(from CFO Innovation) How to present complex financial stories to a potentially challenging audience? Tips from seasoned CFOs include developing a script that elaborates on key themes and aims for simplicity, clarity and briskness. "We try to provide highlights and meaningful color, most importantly a view of top-level metrics and then specific examples of topics of interest,” said Ken Stillwell, CFO of Pegasystems, a Massachusetts provider of customer engagement software. "I try to connect the dots instead of reading a laundry list."
Be sure to work in alignment with the CEO as well (or head of school, in the independent school context). Your remarks should be connected and consistent. "The CEO is expected to speak more about higher-level strategy and operations — what is happening in the industry and the marketplace and what the company is doing in its plans for the future," said Mary A. Winston, a former CFO and now a CEO. "The CFO follows up with a deeper layer of details based on the CEO's forward-looking statements — the numerical outcome of these strategic directions."
Listen to the latest episode of the Net Assets podcast.
