In today’s competitive global economy, the role of chief financial officer has expanded, demanding a dynamic blend of finance expertise, strategic thinking, and leadership skills. Increasingly, the CFO is required to be forward-looking, with a broadened perspective that goes beyond finance to encompass enterprise-wide concerns. The Emerging CFO: Strategic Financial Leadership Program provides senior finance executives with insights and tools to see this bigger picture, make better strategic financial decisions, build strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, and assess their own personal leadership styles to become more effective leaders. Participants will return to work with a comprehensive leadership skill set that will empower them to affect change across their organization and succeed at the highest level.
Ilya A. Strebulaev, an Associate Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is an expert in corporate finance and credit risk. His current research explores dynamic financial decision making, financial innovation, and financial structure of corporations. His work has been published in major finance journals and his research has received prestigious academic awards, including the Brattle Award, the Trefftzs Award, and the DFA-Fama Prize. He has also been awarded the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as the Inaugural Masters in Management Best Teacher Award at the London Business School.
Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations; Director of the Center for Global Business and the Economy; Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior; The Hank McKinnell-Pfizer Inc. Director of the Center for Leadership Development and Research; Codirector of the Executive Leadership Development Program
Moghadam Family Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior; Codirector of the Executive Program for Women Leaders
James Irvin Miller Professor of Accounting; Professor of Law (by courtesy), Stanford Law School; Codirector of the Directors' Consortium Executive Program; Director of the Corporate Governance Research Program; Senior Faculty of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford
Managing Biases in Strategic Judgment
People rely on various heuristics to make most decisions and are subject to different cognitive biases in evaluating choices. Most of the time, they are unaware of these heuristics and biases, even though their impact is typically large. A new and exciting interdisciplinary field of research at the intersection of finance, economics, psychology, and neuroscience explores the impact of heuristics and biases on financial decisions. This session will explore fundamental insights and recent advances using examples from corporate finance and investment, and offer strategies to improve participants’ own decision making.
Influence Without Authority
Effective finance leaders don’t simply lead by fiat—they often must influence and persuade other non-finance colleagues to understand their position and go along with their ideas. This session will consider a number of effective tactics of interpersonal persuasion and analyze visual demonstrations of each approach. Examples will help explain why a tactic works, when it works best, and what its limitations might be. Participants will also learn how to put these influence tactics to work to support their attempts at implementing change across their organization.
Discovering and Leveraging Strategic Alignment
Finance leaders in startup companies often must deal with uncertainty about where the fledgling organization is headed as it finds its place in the market, making financial planning a challenge. In many cases—including new initiatives taken by large organizations that move into new markets—success may emerge from a process of discovery rather than a completely conceived strategic and financial plan. Even when products, markets, customers, and technologies in an industry are well understood, successful strategies can still emerge as some organizations figure out how to do a better job in a well-defined industry. In such instances, leveraging a firm’s strategy requires that its finance leaders learn how to make better use of what they already know.
This program is designed for senior finance executives—e.g., CFOs, treasurers, controllers, VPs of finance—especially those who aspire to become strategic CFOs. Applicants should have at least 10 years of work experience, with at least 7 years of management experience, and a high level of managerial responsibility within their organization. Participants from all industries and countries, and companies of all sizes will find this program valuable.
Participants will complete a 360-degree feedback assessment, which provides an in-depth look at how they are perceived by their peers, managers, and subordinates. A personal coach will help participants interpret the feedback and develop an individualized action plan for applying these insights to their on-the-job performance through a combination of face-to-face and virtual sessions.
