What is the Competitive Edge of the "New" CFO?

For those of us in Finance, we've mostly been known as number crunchers, as this article explains, but now, whether you are the CFO of a large corporation or a small business owner, you eventually will have to adjust to the technology disruption. It seems to me, the ones that adjust the fastest will be the leaders of the pack. The one element that this article didn't give the CFO's credit for was succession planning. In today's fast moving world with social media and technology, news moves fast, so planning ahead for either a change in command or a sale is a necessity, so with all these responsibilities, how can a CFO stand out?

Reputation is something most CEO's have had the pleasure of dealing with, but since the financial crisis, the CFO's role has become a much larger part. In our opinion, working with businesses of all sizes, "debt" has been a dirty word since the Great Recession. Where a CFO can stand out is if structured correctly, and coinciding with a proper payoff plan, debt actually can be a beneficial tool in business. We see so many business owners put all their capital into physical assets to avoid using debt, and when cash is needed, they put themselves in a bind. This coincides with keeping income low for tax purposes, and then, you have the perfect storm of not being able to get a loan and being cash poor and asset heavy. A CFO can avoid this "storm" with proper planning. This in turn protects the reputation of the company that spreads like wild fire with social media and technology today.