1. Financial strategist.
Chief financial officer refers to a senior manager who is determined by the owner of the enterprise or the representative of all the owners and reflects the will of the owners. In the management of the company, the chief financial officer is a member of the board of directors, whose main responsibility is to comprehensively supervise and manage the financial accounting activities of the enterprise, but not limited to financial accounting activities. In other words, the chief financial officer takes financial activities as a platform and fully participates in enterprise strategic management. CFO should participate in the formulation of the company's strategic objectives, because the realization of the company's business strategy needs the support of financial strategy, which determines the direction and mode of enterprise's financial resource allocation and affects the behavior and efficiency of enterprise's financial activities. American CFO plays an extremely important role in formulating and implementing corporate strategy. The pressure of CFO mainly focuses on some financial problems that the company must solve to seek further development opportunities, and CFO is increasingly becoming the business partner of the general manager (CEO). If the CEO is the ideal of the enterprise, then the CFO is the person who forms the ideal into a strategy and finally makes the strategy become a reality. Traditionally, Japanese companies have always regarded CFO as the controller of costs and expenses, and they play more of a controller role. After the Asian financial crisis, Japanese companies re-recognized the role of CFO, and more and more companies began to set up CFO positions. They learn from the role of CFO of European and American enterprises in determining the company's strategy, and position the main responsibility of CFO as determining the company's long-term strategy and financial strategy. CFO is increasingly representing the company at board meetings and shareholders' meetings. They are not only responsible for the company's finances, but also for the whole company.
2. Enterprise value manager.
(1) Strategic management of working capital. Working capital is the difference between current assets and current liabilities, which comes from long-term capital. In other words, the existence of working capital means using long-term funds with high capital cost for current assets projects with low income level. This financial arrangement reduces the financial risk of enterprises and the income level of assets. If other factors are not considered, the amount of working capital mainly depends on the insurance reserve of current assets, and the arrangement of insurance reserve depends on financial strategy. Therefore, CFO must seek a balance between income and risk according to the requirements of company strategy.
(2) Investment strategy management. Enterprise strategy is largely supported by project investment and securities investment (merger and acquisition), and the chief financial officer must lead and widely participate in project investment and securities investment management activities. The chief financial officer may not directly lead and implement specific investment project evaluation and decision-making, but he must ensure that the methods, principles and strategies followed in investment evaluation and decision-making are consistent.
(3) Financing strategy management. From the perspective of enterprise strategic management, the financing problems that financial directors need to consider are usually financing strategies, including steady financing strategies and risky financing strategies. After the financing strategy is determined, the specific financing structure and financing decision only need to reflect the requirements of financing strategy. Compared with specific financing decisions, financing strategy is more overall and dominant. When determining the financing strategy, the chief financial officer must ensure the consistency between the financing strategy and the enterprise strategy.
(4) dividend policy management. According to signal theory, dividend distribution policy will affect enterprise value. Therefore, the dividend distribution policy of enterprises is also a strategic issue that financial directors often need to consider. For example, the determination of dividend payment ratio must obey the needs of enterprise value management to ensure the good performance of stock price.