CFOs May Have the Toughest Job in the C-Suite

They’re no longer bean counters and more like strategic advisers

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In March 2020, Gina Mastantuono had been chief financial officer at software maker ServiceNow Inc. for about two months. When the pandemic hit, she had to make a series of snap decisions, including advising the chief executive officer to continue with hiring and expansion plans despite the prospect of slower revenue growth and shifting most of the company’s 10,000 employees to remote work.

It’s largely panned out: The Santa Clara, Calif., provider of business workflow applications clinched almost $6 billion in sales last year, 70% higher than pre-Covid, and now has more than 19,000 employees. CFOs, says Mastantuono, are more like strategic advisers these days “and much less the bean counters of the past.”

The CFO’s job, already one of the most complex in corporate America, has expanded to become what’s arguably the toughest C-suite role. As the top financial manager, the CFO keeps track of cash flows, does strategic planning, oversees accounting and taxation, ensures financial reports are complete and accurate, and interacts with the capital markets. The burden has increased in recent years in part because of the pandemic, says Steve Gallucci, who leads a Deloitte LLP program that advises financial executives. “That moves the degree of difficulty of the role to a place it’s never been before,” he says.