Good morning,
When I last spoke with Frank D’Amelio in July, we talked about his plans to retire at the end of the year from his position of EVP and CFO at Pfizer, Inc., where he was finance chief for 15 years. D’Amelio has served a total of 20 years in CFO roles, and he’s had more than 20 mentees that have gone on to CFO or CEO roles. Yes, 20. Now in his retirement, this month he started serving as “CFO-in-residence” and independent senior advisor for Deloitte’s U.S. CFO Program providing his strategic guidance on the finance function.
I recently chatted with D’Amelio, who shared with me questions to ask yourself and test if you have what it takes to be a CFO.
Have I been properly prepared?
In Part 1 of our series, we talked about what degrees and skill sets a future CFO needs. And that includes leadership DNA, strong financial acumen, and strategic knowledge of industry trends, to name a few.
Can I do the job, and do it well?
“I'm one of those folks that’s never arrogant,” D’Amelio says. “But I'd like to think I have some confidence," he quipped. You have to be honest with yourself about what you think you can accomplish, he says. It’s also helpful to get feedback from people who’ve followed and supported your career throughout the years.
Do I really want the job?
“Before I became the CFO at Lucent Technologies, I really liked being the president of the business unit,” D’Amelio explains. “When I got asked about taking the CFO job, I had to ask myself, do I want to do this? I hit a fork in the road. Was I going to go back into finance and probably stay in finance? Or am I going to stay on an operational path in senior leadership?” He eventually decided to accept the role. “The CFO job is perpetually demanding,” D’Amelio explains. “And it takes some sacrifice. But, quite frankly, I loved every minute of being a CFO."
What would be some of the tailwinds and headwinds about the job I'm going into?
When seeking a CFO role at your current company, a few tailwinds include knowing a lot of the people you’ll be working with, and familiarity with the value-drivers and culture of the company, D’Amelio says.
Regarding headwinds, he offered an example of his move from group president at Lucent, an operational role, to the CFO position. No one in the investment community, nor sell-side analysts and portfolio managers knew him, he says. “I only had minimal exposure to the board and very limited exposure to the audit committee,” he explains. “I didn't have any relationships with the banks or with the rating agencies.” At least he knew the executive leadership team because he grew up at the company, he says. But it took an essential skill set for D’Amelio to face these headwinds. “I think it's critical that CFOs are really good communicators,” he says.
Also, collaboration across the company and keeping everyone on the same page were important for D’Amelio in his career. “I would just try to connect people to what they were doing every day, how it impacted our guidance, how it impacted our stock price,” he says.
D’Amelio says the CFO role is evolving, but there are some things that stay the same. “If you were to say to me, Frank, pick one key metric when you first made CFO back in 2001,” he says. “And then ask me what one key metric was when I retired as a CFO in 2022, the key metric is still shareholder value. At Pfizer, on my watch, we created about $165 billion of value.”
“Now, would I have liked to have been more technologically fluent when I first started as a CFO?” he says. “Of course, I would’ve. But I eventually did much better [in tech] because of the pandemic.” D’Amelio says CFOs, for sure, have had to become more strategic. “And, I think talent is becoming a more and more critical variable,” he says.
For Part 5, the finale of our series, you'll hear advice from CFOs from across industries. Forward this email to the aspiring CFOs in your circle—they can sign up for the newsletter here.
See you tomorrow.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
