Developing excellent people management skills and having a proactive nature are critical for anyone aspiring to become a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in Mainland China, according to new research released today by recruiting experts Hays.
The research, outlined in a new report, the ‘DNA of a CFO’, shows that while most CFOs build their careers exclusively within finance they value non-finance related skills and attributes as key for career development.
The report, based on an extensive survey of 161 senior finance professionals in Mainland China, provides finance professionals with insight into what they need to focus on if they want to rise to a position of leadership.
“CFOs are typically the right hand of the CEO and – as our research shows - must have superior leadership skills, excellent interpersonal skills and a thorough understanding of how every part of the business impacts costs and earnings,” says Simon Lance, Managing Director of Hays Greater China.
“We found CFOs typically pursue the top job by building their career exclusively within finance – only four per cent of our respondents in Mainland China had worked in another speciality for part of their career,” says Simon.
The sectoral expertise can also be seen in the educational qualifications of Mainland China CFOs – 84 per cent of respondents have a bachelor’s degree in business and finance and 46 of the survey are CPA certified. That compares with 77 per cent and 36 per cent of CFOs in Asia, respectively.
“However, most of our respondents advise aspiring CFOs to pay close attention to developing interpersonal skills and not just their financial technical knowledge,” he says.
The top three skills CFOs advise the next generation of finance leaders to develop are commercial awareness (nominated by 61 per cent of respondents), involvement in the business rather than just the numbers (37 per cent) and people skills (35 per cent).
Respondents nominated the top five personal attributes needed to become CFO as having a proactive nature (52 per cent), hardworking (40 per cent), influential (35 per cent), analytical (31 per cent), collaborative (30 per cent).
CFOs still consider overseas experience as necessary to progress their careers. Of the Mainland China respondents considering working outside Asia, 44% believe that international experience is a must for their career development. That compares with 36% of CFOs in Asia who believe the same. “Only 32% of CFOs in Mainland China have worked outside of Asia, compared to 58% of Asia CFOs, but all of the respondents who worked overseas believed it was beneficial,” says Simon.
Yet despite the desire to get international work experience, Mainland China CFOs are also optimistic about the career opportunities on offer at home. “While 40 per cent of Asia CFOs believe there are more opportunities in international markets than in Asia, only 31 per cent of CFOs in Mainland China believe the same. This confidence in is partly driven by the emergence of Shanghai as a global financial centre,” says Simon.
“Looking at the results from all respondents, we found the biggest challenge facing CFOs today is changing industry and economic conditions. Around one-fifth of respondents also identified the digitisation of the economy as a major challenge,” says Simon.
Also launched today is the Asia edition of the DNA of a CFO report, which surveyed 411 senior finance professionals from across Asia. The DNA of a CFO 2018 is the fourth in the Hays DNA series in Asia and follows the DNA of CFO 2015, DNA of a CIO and DNA of an HRD.