Want to become a CFO? This skill will make you a desirable candidate

“Our clients place great value on CFO candidates with P&L experience,” Scott W. Simmons, co-managing partner of executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, told me. “I believe this goes hand-in-hand with the years-long trend of companies placing higher value on operational finance skills over other areas when it comes to CFO candidates.” 

The role of managing profit and loss (P&L) requires handling the increases and decreases in revenue and costs, and having a holistic understanding of the organization and expenses. Therefore, Simmons explained, it’s critical to understand how a company generates capital and where it spends that capital—and how to ensure sure there’s more money coming in than out. 

“Owning a P&L is viewed as highly valuable because it affords a deeper understanding and broader perspective of what makes a business run,” Simmons said. Not all CFO candidates have this on their resumes. If you want P&L experience, you have to be intentional about it.

Saori Casey, who served almost 13 years as VP of finance at Apple, is now the new CFO at Sonos, a developer and manufacturer of wireless, portable speakers and home sound systems. I recently asked Casey, who starts at Sonos on Monday, if there was a particular part of her experience that has prepared her to become a CFO for the first time.

“Most recently, I helped manage Apple’s total company P&L—working closely with the CEO and the CFO and contributed to scaling the company from approximately $65 billion to nearly $400 billion in revenue,” Casey told me. 

But she also has experience with investor relations and engaging with board members from having worked side-by-side with R&D, sales, and operations.

Another example of a finance chief who first “owned the P&L” is Coca-Cola Company’s CFO John Murphy, according to Simmons. Joining the company in 1988, Murphy was named CFO in 2019 and president in 2022. From 2016 to 2018, he served as president of the multinational beverage giant’s Asia Pacific group responsible for operations in the group’s five business units, and before that, two other divisional president roles. “Prior to being named CFO, [Murphy] had three successive P&L roles in Asia Pacific, South Latin America, and Central Latin America,” Simmons said. Ranking No. 100 on the Fortune 500, Coca-Cola had $43 billion in revenues in 2022. 

Crist Kolder’s new Volatility Report, based on data through Dec. 31, provides additional insight about the path to the CFO chair. Of the current sitting CFOs in the combined Fortune 500 and S&P 500, 24% were finance chiefs at another company before taking on the role, 19% were corporate finance executives, 13% were corporate controllers or chief accounting officers, and 9% were divisional presidents.

Another finding is the number of sitting CFOs with an MBA continues to outpace those with a CPA. In 2023, 52.5% of sitting CFOs had an MBA compared to 38.5% with the CPA credential, according to the report. And 13.7% had both an MBA and CPA credential.

CFOs predict: We’re still in the first month of 2024, so I’m continuing to share predictions from CFOs on how the role of a finance chief will evolve. Here’s one more:

“Today’s financial leaders are responsible for driving enterprise-wide strategy, focused on the long-term success of the business versus solely year-over-year performance. This is only going to accelerate in 2024. More than ever before, CFOs are key strategic partners to the rest of the C-suite, partnering closely with our peers to create and execute strategies that protect and preserve capital but also allow us to identify new value-creation opportunities and deploy resources against them. The finance function is no longer siloed—we regularly partner with other teams.” —Tricia Tolivar, CFO at Cava, a Mediterranean fast casual restaurant chain

Have a good weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Some notable moves:

John Felton was named SVP and CFO at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud division. Felton will succeed AWS’ current CFO Richard Puccio. Felton most recently served as SVP of worldwide operations at Amazon since 2022. He has been with Amazon for over 19 years, including the last 12 years within operations. Udit Madan, Amazon’s VP of transportation, will take over leading worldwide operations.

Michael Fiddelke, CFO at Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) was named chief operating officer, effective Feb. 4. Until his replacement is named, Fiddelke will continue to serve as chief financial officer for the company. CFO since Nov. 1, 2019, he joined Target as an intern in 2003. Since that time, Fiddelke has held a variety of leadership positions across the organization, including finance, merchandising, human resources, and store operations.

Mallorie Burak was named CFO at Energous Corporation (Nasdaq: WATT), an RF-based wireless power network solutions provider, effective Jan. 15. Susan Kim van-Dongen, the company’s prior interim CFO, stepped down. Before joining Energous, Burak served as president and CFO of Knightscope, Inc., and CFO of ThinFilm Electronics ASA. 

Olivier Leonetti was named EVP and CFO at Eaton (NYSE: ETN), an intelligent power management company, effective Feb. 5. Leonetti succeeds Thomas B. Okray, who is leaving the company for personal reasons. Leonetti joins Eaton from Johnson Controls, where he served as EVP and CFO. Before joining Johnson Controls in 2020, he served as CFO of Zebra Technologies Corporation and Western Digital Corporation. 

Eric Bouchard was named CFO at Axiom, a provider of tech-enabled legal, contracts, and compliance solutions. Bouchard was previously CFO of Nestlé Health Sciences for more than four years. His executive appointment at Axiom follows the appointments of Ashlin Quirk as general counsel, Katrina Benjamin as chief product officer, and Andy Burtis as chief marketing officer last year.

Julie Andrews was named CFO at Orthofix Medical Inc. (Nasdaq: OFIX), a global spine and orthopedics company. Andrews previously served as CFO for Smart Wires Technology. Before that, she was the SVP of global finance for Wright Medical Group. Andrews also held roles at Medtronic Inc. from 1998 to 2012, including serving as VP of finance for the Spine and Biologics division. 

Jazelle Lopez was named CFO at Xenith Solutions and Xenith Management Group. Lopez joined Tri-Cor Industries (a wholly owned subsidiary of Xenith Solutions) in 2012 as the GL accountant, becoming accounting manager in three years. She left Xenith Solutions and worked for Aveshka as the director of finance before returning to take over as CFO. 

Big deal

Randstad's 2024 Workmonitor report explores themes such as employee ambition, motivation, and flexibility.

Ambition is no longer viewed in its traditional sense of career progression as work-life balance is a high priority for employees, according to Randstad. Fifty-one percent of employees surveyed are happy to stay in a role they like even if it doesn't lead to a promotion. Work-life balance now ranks as highly as pay on workers' lists of priorities (93%)—more than any other considerations. And when looking at their next career move, work-life balance is even more important (57%) than higher pay (55%). The research suggests companies will need to reconsider the ambitions of talent and forge strong connections with their workforce. 

However, employees do want to secure their current job through ongoing training (72%), especially in the areas of AI and IT. The findings are based on a survey of 27,000 workers in 34 markets across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Going deeper

Here are a few Fortune weekend reads:

"Deutsche Bank’s finance chief says we’re living through a ‘pinch me moment’" by Eleanor Pringle      

"Uber’s $1 billion bet on delivery app Drizly is getting shuttered after less than 3 years—but it’s still delivering alcohol" by Chris Morris

"BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF becomes first in class to reach $1 billion in assets under management" by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

"7 immune-boosting foods to eat when you’re sick with COVID or flu" by Alexa Mikhail 

Overheard

“The opportunity and risk is pretty similar in that there is this wildly transformative, disruptive technology in generative AI that you can’t get through any conversation without talking about.” 

—Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told Fortune CEO Alan Murray at a dinner in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.