Your New CFO Job: Mastering the First 100 Days

CFO turnover is frenetic; average tenure varies from twenty-eight months to about three years, depending on which research you look at. The first 100 days in the job are a good predictor of whether a finance chief's tenure will be longer than average -- or shorter, says Cindie Jamison, partner and national director of CFO services with executive services and consulting firm Tatum LLC. Jamison has steered plenty of finance executives into new positions, often in troubled firms. She met with Business Finance to discuss ways CFOs can avoid getting caught in the revolving door.

Business Finance: Is it possible to generalize about what a new CFO should do first, or should they play it by ear?

Cindie Jamison: It's definitely unique to each situation, but I would say there are some very elementary things that a CFO can do to ensure that the first 100 days are a success. The first thing would be, upon walking in the door or before even Day 1, tell the CEO "I'm going to do a really fast canvas of this situation. It's not going to take me weeks or months; I'm going to come back to you once I've taken a look around, and I'll tell you what my priorities should be and why."

And don't assume that he or she is going to agree with you or see the same things you see. It's really critical to sit down by the end of the first week and say "Here's your red flag areas; here's what has to happen right away, and here's the areas that can wait; here's what has to happen in a month or in a year," and get him on the same page as you. I think when people blow up in the first hundred days it's almost always because they didn't take the time to communicate and get concurrence up front.

One of two things is going to happen. That conversation is going to go well, in which case you've just staged your project management for the next, say, 93 days. It's a pretty logical executional play from there, assuming you check in every once in a while. Or the conversation doesn't go well, which happens probably more than 50 percent of the time. Many times they see the situation differently from you, so it's not a feel-good meeting. That can cost you some time. It might be more than one meeting, or you may need to produce some work to validate your point of view because they might not want to hear what you tell them.

BF: What happens next?

CJ: You assess whether you have the right organization to get that done. If a finance function or company is in crisis, either it's leadership -- in which case you're going to have a bad first meeting, but at least you've answered that question for yourself -- or it's resources and talent. Even if you're not thinking in turnaround mode, very often the first 100 days is about upgrading talent and reorganizing your department so it can achieve the goals you've agreed to. So the second step is to ask, "Do I have the right people to get this done in the timeframe I have?" Ninety-plus percent of the time, the answer is no.

And the third step is: Within 100 days, get a base hit or two. A lot of CFOs wait because they want to hit a home run, but it's really important to understand that base hits count more than home runs at this point. It's critical that by the end of those first 100 days you've checked a couple of boxes already on the things that you agreed needed to get done, and you've positioned your department to keep going on that list. If you don't do that, people start saying "I don't know about this person; they're not moving fast enough."

BF: Is it realistic to try to develop a strategic role in this timeframe?

CJ: No. It's realistic that they could understand the strategy; it's probably somewhat realistic, if it's not a crisis situation, that they could participate in validating the strategy. But I'm not sure they could have a lead role in re-carving the strategy. Also, CFOs these days are spending far more of their time on core financial activity and compliance, which really cuts into their ability to play the business partner role. It's very frustrating for them and for their CEOs and boards, who may not really understand how much time that's taking these days.

Communication is key. And it's not just communication up to the CEO and board; it's communication down. There are plenty of smart people in finance departments who don't feel they get enough mentoring from the CFO. And it's communication across: We did a survey last year in which 93 percent of CFOs reported that they've had a significant increase in requests from peer executives. Other functions -- operations, marketing, sales -- are coming to the finance department to get data and analysis to build their own business cases. So the more the CFO can build relationships with peers, the more they're viewed as a business partner, and the better success they'll have.

BF: Any other tips?

CJ: It's really important to get things written down. It's one thing to have a conversation with the CEO walking in the hallway about what you will get done, it's another to have an e-mail to get back to that says "We agreed that this was going to come first, this would come second." Unfortunately too many CFOs find themselves under fire after the first 100 days, and they're defending why they did or didn't do certain things.

You can do it in a very collegial, nice fashion, in an e-mail -- it doesn't have to be an overtly controlling kind of thing -- but just getting something in writing as opposed to verbally is a really good idea. I learned that one the hard way!