Six Ways For The CFO To Become A Data-Driven Storyteller

When analysts, shareholders and other stakeholders put forth this question about the company to the chief financial officer, a concise and compelling response is required. Having the right answer teed up—to that initial question as well as to follow-ups—requires a surprising amount of legwork. To that end, storytelling has emerged as an essential skill, even table stakes, for business leaders. It certainly means having a good story. But to paraphrase my father, who was an advertising executive, it also means that “the story is in the telling.”

CFOs must understand and internalise the board’s and the CEO’s strategic corporate message, reconcile that narrative with what different stakeholders want to know, curate supporting data, analytics and insights that illustrate and animate the message, and then subtly shade the narrative in an audience-appropriate manner so that it gets across the footlights. When the communication concerns the company’s response to inflationary pressures, for example, how CFOs discuss managing cost increases via pricing increases will differ depending on whether the audience is made up of shareholders or customers.

Read the full Forbes article here.