CFOs are doing more than ever: Egon Zehnder Survey

A survey of 600 CFOs by global hiring firm Egon Zehnder reveals that 82% of respondents have seen their roles significantly grow over the last five years. However, 60% believed that they were still not considered a preferred candidate for the CEO’s role, despite managing a plethora of risks, planning for unforeseen events, managing ESG, M&As, strategy, and whatnot. Most blame it on a lack of networking, making their claims weak for the top job.

Talking about the additional responsibilities, 55% revealed that ESG is the latest job on their platter added over the last two years, while 44% said it was M&A (responses are not mutually exclusive).

The experience was not the same across regions. While 81% of CFOs in North America and 70% in Asia believe that their role has expanded significantly in scope and complexity and the trend is likely to continue. Only 45% of CFOs in Latin America concurred with this view. Around a third of the CFOs from this region have not seen any significant expansion in their roles.