Germon Knoop, CFO at Irdeto spoke at the CFO Event in Frankfurt 2013

1. Germon Knoop
Global CFO Irdeto,
division of Naspers

2. “ Don’t tell me we
just hit a tree;
help us navigate
through the
forest !!”

3. CFO as strategic business partner
•What does this mean?
•Why?
•How can we transform traditional finance teams into true business
partners?
•What are the challenges?

4. CFO as strategic business partner - What does this mean?
•Understanding the business, the strategy, the customers, the
products or services the organisation provides
•Understanding where and how the company creates value for its
stakeholders
•Identifying the strategic opportunities and risks of the company
•Defining and measuring relevant KPIs for execution
•Building a risk control framework to enable to anticipate and
mitigate the critical risks

5. CFO as strategic business partner - Why?
•Ideal position of the CFO in the heart of the organisation
•End-to-end ‘neutral’ visibility of the entire organisation
•Differentiator for the organisation, increasing predictability and
therefore market value
•Differentiator for the CFO team, ability to attack and retain talent
•Differentiator for the CFO as key part of the leadership team, right
hand and delegate of the CEO

6. deal support,
strategic planning,
e
M&A
lu
va
d
de
ad
management reporting and
d
analysis, forecasting, project
se
ea
management
cr
In
financial reporting, audit, compliance, ERP
systems, tax, internal controls, risk management
6

7. CFO as strategic business partner - How? (to transform)
•Understand the strategy, value, risks as discussed before
•SWOT the finance organisation (People, Systems, Processes)
•Look at enablers to create room for added value work
• e.g. integrated forecasting – planning – reporting, possible
outsourcing of transactions processing
•Get buy in for the ‘end game’ (the ‘to be’ state)
•Build a transformation plan and start transforming

8. CFO as strategic business partner - Challenges
•Get the CEO and the leadership team behind you (demonstrate
the added value)
•Get the finance team behind you
•Don’t get distracted by day-to-day overload
•Don’t loose sight of your core CFO responsibilities – i.e. balance
between ‘challenge’ and ‘support’
•Stay true to your vision!

9. CFO as strategic business partner – Group Discussion
•Does this work for your organisation?
•What is the greatest risk preventing a good transformation?
•Are there critical areas of conflict between your fiduciary
responsibilities?
•Do we risk taking too much of a COO or CEO role?
•…..

10. Thank You!