Strategic Business Planning

The CFO must have the capability to provide a financial structure to the strategic planning effort of the business. This function is not simply a budgeting or forecasting exercise, but rather an ability to synthesize and translate ownership’s strategic plan into meaningful components such as: a staffing plan, an equipment and facilities plan, estimates of the cash flow requirements the plan may consume, and the impact of the new plan on the company’s current economic model.

Each of these decisions that require investing your money requires identifying how to measure returns on those investments, which can take a variety of forms based on your firm’s business requirements. How your company is going to benefit financially from investments in staff and capital expenses is critical to identify on the front-end. Our experience is that spending money is often easier than thinking through and executing a detailed plan. We’d rather spend a few thousand dollars up front to pursue meaningful opportunities and avert large loses later.

With the interdependence between finance and so many other departments, there is an increasing need for collaboration and responsiveness to support business decisions across the organization. Having a CFO who can address the financial impact of staffing and turnover issues, as well as manage the myriad unforeseen business events that surface inside or outside the firm, is critical in a landscape where Colorado companies are increasingly competing on a global scale.