CFO Succession Planning for Family Businesses
Many family businesses stumble by treating the Chief Financial Officer as little more than an advanced bookkeeper, focused solely on record-keeping and routine financial management. They focus on surface-level qualifications – but fail to consider the fact that success in a chief financial role extends beyond spreadsheets and relies on more than dollars and cents. It requires pecuniary savvy, but also a deep understanding of the family’s values, their financial philosophy, and their expectations.
Stranberg helps family-owned and founder-led organizations navigate the complexities of CFO succession planning and hiring. By taking a holistic approach to family business succession planning, Stranberg helps organizations plan for, find, and place right-fit, long-term CFOs who align with their values and successfully manage their financial health.
Family Business CFO Hiring Considerations
CFOs maintain the financial fabric that supports the entire family business ecosystem, including the family, employees, customers, and the broader community. Hiring the wrong CFO can put your entire business at risk and jeopardize your personal finances and family legacy.
Unfortunately, it isn’t uncommon for family businesses to place CFOs who are qualified on paper but ultimately fail to work in alignment with the family or meet their expectations. These issues arise when family businesses take a narrow view of the CFO role and don’t consider common—but equally important—factors.
Family Values & Company Culture
Many family businesses have values that are deeply engrained but undocumented. When values manifest subconsciously—and haven’t been clearly articulated—a new CFO may make decisions that make financial sense but are in inadvertent opposition to the family’s values.
The Relationship Between Business & Family Money
It's common for family business CFOs to assume responsibilities that fall outside the business—and are tied to the family’s finances. Issues can arise when the line between the company’s money and family’s money is blurred, and expectations and goals aren’t communicated.
What’s Needed from the Role
Many family businesses assume they need a CFO without truly considering what they need from the role. When a position description isn’t tailored to an organization’s specific needs and goals, they may end up with a CFO, when what they actually needed was a chief accounting officer or controller.
Stranberg’s Approach
Getting CFO hiring right requires thoughtful planning and a more sophisticated approach than many traditional executive search firms can offer. If the role, values and expectations are poorly defined, no number of resumes will deliver the desired result—regardless of how qualified the candidates are.
Stranberg can help your family business find and place its ideal CFO by considering the whats before searching for the who.
Before embarking on an executive search, we’ll learn about your values and financial philosophy and work with you to craft a position description that aligns with your needs and long-term goals. Once you have clarity on what’s needed from the role, we will help you find an internal or external candidate who meets your specific needs. After placement, we will collaborate with your team to integrate your new CFO into the business through a structured process that fosters trust and alignment.
Here’s how we work:
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Define what your organization needs from its financial executive
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Find who is most qualified to fill the role, whether internal or external
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Ensure alignment through structured processes and continued support
OUR TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS
Case Studies
The Client: Automotive Supplier
The Problem: A multigenerational family-owned business needed a new CFO with a CPA and experience in public accounting. The CFO would need to have the character traits necessary to “speak truth to power” and thrive in the organization’s culture. Further, any selected candidate would need to commit to the family organization for the rest of their career without any long-term incentive or transparency in variable compensation.
The Solution: Stranberg helped the organization define the role and their expectations, then leveraged their expertise to sell the opportunity to qualified candidates. The search was successfully completed in early 2023.
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The Client: Manufacturing Company
The Problem: A fourth-generation family company needed succession planning support for their long-tenured CFO, who had built deep credibility within the family, and with employees, customers, and business partners. The project ran under confidentiality while the incumbent prepared to announce his retirement and required management of an internal candidate vying for the position.
The Solution: Stranberg built out a robust candidate pool and worked with the family, incumbent CFO, and board to map out a process that aligned with their timeline and high standards. The search was successfully completed in late 2018.
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Testimonials
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“From the start of the process to the result of finding an exemplary candidate, working with Stranberg has been a first-class experience. From executing the agreement for the search, outlining critical success factors for the position, and interviewing candidates, we could not have been more pleased with the communication, quality and result of this executive search. The candidate hired is now our chief financial officer and we expect he will be a part of the AriensCo executive team for many years to come. Working with Jim and Bill Stranberg has been a pleasure, as they are both personable, professional and experts in the field of executive searches.”
Dan Ariens
CEO, AriensCo
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“I had the privilege of working with Bill and his team on our recent search for a chief financial officer. Their deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities presented by family-owned businesses made them invaluable partners. Bill’s rigorous talent assessment cut through the noise, helping us identify a CFO who not only meets our requirements but also complements our company culture. I highly recommend their services for any company serious about securing top-tier talent.”
Mike Clover
President, Lacks Enterprises
How to Get Started
When it comes to CFO hiring, the stakes are high. Our holistic succession planning process was designed to help family businesses find financial executives who have both the competency to run their organization’s finances, and the temperament and values needed to ensure cultural alignment.
Contact a Stranberg succession planning expert to learn how our approach can help ensure you’re ready to hire a new CFO and retain them over the long term.
Are You Ready to Hire?
Find out if you’re ready to hire a family or non-family executive to fill your open CFO or other leadership role by completing our free, online succession planning assessment.
Completing the assessment will help you clarify the requirements, goals and success factors before you embark on an executive search and hiring process.
