The document describes various marketing roles within a company and the responsibilities associated with each role. It provides job titles, who they report to, direct reports, goals, responsibilities, challenges, and purchasing insights for several roles: Chief Marketing Officer, Creative/Advertising Executive, Digital Marketing Executive, Corporate Marketing Executive, Marketing Operations Executive, Product Marketing Executive, and Demand Generation Executive. The roles each have a focus on different areas of marketing such as strategy, creative, digital, branding, operations, product, and lead generation.

1. For customer use only as deployment guidance
Source material not to be republished or altered
©Microsoft Corporation

2. Meet “Julia” – [CMO]
Sets the marketing strategy and leads the marketing team to
deliver superior customer experiences and a positive
corporate brand image. Monitors marketing effectiveness and
industry success. Builds, presents, and argues the business
case for the marketing budget.
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
CEO
Marketing executives in the areas of: creative, digital, product,
corporate and demand generation & external agencies
 Increase top and bottom line revenues by X%
 Grow product market share by Y%
 Retain existing customers and secure new ones or increase the
number of qualified leads in the pipeline
 Increase brand awareness by driving X customers to our website
and stores/business
 Implement strategies that improve brand preference by X%
among key demographic groups
 Translate customer and marketing analytics into meaningful insights to get
a synchronized view of the customer
 Manage a growing team of internal and external resources
 Create a responsive team that has the agility to act quickly when new
marketing opportunities arise
 Find the information/technologies necessary to drive new revenues and
customers. (Technology awareness was identified by (54%) of CMOs as the
top competency to improve.)
 Highly influenced by recommendations from team, particularly digital
marketing/mktg. technology personnel, and external peers
 Budgets increasing in the areas of digital advertising, mobile marketing,
digital commerce, and corporate website
 A study by Forrester found that 54% of CMOs identified meeting revenue
targets as their most important business driver. What marketing programs
are driving the most revenues for your business?
 Did you know that 80% of customer data will be wasted due to immature
enterprise data “value chains”? Have you thought about ways you could
better leverage customer data in your programs?
 Did you know that nearly half of employees report that social tools at work
help increase their productivity, but more than 30% of companies
underestimate the value of these tools and often restrict their use? How
are you collaborating with your marketing internal teams and external
agencies today and do you have the right social and communication tools
in place?
 Bill Gates was recently quoted as saying that he believes the pace of
innovation is faster today than ever before. How are you using technology
today to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry, your business, and
your competition?
 Own the customer experience
 Set the company’s marketing strategy and maintain brand
awareness
 Advocate for, define and manage the marketing budget
 Lead the marketing team to meet lead generation, revenue and
market share goals for the company
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
 CMO.com, The CMO Club, Harvard Business Review, The CMO Collective,
LinkedIn Chief Marketing Officer Network, Fierce CMO
Trusted channels

3. Meet “Victor” – [Creative/Advertising executive]
Sets the creative direction and shapes the internal and
external brand image, particularly in the areas of
advertising and promotions
Job Titles:
 Creative director
 Advertising/promotions Director
CMO or digital marketing EVP
Graphic designers, advertising agencies, campaign and promotions
managers
 Increase brand awareness as tracked through survey data
 Improve customer engagement through increased response rates
to advertising campaigns from key demographic
 Drive Y sales from Z promotional campaign
 Improve the design and effectiveness of various creative
campaigns as measured through A/B testing and brand
perception surveys
 Test the impact and preference of different creative designs and
advertising campaigns among the target customer demographic
 Track and analyze the results of advertising campaigns
 Manage and coordinate with various external agencies and campaign
stakeholders
 Stay up to date on the latest customer engagement techniques, creative
marketing tools, hot industry topics, and visual trends
 Communicate new content availability & use guidelines internally
 Influenced by technology recommendations of third party agencies and
consultants
 Advertising and web work key priorities for 2014
 Exploring mobile marketing campaigns in more earnest
 63% of respondents in a recent Forrester marketing study identified new
customer acquisition as their top objective for 2014. What are your top
priorities from a creative perspective to attract and acquire new
customers?
 Evaluate and coordinate marketing agencies and vendors was a top
priority for CMOs this year, according to a recent Forrester study. How are
you collaborating with those vendors today? What social, communication
and collaboration tools are you using to manage your agencies and
internal creative teams?
 A recent Gartner study found that digital advertising is getting the largest
percentage of the advertising budget in companies today. In what ways
are you investing in digital to reach your potential customers? How are
you currently measuring the results of those campaigns? Are you obtaining
that data in real time so you can make immediate offers and adjustments
to maximize campaign effectiveness?
 Recommend the visual brand image and brand identity for the
company
 Design, implement, run, and analyze the results of marketing
campaigns
 Design promotions, videos, multimedia and other marketing mix
components that engage the consumer
 Develop storyboards, copy, headlines, graphics to support
marketing projects
 Own the creative vision and content for the company
 AdWeek, AdAge, MMA, IAB, UX Magazine, Fast Company Design, Creative
Design Pros LinkedIn group
 Often power users and followers of Adobe Creative Cloud, InDesign
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
Trusted channels

4. Meet “Benjamin” – [Digital marketing executive]
Identifies customer needs and conceives, develops, and
implements innovative digital marketing strategies to
engage them
Job Titles:
• Digital strategies manager
• Website director
• Data scientist
• Social media manager
• Mobile director
CMO or chief marketing technologist
Content strategists, Web, mobile, & multimedia developers, social
media managers, writers, SEO, email marketing
 Increase conversion rates by X%
 Increase engagement with social media followers
 Execute digital marketing campaigns that result in an ROI of over
Z%
 Introduce new ways of engaging with potential customers and
connecting with current ones (e.g. mobile, wearables, etc.)
 Increase web site traffic by X% and generate Y demand
 Reach customers and prospects across multiple, continually evolving
digital channels at the moments that matter
 Put in place the maps, tools and processes to extract data from digital
marketing and social media campaigns and prove ROI
 Generate content that aligns with customer interests and needs
 Determine how to evaluate digital campaign effectiveness by properly
attributing sales/revenue to each digital touch point
 Staying informed on the latest marketing technology trends
 Nearly ¾ of marketers that responded to a McKinsey survey believe their
budget for customer insights is too low.
 12.5% of digital marketing budgets are allocated to digital advertising,
followed closely by content creation and management.
 A recent McKinsey & Co. study found that 45% of companies admit they
have limited to no understanding on how their customers interact with
them digitally. What technologies are you currently implementing to get a
better understanding of how your customer interacts with your brand
across channels?
 Gartner recently stated that “social media is profoundly changing the
marketing function.” How are you leveraging social media both internally
and externally to listen to customers?
 Did you know that the daily time spent per person using a mobile device
has risen to 2 hours and 42 minutes and 64% of smartphone owners are
using their mobile devices to shop online? What are you doing to reach
your target customers on mobile?
 Up to half of all digital marketing activities are outsourced. How are you
managing and collaborating with all of these agencies and vendors?
 Plan and execute the end-to-end digital customer journey
including all web, SEO/SEM, marketing database, email, social
media and display advertising campaigns
 Design, build and maintain business social media presence and
digital content
 Measure/report performance of all digital mktg. campaigns
 Identify trends and insights, and optimize spend and performance
based on the insights
 Evaluate emerging technologies. Provide thought leadership.
 Mashable, TechCrunch, HubSpot Blog, CMO.com, ClickZ, AdAge Marketing
Profs, MarketingSherpa
 SXSWi, AdTech, PubCon, Inbound Marketing Summit events
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
Trusted channels

5. Meet “Emma” – [Corporate marketing executive]
Leads corporate branding, marketing communications,
and strategic IP
Job Titles:
• Brand manager
• Public relations director
• MarCom manager
• Analyst and investor relations manager
CMO
PR manager, community manager, marketing communications
specialists, analysts, brand strategist, marketing operations
 Increase brand awareness by X%
 Increase brand affinity and customer loyalty by Y%
 Increase media coverage in X, Y, Z key publications
 Adapt to the changing face of public relations that incorporates an
increasing number of digital tactics and social media techniques
 Communicate brand requirements and enforcing marketing policies across
multiple disparate organizations and departments
 Shift brand perception both internally and externally to achieve corporate
goals
 Monitor the effectiveness of communications campaigns and measuring
their impact
 Highly influenced by social media trends and online reviews
 Shifting traditional PR budget to new digital marketing initiatives
 Gartner recently predicted that in the next five years the "power to the
people" phenomenon will displace brand-centric strategies in favor of
buyer-driven everything.” How are you tapping into the power of the
people to drive brand affinity?
 A recent Gartner study found that “managing the brand and the customer
experience is increasingly difficult and requires technology and process
automation”. What technologies have you begun to embrace to automate
external communications?
 According to the CEB study, brands that simplify decisions are 115% more
likely to be recommended. What are you doing today to simplify the way
your brand communicates to customers?
 Gartner predicts that by 2016, 50% of large organizations will have internal
social networks, and that 30% of these will be considered as essential as
email and telephones are today. What internal communications
techniques and technologies are you utilizing to share brand messaging
and information?
 Create a lasting brand impression among consumers
 Work closely with many teams, including product devs,
researchers, marketing personnel and agencies to make sure the
company brand values and image are followed
 Supervising, creating and distributing public relations
announcements and documents. Work with and coordinate with
the media: TV, radio, newspaper, trade publications. Handle press
crises and negative reports.
 Managing investor and analyst communications
 Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NY Times
 PRSA 2014, IPRRC
 ,PR Week, PR News, Branding Magazine, Adweek
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
Trusted channels

6. Meet “Michael” – [Marketing operations executive]
Directs the development and implementation of
processes, tools, metrics, infrastructure and technology
to improve marketing operations
Job Titles:
• Marketing operations manager
• Director of marketing operations
• Deputy CMO/Chief of staff
CMO
Often stand-alone. Sometimes data analysts, business analysts. If
marketing has a technology group it will usually report here.
 Track and measure marketing program/campaign effectiveness
against sales objectives
 Maintain clear, open lines of communication between marketing
and sales
 Manage the budget to within 10%, meeting key metrics.
 Develop, maintain and distribute marketing reporting dashboards
and campaign reports to executive team
 Allocate resources efficiently and implement process
improvement
 Improve overall efficiencies measured against company standards and
program goals
 Maintain consistent processes and lines of communication across
increasingly global and disparate teams
 Produce accurate operational reports on a rapid basis.
 Measure performance against key metrics
 Drive meaningful organizational and process changes without causing
distractions
 Use very technical evaluation criteria. Usually have finance, sales
operations or IT background – not PR/communications.
 Highly influenced by data results/case study results
 Sirius Decisions recently stated that “measurement is a critical area that
sits squarely in the marketing operations domain and is evolving into a
higher-level effort to move beyond tactical metrics into assessing business
impact.” What key metrics are you tracking today to assess business
impact?
 Gartner recently stated that “by 2017 the CMO will spend more on IT than
the CIO.” What key technology initiatives are you spearheading for the
office of the CMO to improve marketing operations this year?
 In the research brief The Sirius View: A New Way to Look at Technology
Vendors, Sirius Decisions detailed a rigorous technology vendor
assessment methodology. What criteria are you using to evaluate vendors
to support your marketing operations objectives?
 Responsible for the capture and dissemination of marketing
information to the enterprise, be it performance metrics, data or
strategy/planning and initiatives and budgets
 Recommend and implement the systems and processes that help
generate marketing information in a systematic fashion
 Drive both visibility into and productivity for the marketing
organization, including process development and professional
development
 Implement lead generation programs for hand-off to sales
 Follow marketing automation platform provider blogs: Marketo, HubSport
and technology press: TechCrunch, GigaOm
 Marketing Operations Executive Summit event, MOCCA group
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
Trusted channels
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
Responsibilities
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
Trusted channels

7. Meet “Erik” – [Product marketing executive]
Researches, positions and leads the product strategy to
properly meet the needs of target customers
Job Titles:
• Product marketing manager
• Market research director
• Product evangelist
CMO
(Sometimes development organization)
Product managers, product marketers, research analysts
 Increase speed to market for product launches
 Increase product line revenues and margins
 Improve product performance and increase the “willing to
recommend” percentage of existing customers
 Assess target buyer product needs and the impact of product
updates on customers for existing or future products
 Stay on the forefront of technology and product development trends and
add those innovations to the product roadmap
 Access customer product feedback and goals easily and regularly. Avoid
over-customization of products based on requests
 Meet launch dates by driving a product vision across an organization that
is increasingly global and dispersed
 Communicate market intelligence and actionable product insights across
the entire organization
 Typically requires deep demonstrations and trials prior to purchase
 Strong influencer over technical buying decisions for the marketing
organization as a whole
 Invest in areas where there is stable revenue and potential ROI.
 Microsoft GM Eron Kelly was recently quoted as saying that “in the next
five years, we’ll generate more data as humankind than we generated in
the previous 5,000 years.” How are you sifting through all that data to get
the insights you need to set the product vision?
 Gartner recently discussed how digital technologies have created the
"always on" consumer, and stated that “they pose a greater challenge
than many marketers realize.“ How are you connecting with the always-on
consumer to improve your product strategy? What technologies are you
using to stay in sync with them?
 Gartner recently listed cloud computing as one of the top four “Nexus of
Forces” that are reshaping marketing. How are you leveraging the cloud to
collaborate and make product information readily available across the
organization?
 The Internet of Things is one of the most talked about topics this year.
How is the rapid emergence of smart connected products influencing your
technology decisions/product roadmap?
 Manage the entire product line life cycle
 Specify market requirements for current and future products by
conducting market research
 Drive a solution set across development teams through market
requirements, product contract, and positioning.
 Develop and implement a company-wide go-to-market plan,
working with all departments to execute.
 Evangelize products internally and externally
 Analyze potential partner relationships for the product.
 Pragmatic Marketing, TechCrunch, Fast Company
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
Trusted channels

8. Meet “Kendall” – [Demand generation executive]
Leads and analyzes the effectiveness of marketing initiatives
as they relate to the overall company's goals of driving sales
and revenues
Job Titles:
• Demand generation & lead nurturing director
• Event director
• Sales readiness
• Inbound marketing/ Content offers specialist
CMO or digital marketing executive
(sometimes chief customer officer)
Lead generation managers, tradeshow managers, email marketers,
content managers
 Increase conversion rate from X% to Y% within 12 months.
 Drive X thousand visitors to the website/store every month
 Collect X thousand leads at live events
 Execute webinars which generate X leads this year
 Produce X content offers each month which average Y downloads
 Improve landing page response rates by Y%
 Stay in step with customers and prospects in real time
 Put the tools, technology, and processes in place to automatically nurture
leads through the path to purchase
 Develop creative solutions for attracting new leads/customers
 Track campaign effectiveness
 Secure budget for the rising expenses of demand generation programs
(e.g. advertising, tradeshows, etc.)
 Heavily ROI focused
 Highly influenced by case studies
 Gartner found that companies that automate lead management see a 10%
or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. However, Jeff Ernst of
Forrester Research, Inc., estimates that only about 5% of marketers
actually use a full-featured marketing automation solution. What are you
using to stay in step with your customers?
 Research shows that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
Would you describe your business culture as responsive and agile? How
are you using technology to rapidly respond to customer needs?
 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is
the common cause of this poor performance. How are you responding to
your prospects in real time to push them further down the conversion
funnel?
 Create, produce and execute a demand generation plan to
include email marketing, nurture programs, lead gen forms,
webinars, live events, and content offers
 Direct the strategy for multi-channel communications and
analytics, tools and delivery
 Implement testing methodologies (e.g. A/B and multivariate
testing) on all elements of the digital marketing mix to improve
conversion rates
 Work with sales teams to maximize conversions
 Conversion Academy, Conversion Conference, Practical eCommerce, IRCE,
NRF
Reports to
Direct reports
Goals
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation
starters
Purchasing
insights
Trusted channels

9. For customer use only as deployment guidance
Source material not to be republished or altered
©Microsoft Corporation

10. Goals
Meet “Karla” – [CFO]
Karla leads the financial strategy of the organization by
providing financial projections and accounting services,
preparing growth plans and directing staff.
She is responsible for all P&L related activities including
business development, business strategy, planning, and
financial reporting.
She oversees risk management of all company assets
whether intangible or tangible. She makes sure the
company’s financial performance is on track with its
strategic direction.
Reports to
Direct reports
CEO or board of directors
VP/Controller/Finance director at a minimum and usually CAO,
CPO, treasury, Financial planning and analysis, and more
 Improve decision making – quickly understand what is
happening in the business from a financial perspective to
better direct the implementation of strategic business plans.
 Lower risks - Discover new ways to assess, control, and
alleviate risk. Ensure that the company complies with all
legal and regulatory requirements.
 Optimize costs and plan for growth.
 Manage the accounting/finance, managerial/investor
relations, legal, tax, and treasury departments. Increase
efficiencies in divisions by implementing operational best
practices and constructing reliable control systems.
 Harness data analytics tools to set financial goals and anticipate
future needs for the company to position it for growth in a
challenging market.
 Lead the cloud strategy and technology for the finance organization.
 Find new areas for revenue growth.
 Manage a disparate and often worldwide team of internal and
external stakeholders.
 Prioritizes BI, performance management, and business applications
to gain insight
 Makes technology decisions for both finance-specific and company-
wide initiatives
 Sponsors his or her own initiatives and often does not coordinate
them with the IT organization
 Listens intently to industry peers and lets peers influence decisions
 Expands role to become more strategic.
 A recent Gartner report indicated that for financial leaders “the top
business process area that needs technology investment is to
facilitate analysis and decision making (59%).” What initiatives are
you currently undertaking to help you make better, more informed
decisions?
 A recent study by CFO Outlook found that CFOs top priority was
growing revenue (74%) with cost savings as a solid second (38%).
What strategies are you putting in place to optimize costs and plan
for growth?
 Forrester recently stated that “top-down management matters less.
The CFO’s new role will be to enable people to make decisions more
quickly, rather than make all the decisions at the executive level.”
What are you doing to empower and manage your team?
 According to Crist Kolder’s latest “Volatility Report,” only 30 percent
of the largest public companies have a named COO. Have you seen
an evolution in the CFO role from pure controllership to focused on
broader operational areas around growth, strategy, pricing?
 Oversee all financial aspects of a company including setting
the financial strategy and monitoring performance.
 Manage team of financial, managerial, legal, regulatory, and
often operational and technological employees.
Responsibilities
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
10

11. Meet “Ken” – [VP/Controller]
Ken is the top managerial and financial leader. He
supervises the accounting department and assists
management in interpreting and utilizing information.
The CFO delegates many managerial responsibilities to
Ken and he oversees the team responsible for executing
financial strategies.
If there is not a Chief Accounting Officer then Ken is in
charge of all GAAP compliance and financial reporting
and tax compliance globally.
Reports to
Direct reports
CFO
Direct reports: Often manages the entire finance team. Can
also serve as a stand-alone chief of staff for the CFO.
 Implement strategies for improving cash monitoring and budget
forecasting in an era where “cash is king”.
 Growing job responsibilities as the CFO moves into more strategic
role.
 Implement detailed reporting and analytics systems that will help to
improve reporting efficiency – particularly with meeting the new
internal and external reporting requirements required when tougher
auditing rules go into effect.
 Prioritizes BI tools to gain insight into costs, revenue and overall
business performance.
 Interested in agility and cost transparency that the cloud offers.
 93% of 910 executives at U.S.-based multinationals and asset
management firms said their companies were in some stage of
changing their business models, according to a KPMG survey due to
be released this fall. How are you managing the implementation of
new financial strategies and process change in your organization to
keep up with the pace of innovation?
 An increasingly distributed workforce, changing business models,
heightened reporting requirements, and new responsibilities for the
CFO, are making the breadth of the controller role larger than ever
before. What do you see as your biggest challenge as your role
continues to expand within your organization?
 A recent report from Gartner stated that “an effective enterprise
harnesses data to change its business. Digital poses new questions,
generates new answers and creates new sources of revenue.” How
are you leveraging different digital technologies, like BI and cloud, to
reduce costs and grow and manage revenues for your business?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Implement strategies and business models by leading the
team responsible for executing on new financial initiatives.
 Reduce costs and increase growth in all areas of the
company.
 Improve the systems available for funds management to
better forecast cash flow positions and ensure that sufficient
funds are available to meet ongoing operational and capital
investment requirements.
 Implement tools to ease budget creation and production of
reports on performance, costs, cash flow, and business
analysis.
 Manage funds to maximize ROI while minimizing risk, and
ensuring that an adequate control structure is in place over
the transfer and investment of funds.
 Engage in financial analysis in such areas as forecasting,
budgeting, engaging in cost reduction analysis, and
reviewing operational performance.
Responsibilities

12. Meet “Arnie” – [Investor relations executive]
Arnie provides investors with an accurate account of the
company's affairs. This helps investors to make informed
buy or sell decisions.
He also serves as a bridge for providing market
intelligence to corporate management.
Reports to
Direct reports
CFO (sometimes to VP/Finance Director/Controller or
Treasurer)
Often stand-alone, sometimes manages reports who assist
with outreach, media relations, annual report preparation
 Discover and implement the tools which can help to easily maintain
strong current investor relations, gather informal feedback from the
investment community, improve the quality of information in analyst
reports and the quality of investor one-on-one meetings.
 Keep their finger on the pulse of investor sentiment towards the
company.
 Prepare for wider market-related issues, such as stock liquidity and
volatility,
 Recognizes that communication with investors has changed in light
of social media. Needs to use internal and external
collaboration/social tools to effectively reach the investor audience.
 Wants to be able to analyze investor sentiment with BI and social
listening tools.
 A recent report found that 73% of CFO's admit to having data
governance problems during financial reporting. What process do
you go through each quarter to gather accurate information? How
do you collect data on past performance and forecast for the future?
 The International Monetary Fund discussed how it is important to
balance analysis of how the overall industry is performing with how
your single business is functioning in the market. When it comes to
preparing your communications for investors what approach do you
typically take: a micro bottoms up approach or a macro market
driven one? How do you reconcile both?
 Former SEC Commissioner Troy A. Paredes said: “To the extent that
investors, analysts, and other securities market participants are
subject to information overload, the model of mandatory disclosure
that says more is better than less is incomplete and may be
counterproductive.” What tools and systems do you have in place to
streamline the amount of information you provide to investors?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Access the information necessary to develop and maintain a
company investor relations plan and perform a
comprehensive competitive analysis, including financial
metrics and differentiation.
 Implement tools and systems which improve the creation of
annual reports, SEC filings, presentations, press releases,
and other communication materials for earnings releases,
industry events, and presentations to analysts, brokers, and
investors.
 Create and present clear and accurate communications to
the investment community on behalf of the company,
 Monitor and present to management the opinions of the
investment community regarding the company's
performance.
Responsibilities

13. Meet “Mia” – [Controls & compliance executive]
Mia is the “police department” for the finance
organization. She ensures compliance with all applicable
laws, rules and regulations. Her duties may range from
monitoring trading activity, preventing conflicts of
interest and ensuring compliance with industry
regulations, to preventing money laundering and
potential tax evasion.
Reports to
Direct reports
Chief Accounting Officer or Finance Director/Controller
Tax, Risk Officer, sometimes legal resources
 Implement regulation policies and procedures throughout the
company and automate related processes.
 Oversee stakeholder management, cost/budgetary issues and the
desire to maintain a sound working relationship with regulatory
agencies.
 Stay up-to-date on new regulatory issues and rules changes and
easily assess their impact.
 Prioritizes tools that help with automating process/workflow related
to a variety of compliance initiatives (regulatory, etc.).
 Needs BI tools to analyze and report on controls and compliance.
 In a recent podcast on the Future of the Chief Compliance Officer,
industry experts discussed how the role of the compliance officer has
elevated dramatically over the past decade as a result of a plethora
of new legislation and unforeseen risks that emerged. Do you
foresee any new areas of risk emerging for your company, such as
geopolitical or e-commerce related? How are taking responsibility
for reducing the risk around these issues?
 According to a 2013 Gartner study, “By simply trying to keep up with
individual compliance requirements, organizations become rule
followers, rather than risk leaders.” How are you encouraging
innovation within the company while maintaining compliance?
 A recent survey of compliance executives by Thomson Reuters found
that 40 percent of firms spent at least half a working day per week
updating policies and procedures. Do you find yourself facing an
uphill battle trying to keep up with compliance requirements? How
are you maintaining policies and communicating them to your
organization?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Manage company performance by establishing and
monitoring policies and procedures, particularly around
contracts and government regulations.
 Improve the operations of the finance department, including
the speed and efficiency of payments and collections.
 Stay informed of regulatory changes. Easily communicate
internal financial and regulatory policies and procedures
company-wide.
 Prevent the company from accruing monetary fines, legal
and regulatory sanctions, and loss of reputation from non-
compliance.
 The role of the compliance officer should be to advise
management on regulatory matters, to monitor compliance
and to give independent assurance to the Board that
management is acting in compliance.
Responsibilities

14. Meet “Phyllis” – [Accounting executive]
Phyllis oversees the company's accounting operations.
This includes everything from regulatory compliance
with accounting standards and practices to working with
the chief financial officer (CFO) on developing financial
strategies for the company.
Reports to
Direct reports
CFO
Controls and compliance, (sometimes Tax, Risk Officer,) and all
accountants
 Achieve greater efficiency with streamlining the financial period-end
close and accounting reconciliation process.
 Getting reporting tools to work effectively and in an efficient
collaborative way.
 Communicate accounting policies across the financial team and the
wider organization and work across teams to make sure financial
goals are being met.
 Keep up to date with regularly changing accounting regulations.
 Needs reliable data and BI tools, as well as collaboration tools to
ensure that corporate financial goals and deadlines are being met.
 Having reliable data is critical to accounting. A study into finance
leaders’ attitudes to their company’s data recently revealed that one
in five are actually assigning a line on the balance sheet for data,
assigning a value to it and managing it as an asset robustly. How
accurate do you feel your data is today and how do you balance the
need for accuracy vs. avoiding complexity?
 The Financial Accounting Standards Board is constantly issuing new
updates, What tools are you using to stay on top of all the changes
and how is technology helping you manage this process? How
challenging is it to meet compliance reporting deadlines and
reporting requirements?
 As financial activities are more intensely scrutinized by shareholders
and government agencies, the demand for consistent reporting
policies across the enterprise is required. How are you improving
collaboration and process efficiencies across an increasingly global
enterprise to ensure accurate and timely reporting?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Ensure that all ledger accounts, financial statements and cost
control systems are operating effectively.
 Streamline communications and collaboration within the
finance and accounting teams to improve daily accounting
functions.
 Deliver all necessary accounting reports and records to the
leadership team and external stakeholders in a timely and
consistent manner.
 Maintain accurate reports that meet all current guidelines
and are delivered on time.
 Responsible for the accounting operations of the company,
Oversees the team responsible for maintaining accounting
records and producing financial reports. Manages a
comprehensive set of controls and budgets designed to
accurately report financial results, and ensure that reported
results comply with accepted accounting principles.
Responsibilities

15. Meet “Brad” – [Financial planning & analysis executive]
Brad researches macroeconomic and microeconomic
conditions along with company fundamentals to make
business, sector and industry recommendations for the
organization. He recommends a course of action for the
company based on current market developments and
prepares financial models to predict future economic
conditions. He is strategic and can look at pricing
elasticity, run trend lines, cohort analysis, deep insights
into the company and customers to support the
business case for new or improved products.
Reports to
Direct reports
CFO (sometimes to VP/Finance Director/Controller)
Supporting financial analysts depending on the size of the
company
 Consolidate and analyze data from various sources to project future
finance trends more accurately.
 Compare future forecasts for each country/division to the
information from previous plans.
 Streamline management reporting, particularly ad hoc reporting
requests.
 Prioritizes BI tools to analyze current corporate performance and
predict future performance scenarios.
 Reporting is a critical function for FP&A.
 According to Gartner research, 64% of surveyed organizations either
have invested in big data already (30%) or have plans to invest within
24 months (34%). How is the emergence of big data changing the
way your plan and forecast for the future?
 Gartner stated that “strategic financial planning is often conducted in
an isolated environment, making it challenging to relate to
operational plans”? What kinds of tools are you putting in place to
collaborate across the enterprise & develop a cohesive growth plan?
 At Microsoft we are continuously monitoring trends in the PC market
& hardware business to prepare for future growth. What are some of
the market trends you monitor to plan for the growth of your
business and how do you gather those insights?
 Mobile is impacting finance organizations with Gartner predicting
that, by 2016, at least 50% of organizations will deploy their ERP
applications to users via a post-PC environment. How do you plan to
leverage mobile to improve the way you consolidate and analyze
data?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Find ways to analyze current performance and project future
trends more accurately.
 Consolidate data for easy analysis. Dig into company data
and big data to look at trends of the past to forecast the
future.
 Implement or improve the quality of automated tools which
make ad hoc reporting of key metrics and forecasting
simple.
 Analyzes data to assess current conditions and forecast the
“bottom line” and future growth potential for the company.
 Often provides strategic guidance to the CFO of future
planning/trends, sometimes using predictive analytics.
Responsibilities

16. Meet “April” – [Procurement & purchasing executive]
April uses her exceptional interpersonal, management
and negotiation skills to source and procure required
services and materials for her company. She manages
the vendor relationship and ensures vendor quality and
costs are competitive and in line with business needs.
Contracts management is one of her most critical duties.
Reports to
Direct reports
CFO
Supplier management personnel: buyers, planners, contract
administrators and quality engineers
 Improve efficiencies in the vendor selection, contracts, and
management process.
 Leverage technology for faster delivery and payment processing.
 React quickly and appropriately to procurement and purchasing
issues.
 Collaborate with financial team to address budget and payment
processing issues.
 Prioritizes automated processes for vendor selection, management,
delivery and payments.
 Needs BI tools for insights into vendors, purchasing, etc.
 More companies are centralizing the purchasing function to
negotiate better discount with fewer vendors through economies of
scale. How is your purchasing system organized today?
 A recent Gartner survey found that “…in the next two years, one in
five organizations plan to use cloud for analytics and transactions.”
How do you plan to incorporate cloud technologies into improving
the purchasing process?
 32% of organizations surveyed in the AFP’s recent Electronics
Payment Survey indicated they are planning to incorporate mobile
payments for vendors over the next three years. How do you plan to
incorporate mobile technology into your future purchasing strategy?
 A recent international study, CPO Agenda 2014, stated that
“procurement heads have to react faster and more precisely to
efficiently help their companies quickly recognize industry-specific
challenges and take the appropriate counteraction." How are you
leveraging technology to be more responsive to vendors and
address purchasing issues quickly?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Implement systems and tools for streamlining the vendor
and supplier selection and management process, contracts
management, material acquisition, quality management,
receiving and payment processes.
 Provide required materials and services at the least total cost
to the company.
 Maintain all information regarding purchases and services
and monitor current inventory levels to more accurately
predict future needs of the company.
 Responsible for the management and administration of the
company’s procurement and supplier management
programs.
 Contracts services and manages the purchase of supplies,
equipment, and materials. Sources goods and services, and
negotiates price, quality and delivery terms.
Responsibilities

17. Meet “Theresa” – [Treasury executive]
Theresa is responsible for the money that flows in and
out of the business. She oversees liquidity risk
management, cash management, issuing debt, foreign
exchange and interest rate risk hedging, securitization,
oversight of pension investment management, and
capital structure (including share issuance and
repurchase).
Reports to
Direct reports
CFO (sometimes to VP/Finance Director/Controller)
Sometimes standalone, but often has direct reports who focus
on managing capital, investments, and associated risks.
 Translate data into the insights necessary to more accurately forecast
cash flow positions, related borrowing needs, and available funds for
investment.
 Manage a wide variety of financial accounts both local and
international.
 Balance disconnects between what a treasurer needs to support his
or her broad remit and what the CFO is willing to fund.
 Prioritizes automated tools to monitor cash and investments.
 Needs BI tools for insights into current and forecast cash flow and
related borrowing needs.
 A recent report by the AFP found that more than 70% of
organizations are struggling to convert to electronic payments, citing
customer/supplier hesitance to adopt and IT barriers as major
obstacles. How is your organization using technology to manage the
flow of cash into and out of your business?
 A recent report by the AFP found that 50% of organizations that
facilitate cross-currency payments via foreign currency accounts also
rely on banking providers, which leads to unnecessary banking
relationships and cost. Do you have tools that give you instant
insight into all of your accounts around the world?
 Gartner recently stated that the BI and analytics space will
increasingly focus on advanced capabilities to build sophisticated
analytics models that go well beyond the slicing and dicing of
multidimensional data. How are you producing the reports and
information necessary to make sure you have the funds to achieve
the company’s goals?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Access the information necessary to more accurately
forecast cash flow positions, related borrowing needs, and
available funds for investment.
 Create monitoring systems to ensure that sufficient funds
are available to meet ongoing operational and capital
investment requirements.
 Implement hedging techniques to mitigate financial risks
related to the interest rates on the company's borrowings,
as well as on its foreign exchange positions.
 Improve collaboration and communications with banks,
credit agencies, and third party treasury agencies.
 Responsible for corporate liquidity, investments, and risk
management related to the company's financial activities.
 Oversee and present budgets, accounts and financial
statements to the management committee.
 Liaise with designated staff about financial matters.
Responsibilities

18. Meet “Tom” – [Tax executive]
Tom is responsible for keeping the businesses
compliant with various local, state, federal and
international tax regulations. He implements measures
and develops policies for dealing with various areas
relating to taxes.
Reports to
Direct reports
Controls and Compliance (sometimes direct to CFO)
Tax policy personnel
 Analyze and react appropriately and in a timely manner to numerous
changes happening to international tax laws, in the U.S. in particular.
 Easily collect information from across teams and divisions to
properly file taxes.
 Find accurate information on recently changing/new tax laws and
issues to make sound financial decisions.
 Priorities revolve around technology to make the tax reporting
process more efficient and the ability to stay up to date with the
onslaught of tax issue changes occurring.
 A recent report by KPMG is predicting a dozen key tax issues in the
US that will be confronting businesses next year, including the
taxation of cloud-related activities, base erosion and profit shifting in
multinational corporations, and the far-reaching consequences of
the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. How are you staying
abreast of all changes to tax laws and new issues that constantly
arise and what role is technology playing to help you tackle them?
 According to a recent whitepaper from Accounting Today, many
finance organizations are now utilizing new cloud solutions and
digital tax workflows to stay competitive and increase profitability
through efficiency. Has your firm implemented digital tax strategies
and processes? Have you seen increased efficiencies and profits
from those initiatives?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Reduce taxes within the constraints of the company
strategy.
 Improve efficiencies in tax data collection and reporting
systems.
 Stay informed on changes to tax provision schedules, tax
rate, and tax rules.
 Increase the speed with which tax issues can be researched
and resolved.
 Manage tracking system for R&D tax credits to comply with
laws for certain sectors (technology, manufacturing, etc.)
 Accountable for the collection of tax-related information,
reporting to taxation authorities at the federal, state, county,
and local levels in a timely manner.
 Advises management on the tax impact of various corporate
strategies.
 Performs estimations, analysis, planning, and research.
Responsibilities

19. Meet “Annie” – [Risk executive]
Annie advises the organization on any potential risks to
the profitability or existence of the company. She
identifies and assess threats, put plans in place for if
things go wrong and decides how to avoid, reduce or
transfer risks.
Reports to
Direct reports
Controls and Compliance (sometimes directly to CFO)
Internal auditors
 Manage the uncertainty associated with changes to government
regulations (an example is healthcare changes in the U.S.), by
accurately monitoring changes and providing the data/information
necessary for compliance.
 Improve risk reduction strategies by integrating risk and forecasting
data into strategic decision making and capturing relevant data
within the company.
 Prioritizes BI tools that can take internal and external data sources to
show insights into potential risks.
 A recent Ernst and Young study found that 53% of CROs listed
regulations as the primary challenge for the upcoming year? In
today’s fast-paced, connected world, how do you assess corporate
risk from both internal and external sources and keep up to date
with the tsunami of regulatory changes that continue to come your
way?
 A recent report from the Association of Financial Professionals (AFP),
found that In the wake of recent security breaches, 63 percent of
organizations have either adopted additional security measures or
are planning to do so in the near future. What is your organization
doing to reduce the risks associated with security breaches?
 Eighty-four percent of respondents in a recent AFP report said that
their organizations are exposed to the same or higher level of
uncertainty today than three years ago. What are the top risks for
your organization and how are you using technology to address
them?
Challenges
Conversation starters
Purchasing insights
Goals  Monitor operations at a glance to determine the nature of
all risks to which the company is subjected and identify any
changes to these risks.
 Implement tools for analyzing the probability of loss from all
types of risks and recommending methods for the
mitigation of losses, such as through outsourcing of
operations, changes to work instructions, or the
procurement of insurance.
 Ensure that the company is in compliance with all
government regulations.
 Responsible for the monitoring of all risks within a company,
as well as for recommending ways to mitigate those risks.
 Implementing sound internal controls.
Responsibilities