Paul Barnhurst and a colleague debate merging CFO and COO roles. Not every finance leader can run operations, and vice versa. Leaders in both jobs need people around them willing to disagree, or they'll make worse decisions alone.
I don't think every finance leader's gonna be a great COO, and I certainly don't think every COO can be a great finance leader. I think the role itself, bringing those 2 functions closer with strong leaders underneath that can guide their respective functions, is where the power can be.
And 100% agree. More complex the role, more manufacturing. There's certain industries where it doesn't make sense at all. There's others where it may be great. There's different businesses. But I think you made a really good point. If you do bring it together, you talked about you have to be able to push and pull. And I think that shows the importance of you gotta have people around you that aren't yes people. People that will challenge, because if you get someone who's doing both CFO and COO role and they don't have those people that will challenge them, you're going to make suboptimal decisions. It's human nature. If you make all the decisions by yourself and don't really listen to others and let surface what's best, it's going to hurt you in the long run.
Trust and Leadership Lessons for FP&A From 100+ Top Leaders with CFO Jon Laudie
