With CFO turnover hitting a seven-year high, interim and fractional CFOs are once again in the spotlight. The “supply and demand” issues that have impacted the CFO field over the past few years — including an ongoing accounting talent shortage and rising retirement rates — mean more companies are considering different criteria for filling the top finance seat, Sutker Moran President Scott Moran said.
One of the challenges today is “there continues to be more individuals retiring out of the [CFO] seat than entering the CFO seat,” Moran, who has served as president since June 2017, said together in an interview with Managing Director Alan Samsky.. “So there's a supply and demand kind of imbalance in terms of the CFO level, and then the talent associated with that.”
The CFO training ground
Founded by Moran and partner Howard Sutker, the business consulting and CFO service provider looks to offer what Moran called a “full coverage” service aimed at meeting the businesses’ needs in the moment.
“Our firm approach is to provide, through a team-based model, the skill sets needed for that business at the point in time that they're in,” he said.
Leveraging such a model comes as demand for interim talent overall has skyrocketed in recent years, growing 310% since 2020, CFO Dive previously reported, citing an April report from Business Talent Group, a Heidrick & Struggles company. Requests for interim C-suite leadership in particular have risen, while interim CFO asks made up 51% of such requests, the report found.
“What we've seen is businesses saying, I need to get this higher-level acumen in my business, but I'm not going to spend the W-2 [full-salary] dollars necessarily associated with it,” Moran said.
The “team-based” approach affords companies a wider range of skill sets and experiences, Samsky said. He has served as managing director at the business for six years after joining the Chicago-based business in July 2019, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Because the platform has “experience as CFOs and controllers, but also as consultants, we're able to pivot very quickly when we see a company beginning to slide in terms of their financial performance,” he said. The platform can then “use a lot of the skill sets and experience that we have to help companies get back on the road to sustainable profitability.”
On the side of financial professionals, one of the things that often attracts potential candidates to the business is the “educational aspect” of getting experience in those roles, the executives said.
“We get that question all the time when we're recruiting and doing interviews: ‘What do you guys have in place to help me learn the skills to be the CFO?’” Moran said. “‘What do you do week to week, month to month, year to year?’”
Honing tech-forward skills
Another factor influencing the growth of the fractional or part-time CFO market is the continuing evolution of AI. Over the past few years, the CFO’s remit has continued to broaden, with many finance chiefs now responsible not just for managing financial responsibilities and driving strategy, but for supervising digital transformation.
Finance chiefs are fielding more questions about how AI can be integrated into their business, so “there's this whole efficiency demand that's changed over the last 10 years and will continue to change in the next 10 years forward,” Moran said.
“That won't stop, so staying educated on what's available to you and understanding what can be utilized in your business, [that’s] s a new skill and a new demand, I think, on the CFO,” he said.
