leadership needs to explore options to offset that gap.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a surge
of interest in scenario planning as businesses tried
to prepare for the unknown. Today’s inflation and
continued supply chain problems may have more
precedent, but it’s not hard to see why scenario
planning remains an area of focus. Companies need
to prepare for a variety of outcomes, depending on
how situations develop. What if supply chains continue
to recover and start to catch up to demand, cooling
inflation? If prices of commodities your business relies
on increase or decrease, what does that mean for your
bottom line? How might the Fed bumping up short-term
interest rates by .75% vs. .5% at its next meeting affect
your debt?
Quantifying the impact of potential events beforehand
leaves the business in a much better position.

CFO Assessment: Top 3 Areas to Improve Skills

50%
45%
45%
40% 40%
40%
35% 36%
35% 33% 34%
31% 31% 32%
29% 30%
30%
27% 27%
25% 25%
25%
22%
20% 18%

15%

10%

5%

0%
Analyzing data Financing Driving new Ensuring Collaborating Scenario Communicating Managing the Understanding
initiatives accounting to improve planning and with employees �nance team the company's
with partners excellence business functions forecasting and stakeholders business

Finance execs: Would like to improve skills Non-�nance execs: Would like CFO to improve skills

Data: NetSuite Spring 2022 Survey (500 respondents)

© Oracle | Terms of Use and Privacy Page 6

CHAPTER 2

Making Meaningful Improvements

Below are suggestions on how CFOs can sharpen these
four skills. Trying to hit all of these is likely too much to
take on, so we recommend you choose based on what
would make the biggest difference for your organization
and where you think you have the most room for growth.
An even better approach is polling peers to see what
they need from you so you know where to focus in the
limited time available for professional development.
1. Communication
Becoming a better communicator comes down to
practice. This could mean presenting to the board or
leading a session at an industry conference. It could
also mean stepping in to fill a need. Earlier in his career,
Cappadonna worked at a company that was acquired,
and he became the go-to finance person for the
acquiring company.
“At one point, I was probably the main spokesperson,
in terms of what was going on with the business,”
he said. “You get thrown into that, where I’m literally
explaining what’s going on versus budget and then
sales of products and things like that. I thought that
was very helpful for me because I knew it was a skill I
needed to develop.”

The Power of Active Listening

Great communication isn’t all about talking. Active listening is just as important. Those who excel at active listening
are seen as great communicators because they pay full and thoughtful attention to the person who is speaking.
They demonstrate that by:

Making eye contact and nodding occasionally.

Asking questions that reflect awareness of what the speaker said, at natural break points in
the conversation.

Making affirmative statements that bolster the speaker’s main points — again,
without interrupting.

Summarizing the content that was presented in a way that demonstrates their understanding versus
immediately pivoting to their own experiences. This summary also cements the knowledge gained in much
the same way as taking notes aids recall.

You may find that, over time, practicing active listening results in more productive communication with coworkers.

© Oracle | Terms of Use and Privacy Page 7

Those who don’t want to dive right into the deep end
can start with networking events and meetings put on Learn More About Communication
by local professional organizations and other groups.
These are also a great place to meet more junior finance • Investor Relations 2.0: What CFOs Need
and accounting professionals who may be looking for to Know Now. Technology enables richer
experienced mentors, another good way to work on and more frequent connection points with
communication skills. investors — but also invites higher levels
of scrutiny and increases the risk of very
Some of the many stakeholders and employees public missteps.
financial leaders need to communicate with won’t have
deep knowledge of accounting or finance. CFOs bring • Toastmasters International is a nonprofit
a particular perspective to any conversation, but they educational organization that teaches public
must realize that an all-hands meeting is not the right speaking and leadership skills through a
place to present advanced financial models. With that worldwide network of clubs.
in mind, finance professionals could do a practice run
• Udemy’s Communication Skills for
of their presentations for an upcoming meeting with
Finance Leaders course is affordable and
colleagues from other departments to see what does
targeted to CFOs and those looking to advance
and doesn’t click. Then use that feedback to adjust the
their careers.
presentation accordingly.
• Also consider as a benefit for staff an in-person
The classic “management by walking around” is also
or online group finance communications
a great idea for CFOs. Becoming a familiar face can
course from a group like the AICPA.
make you more approachable and naturally increase
communication — and collaboration — with others
across the organization.

CFO Self-Assessment: Where Do You Spend Significant Time?

80%

70% 67%

60% 57%
51%
50% 46% 45%
42%
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Data analysis, FP&A, Meeting with Meeting with line-of- Email and other Reviewing books, Meeting with investors,
scenario planning other execs business managers collaboration apps checking others' work creditors, board

Data: NetSuite Spring 2022 Survey (500 respondents)

© Oracle | Terms of Use and Privacy Page 8

Those looking for formalized training can choose
from a broad assortment of executive courses on
communication. Well-known universities like Stanford,
Cal Berkeley and MIT offer in-person and virtual
programs that last anywhere from a couple of days
to more than a month. They cover topics you would
expect, like creating memorable pitches and engaging
presentations, as well as less obvious ones such as voice
regulation and body language.
In addition to honing their own skills, CFOs should also
look for opportunities to help members of their teams
gain more practice. Any chance to present to fellow
executives, the board or a larger internal audience can
prove quite valuable in preparing them for the CFO seat.
For example, Cappadonna has his VP of finance handle
most presentations to School of Rock’s board.
2. Collaboration
Financial leaders hoping to become better collaborators
need to find ways to ingrain themselves in the business.
For those who manage large teams, like Dave Damond,
CFO of national nonprofit March of Dimes, it can be a
good idea to embed finance personnel in different units.
“We try to integrate with the department itself,” Damond
said. “So have a person who supports that department
and is part of that department every day, [participates
in] weekly meetings and everyday operations. So they
get to know that person as part of their team. I think
that helps.”
Each embedded person then reports back to Damond,
and together they determine how the finance team can
help those other functions. The long-time leader also
sees it as his role to build a finance department that’s
customer-service-focused, meaning his team tries to say
“yes” to as many requests as possible. This helps reframe
the finance team as a valued business partner rather
than a source of convoluted processes and roadblocks.
Cappadonna suggests starting conversations with
non-executives in other departments to discover
opportunities for collaboration. You could reach out to
another stakeholder about a particular data point that
caught your eye, to get their take on it, for example.
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Learn More About Collaboration
• Fostering Effective Finance and IT
Collaboration Starts at the Top. Finance and
IT, two functions that had little occasion to
collaborate closely in the past, now find they
are frequently working side by side to deliver
high-value, strategic projects for the business.
• LinkedIn Teams and Collaboration. Training
courses are among more than 18,000 courses
ranging from beginner to advanced offered
for groups.
• HBR: Eight Ways to Build Collaborative
Teams. Although teams that are large,
virtual, diverse and composed of highly
educated specialists are increasingly crucial
with challenging projects, those same four
characteristics make it hard for teams to get
anything done.
“What I’ve noticed is that, at times, when people
start seeing you providing them insight or looking to
understand what they’re doing, then they want more
of it,” Cappadona said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, that’s actually
pretty cool.’ Now people will start to seek you out, and
then inherently, you will start communicating more. But
you’ve got to take that first step.”
This kind of localization will strengthen relationships
between CFOs and other functions and facilitate
continued collaboration.
During tumultuous times, frequent cross-functional
meetings led by the finance head and other executives
are morale boosters. They keep everyone up-to-date
on what major events mean for the business and offer a
diverse range of employees the opportunity to explain
their challenges and brainstorm solutions.
Page 9

Finance executives should also meet
periodically with peers across the
business to explain current big-picture
financials and future goals, what it
means for that team’s priorities and
how they can contribute.
CFOs earned high marks from fellow executives in our
survey for understanding the company’s business, so
they should leverage that knowledge to advance cross-
functional goals. Both sides have a lot to gain through
increased collaboration.
One closing note: The IT department is an excellent
place for CFOs to start when launching or deepening
a collaboration initiative. Automation and fintech are
important focuses for companies as hiring remains
difficult, and the CIO is an invaluable partner now.
3. Data Analysis
Much of what previously made up the workload for
accounting and finance professionals is now automated.
This will only continue, of course, which means your
team needs to develop more advanced analysis skills.
That requires an understanding of the latest business
intelligence tools and technologies, like machine
learning (ML) and predictive analytics.
CFOs are numbers people, so making an effort to
improve data analysis expertise should not be painful.
Hopper familiarized himself with these technologies
through YouTube videos and also recommends signing
up for free courses on these topics offered by online
learning platforms.
But the level of insights you can provide from vast
data repositories is also dependent on the tools at your
disposal. You need software that can automatically store
and process large amounts of information, leaving more
time for observation and analysis.
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Learn More About Data Analysis
• Making the Case for the CFO as the Chief
Data Officer. Author and CFO Glenn Hopper
argues that the CFO has the potential to
become the chief data officer, building their
department into a data analytics powerhouse
and becoming a more strategic partner to
the business.
• Data Storytelling: Next-Level Analytics
Skills. Hard numbers are the basis of most
good business decisions, but it’s not always
easy to draw insights just by looking at a
spreadsheet or table. Data storytelling takes
raw data and turns it into a narrative that any
manager or executive can understand and
act on.
• What Is a Data Dashboard? The Ultimate 101
Guide. These business intelligence tools help
organizations better take advantage of the vast
amount of information at their disposal.
“That is the biggest pain point that I’ve had over my
career, you spend more time gathering the data and
trying to put it together in a way that makes sense, and
less time analyzing it,” Cappadona said.
Some of the low marks on data analysis may tie back
to CFOs not excelling at data storytelling. Most finance
leaders today know how to glean the insights they
need from data and use it to guide decision-making.
But they may not always share the source of that
wisdom with colleagues or use visualizations to explain
trends. This may give the impression that data analysis
is not the CFO’s strong suit, when indeed they’re more
than capable.
It’s easy to see a link between this and communication —
more evidence of the interconnectedness among all of
these proficiencies.
Page 10
“Start finding ways to analyze all this
data, use your analytical skills that
you used in finance to apply to the
rest of the key metrics of the business.
Then you become a more valuable
strategic partner.” Glenn Hopper, CFO, Sandline
4. Scenario Planning and Forecasting
The work of finance professionals and accountants in
particular can revolve around things that happened in
the past. There’s a certainty with historical numbers that
some appreciate.
But forward-looking projections are an equally
important part of the CFO’s purview. One way to
enhance your forecasting skills is to develop a deeper
understanding of what makes the business tick,
according to Cappadona.
“People need to understand the dials that need to be
moved in order to make the forecast,” Cappadona said.
“For us, we’re a simple business, so it’s revenue per
student, number of students. There’s not a whole heck
of a lot that goes into it. But in other companies, it can
be more complex. And so understanding what those
dials are that are going to move the forecast. That’s
going to require somebody getting out to understand
how the business works, that’s going to require them to
talk to people.”
Finance executives should also look to leverage all
the data they have available to them, whether internal
or external. Start with simple models and gradually
progress from there.
“Any business that you’re in, there is publicly available
data, and then there’s data about your business,”
Hopper said. “The models don’t have to be super
complex to start with — we don’t have to be trying to
win the Netflix million-dollar prize for recommending
movies. It can just be, ‘Hey, we see our business
goes up when the temperature is below 90 degrees’
or whatever.”
Damond said his experience as an FP&A professional
through numerous landscape-shifting events, from
9/11 to the Great Recession to the pandemic, gave
him on-the-job experience with scenario planning. As
“business as usual” starts to feel like a relic of the past,
opportunities to learn on the job will likely continue.
Another piece of this is, again, having the right
supporting technology. Does your planning software
automatically pull information in from other sources,
like an ERP system? Does the solution make it easy to
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Learn More About Scenario Planning
and Forecasting
• Scenario Planning: Strategy, Steps and
Practical Examples. Scenario planning
helps decision-makers identify ranges of
potential outcomes and impacts, evaluate
responses and manage for both positive
and negative possibilities.
• Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A):
Practices, Roles, Responsibilities, and
Functions. The FP&A function is becoming
increasingly forward-looking. It’s using best
practices to focus not only on what happened
or what’s happening but on why it’s happening
and what is likely to happen in the future.
• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Financial
Planning & Analysis. You’ve likely been
performing financial planning and analysis
(FP&A) all along as you grow your business.
Now’s the time to formalize that function.
change variables to see the results of different potential
scenarios? This will impact both the quality of your
financial models and how frequently they’re updated.
There are also educational courses available for general
financial modeling, specific types of modeling and
modeling for various industries. The Wharton Business
School even offers a six-month online course for free.
The Financial Modeling Institute provides various levels
of accreditations, and Udemy has a course designed for
startups and other small businesses, neither of which
cost more than a couple hundred dollars. That’s money
well-spent for those hoping to sharpen their financial
projection skills.
With that foundation in place, CFOs might move on to
system-specific training to better understand how they
can get the most out of the planning and budgeting
software their organization uses.
Page 12
CHAPTER 7

How NetSuite Helps

With These Skills

No piece of technology can, by itself, solve the CFO’s
challenges in these four areas. However, the right
technology is an essential tool for excellence in each.
Take communication and collaboration. When your entire
business runs on a single platform, with users across
departments, it’s easy to see what others are working on
and how their efforts might impact joint initiatives.
Consider projects that might involve purchase orders,
contracts and customer records, all of which cross
over multiple departments. When finance has
deeper insight, that increases the chance the CFO
will spot problems — whether the responsibility of
her department or another — and reach out to the
appropriate person to address it. That results in the
CFO becoming more embedded in the business and a
trusted resource for other teams, someone they can go
to with questions or for feedback.

A unified source of data insights, like The connection between an ERP system and data
analysis skills is even more clear. The primary reason
NetSuite ERP, makes it easy to see
businesses invest in ERP is to put all their critical
areas of overlap, sparking more information in one place, unlocking new reporting
communication and collaboration. capabilities and transparency across the organization.

How Has Your Job Changed Since 2019?

50%
45%
45%
41% 42%
40%

35% 34%

30% 29%
26% 26%
25%
20% 21%
20% 18% 18% 19%

15% 14% 14%

11%
10%
7% 7%
5% 4% 4%
0%
0%
Much more di�cult Somewhat more di�cult About the same Somewhat easier Much easier

Finance execs Non-�nance execs Finance managers Non-�nance managers

Data: NetSuite Spring 2022 Survey (500 respondents)

© Oracle | Terms of Use and Privacy Page 13

NetSuite has a powerful reporting engine to make
whatever comparisons or calculations you might need
and also comes with common reports prebuilt. Saved
searches allow CFOs to find what they need in the vast
data repository and save it for future reference, when it
will reflect the latest results. All of this allows for deeper
data insights that are easy to share.

As we noted earlier, getting better at forecasting and

scenario planning takes a combination of skills and
software. That starts with an ERP system that brings
together all the financial information that may be
needed for the forecasts and models useful for your
business. That system can then be integrated with a
more specialized financial planning system, like NetSuite
Planning and Budgeting, to pull in data from the ERP
to run various what-if scenarios and help with related
functions, like headcount planning.

CFOs can take their data analysis and projections to

the next level with NetSuite Analytics Warehouse,
which enables finance teams to combine data sets from
NetSuite with those from external analytics tools to
build a true data warehouse. That data can then be fed
through prebuilt models to reveal additional insights.

You can start to see how skills development and

technology work hand-in-hand. CFOs should
not overlook the role of a best-in-class financial
management system like NetSuite and complementary
applications in helping them do their jobs better.

© Oracle | Terms of Use and Privacy Page 14

The Bottom Line

As CFOs’ responsibilities and prominence in the C-suite More than ever, they are strategic partners who shape
grow, so do expectations. Finance leaders and their the biggest business decisions.
teams have earned additional respect during these
The continuation of that evolution requires getting
turbulent times, as evidenced by our survey data: 87%
stronger in these four areas. All are places where
of non-finance executives and 85% of non-finance
colleagues see the most room for growth, and all
managers think the finance team has become much
are especially critical right now. By becoming better
more or somewhat more important since the start of
communicators, collaborators, data analyzers and
the pandemic.
forecasters, CFOs will only add to the tremendous
CFOs have already made impressive strides. The image value they already provide to the organization.
of a sheepish finance chief isolated from the rest of the
organization, head down in the books, is nearly extinct.

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