Innovation and valuation benefits when hiring a fractional CFO from Sam McQuade CFO of Panterra Finance
5 min readAdvantages for startups when hiring a flexible Chief Financial Officer from Sam McQuade CFO of Panterra Finance: A fractional CFO can field his or her experience to ensure that the implementation of new systems is smooth and glitch-free and is done without any disruption to your existing workflow. Raise capital: Business expansion requires the infusion of new capital. From valuing the company, to speaking with potential investors, to taking care of the post-deal paperwork and due diligence, a fractional CFO becomes indispensable to the process of raising capital.
A fractional CFO is an experienced CFO who provides services for organizations in a part-time, retainer, or contract arrangement. This offers a company the experience and expertise of a high-end CFO without the in-house cost—salary, benefits, and bonuses—of a full-time CFO. Unlike a full-time CFO who oversees and maintains all general financial strategy or an interim CFO who performs CFO duties before or between CFO hires, a fractional CFO’s duties are typically on a project basis and specifically tuned to the company’s particular challenges or goals.
In these early years of creating innovations in the corporate C-Suite, Sam McQuade nurtured and created a maverick approach to new finance operations for Stryker as it broke through to the lucrative emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)). While approaching the markets in the growing economies of Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and Romania, Sam McQuade was recognizing the need for Interim and Fractional CFO’s for the avalanche of incubators and startup companies in these underdeveloped economies that were on the cusp of being integrated into modern International Finance systems and markets. See additional info on https://www.samueledwinmcquade.tumblr.com.
The CFO function is evolving at lightspeed. With digital transformation and societal changes, the CFO role is rapidly turning into one of a “Chief Fiduciary Officer”, which is going beyond the traditional financials to look towards the future and lead long term value creation in a world of many unknown risks. Storytelling is a very powerful tool to engage and energize teams about value creation and potential pitfall areas. The traditional path of CFO usually starts with a solid foundation based on technical knowledge and then after about 15 years, the great leaders earn the coveted title.
Are a CEO and a CFO the Same Thing? No, a CEO and a CFO are not the same thing. However, CFOs are required to work closely with the other senior executives of a company, such as the CEO. These executives are sometimes referred to as the C-Suite of the company, representing the company’s highest level of decision-making. Although the CFO is typically subordinate to the CEO in the corporate hierarchy, CFOs will generally be the foremost decision-maker on all matters within the Finance department of their firm.
The CFO helps select skilled staff for the finance team and works with departments to allocate budget for human capital management. CFOs put complex data — current, past and predicted financial results — in perspective and help the CEO make sound financial decisions: Should we introduce this new product or service? Can we afford to on-shore our supply chain? What are the tax implications of our employees working from anywhere?
Another purpose of a DAO is to automate decision-making. In a traditional organization, decisions are made by a small group of people. This can often lead to delays in decision-making. With a DAO, decisions are made by the code that governs the organization. This makes it much faster and easier to make decisions. In business environments, it frees up space for people to focus on other things. It has opened up opportunities for more decision-makers to get involved in the governance of a DAO. The most notable example is the MakerDAO, which is a decentralized autonomous organization that governs the Dai stablecoin. The MakerDAO has a voting system that allows anyone to participate in the governance of the organization.
Are you looking to expand your business overseas? Our experts are able to help you at any stage. We will first start by understanding your vision and global tax and cash strategy. Once aligned, we will help execute the financial, legal, compliance and talent solution activities to build your entity and team.
A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that is run by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. It is an organization or company that is not centrally controlled by any one person or entity. Rather, it is governed by code that is written into the smart contracts. This code can be modified or updated by anyone who has access to the DAO’s GitHub repository. To put this into perspective, imagine a traditional company or organization. There is usually a board of directors or executive team that makes all the decisions about how the company will be run. With a DAO, there is no such thing. The code that governs the DAO is open source and available for anyone to view and audit. In this new scenario, an organization can be run by anyone in the world who has an internet connection.
The CFO is responsible for effective and efficient financial operations including accounting, financial reporting, cash management, budgeting, maintaining controls and issues such as capital structure, investor relations, and financing. The CFO is also involved with strategic planning and financial analysis related to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, as well as providing expert financial and operational guidance to business owners to maximize cash flow, minimize business risk, and increase the value of the enterprise.
Searching to hire your first CFO or wanting only some interim coverage? We provide CFOs for immediate very short term objectives and longer term engagements. Flexible with transparent pricing so you solve the needs of your business and don’t have to get into a potentially bad and expensive full time hire. In disrupting the traditional contracted title of CFO, Panterra Finance innovatively offers all its clients thought leadership based on international financial market experiences. Panterra Finance offers a unified international approach to businesses in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Eight centrally located offices in the USA, Switzerland, the Middle East, and the emerging African Continent, offers global enterprises Fractional and Interim CFO services backed by a team with a grasp of dynamic world trends. See extra details on Sam McQuade.