Once the Trains Are Running On Time, Then What?

Does your finance department contribute strategic direction to your firm's business?  Or are you satisfied if they just have accounts-receivable buttoned-down?

According to this survey by Accenture, 79% of executives polled viewed "strategic financial thinking" as one of the three most important qualities in a CFO, but barely one-third felt their finance departments actually made a contribution to executive decision support.  If it's true that finance is merely "how you keep score," then I suppose it's OK if the umpires can't coach.  But if you envision finance—and if your CFO envisions finance—as a critical ingredient in your team's performance, then this survey, while anecdotal, is alarming.

To be sure, the trains must run on time, but that's scarcely an aspirational vision.  If your CFO is not fully engaged with the management team, whose fault is it?