This C-Scope Challenge is unique to Teams at the Top. Nowhere else in the organization does it all come together as it does here.

The critical perspective at the top moves beyond the analysis of any single element, and now includes much more the capacity to recognize the significance of change itself, the patterns of change, and the relationship of change in any one part to another – and ultimately to the alignment of the whole. The capacity to hold the parts and to see the whole with balanced objectivity becomes paramount.

Why is this so critical today? Largely because so many of the structural components are in motion simultaneously that the fundamental underlying assumptions of the business are being called into question more frequently. Not just one product line, or one division, or a market segment, but rather the whole of the business model – the linkages that brought it all together in the first place. If business leaders do not see that the pattern of relationships between the layers of glass has fundamentally shifted and thereby changed the underlying business premise, then the business itself is at risk. The responsibility for seeing the business from this larger perspective – the fundamental assumptions, the underlying Theory of the Business – lands squarely in the C-Suite. More than a microscope, telescope, or periscope combined, C-Scope requires a different kind of vision, a different leadership lens that is truly kaleidoscopic in nature.

All of this requires an incredible level of integration and discernment. Again, this is too much for one individual alone. A CEO must have a whole team, and it is critical that the Team at the Top knows this, owns it, and acts accordingly. While we will focus in the remainder of this article on how recent trends have turned the spotlight on the CFO and Finance, the critical learnings will apply across the entire team.

So Why Finance? Why Now?
Finance has Delivered
For starters, at least in Best Practices companies, Finance executives have earned the respect of the organization. Finance sits in the hot seat of fiduciary control, risk assessment, compliance, and investor and regulatory reporting. Demands are ongoing and hugely visible, both internally and externally. Finance has delivered well on a core function, critical to preserving shareholder value, with accuracy, timeliness of reporting, and reliability of financial data. The talent in Finance is analytic, fact based, and objective; they are able to ask the tough questions; they are reliable and trusted; and they know their stuff. As a functional support organization, Finance has earned the reputation of being disciplined, structured, and organized; able to deliver the bottom line, on time.

Central Nervous System
Without that respect, Finance would not earn a seat at the table. But to really understand “Why Finance? Why Now?” what is far more significant is the way in which the role and scope of Finance align with the challenge of C-Scope. For pulling it all together, seeing the layers of kaleidoscopic change and the intersections between the layers, Finance is uniquely equipped to serve. Much like the Central Nervous System in our bodies, Finance reaches out into the organization and brings critical information back up to the locus of decision making.

This unique role of Finance is defined by a cluster of attributes and factors in combination. Taken one at a time, they are as follows:

1. Finance Touches All
Finance reaches deeply and directly into every single part of the business organization, no matter how distant or differentiated. Financial information is required frequently and relentlessly, and flows both in and out. Loosely paraphrasing Abe Lincoln’s famous words, while other functional areas may touch some of the organization all of the time, or all of the organization some of the time, Finance touches all of the organization all of the time. In Best Practices firms, financial information flow creates an environment of immediacy and continuity, top to bottom, side to side, from one end of the value chain to the other. This factor alone is highly significant but is still only the beginning.

2. Holistic View
Information linking all of the parts to each other and to the whole, as well as the capacity to make sense of this information, is critical to the Team at the Top. Not only does Finance see and touch all the individual parts separately, but also pulls together all the parts in such a way as to make sense of the whole. Finance sees the total performance as well as the trade offs, the competing needs of individual departments, the relative performance of each, the argument for and against investment capital by division, the allocations by function. Best Practices CFOs effectively pull their Finance organization into all the critical points of intersection… of options, of decision making, of conflict resolution. Leading edge CFO teams’ capacity to see the whole of the organization is of enormous value to those responsible for the C-Scope Challenge. The inability to do so represents a serious gap for any company in today’s business environment.

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