Tuesday, 27 May 2008  
 
 
The role of the CFO is fulfilling, satisfying and lucrative with the professional and personal demands remaining high. Only the best succeed, said Malcolm Simister of Parson Consulting at the Melbourne Chartered Accountants Business Forum yesterday. 
 
“CFOs must be incredibly skilful, talented and have the highest personal qualities’” said Mr Simister. 
 
“They need to be able to balance conflicts of interest such as compliance, strategic and commercial interests, with the time available,” Mr Simister continued. 
 
This was echoed in a survey commissioned by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia last year, where it was revealed that CFOs in Australia spent 50 per cent of their time on traditional compliance tasks and only 30 per cent on value adding strategic and commercial work.  
 
In addition, more than 90 per cent of the CFOs surveyed said that maintaining a satisfactory work-life balance is challenging. And almost 90 per cent said that finding time to manage career and opportunities for professional development is challenging.  
 
“Being a CFO is a lifestyle commitment - the rewards are great but so are the sacrifices. A CFO needs to divide their role into two manageable parts, a strategist and a steward to benefit both the business and themselves,” said Mr Simister. 
 
The Melbourne Chartered Accountants Business Forum continues until Wednesday.