Why You?

A CFOs Edge

For many years I have asked every aspiring director I mentor the same question. It has become one of my standard questions because, almost without exception, the answer tells me more about the individual than any résumé, biography or interview ever could.

“What is your raison d’être?”

Raison d’être, literally “reason for being”, is not quite what I am asking. I am really asking something much more practical. Why should a board appoint you rather than someone else with an equally impressive résumé? More importantly, once you have been appointed, why would they continue to want you around the table? What unique value do you create that leaves the organisation stronger because you were there?

What has always fascinated me is not the quality of the answers, but the fact that so many highly accomplished people answer an entirely different question. They begin talking about the companies they have worked for, the industries they know, the executive positions they have held or the boards they have served on.

Depending on my mood, I will sometimes interrupt them and say, perhaps a little less politely than I should,

“That isn’t the question I asked.”

I am not interested in how they arrived in the boardroom. I am interested in why they belong there. Those are two very different questions, yet remarkably few people have ever stopped to think about the second one. They know what they have done. They are much less certain about the unique value they create. Most people can explain their career. Far fewer can explain their contribution.

Then an uncomfortable thought occurred to me. I had spent years asking aspiring directors this question, yet I never once asked it of a CFO.  The more I reflected on it, the more I realised that perhaps the question was even more important for finance leaders than it was for directors. After all, every competent CFO understands accounting, reporting, treasury, taxation, capital management and governance. Those capabilities are essential. Twenty years ago, they differentiated one finance leader from another. Today they have become the price of admission. Every organisation has access to outstanding advisers, sophisticated systems and increasingly powerful technology. Technical excellence remains fundamental to the role, but it is becoming progressively less effective as a point of difference.

If technical competence no longer explains why one CFO stands out from another, what does?

I was reminded of the answer during a Board discussion many years ago at Vocus. We were considering the acquisition of Digital River. The strategic logic behind the acquisition was compelling and the CEO quite rightly believed it would accelerate the company’s growth. Equally, several directors had genuine reservations. As so often happens in boardrooms, we explored every conceivable upside, downside and scenario. The discussion became increasingly detailed, increasingly complicated and, in my view, increasingly unproductive.

Eventually I realised we had fallen into the same trap I see so often in mentoring sessions. We were trying to answer the wrong question.

The acquisition required an investment of approximately $4 million, a very significant amount for Vocus at that stage of its development. If everything went wrong and we lost the entire investment, would it be disappointing? Undoubtedly. Would it fundamentally damage the company? Clearly not. It would hurt, but it would not threaten the future of the business. Once we answered that question, almost every other aspect of the discussion became easier because we had identified the issue that really mattered. The decision was no longer about trying to eliminate every uncertainty. It became a judgement about whether the potential strategic upside justified taking a risk the company could comfortably afford.

I have often reflected on that discussion because, looking back, what proved valuable had very little to do with technical accounting, financial modelling or producing another spreadsheet. It was reducing a complicated discussion to the one question that mattered. Once we were asking the right question, the decision became considerably clearer.

It also taught me something I had not appreciated at the time. I have since come to think of an edge and a raison d’être as two different, although closely related ideas. Your edge is the capability that differentiates you. Your raison d’être is the reputation that capability creates. One is about what you consistently contribute; the other is about what people consistently come to rely upon.

That, I suspect, is why exceptional CFOs are remembered. Not because they possess superior technical knowledge, but because colleagues instinctively associate them with a particular contribution. Over time, people simply know what that individual brings to the room, and decisions are better because they are there.

Most CFOs probably underestimate how difficult it is to identify their own edge because we naturally define ourselves by our qualifications, experience and responsibilities. The people we work with define us very differently. They remember the contribution we consistently make when the stakes are highest. That is why, if I genuinely wanted to understand a CFO’s raison d’être, I would not ask them to describe their strengths. I would ask their CEO, their Chair and their executive colleagues a much simpler question: “What is the one thing this person consistently brings that somebody else probably wouldn’t?” I suspect the answer would reveal far more than anything contained in a résumé or a performance review.

Perhaps that is the real lesson. Technical competence explains how you earn the role. Experience explains why you were considered. But neither necessarily explains why an organisation becomes reluctant to lose you. That is determined by something much harder to describe, but usually quite easy for other people to recognise.

Perhaps it is time every CFO asked themselves the same thing. Because ultimately your résumé explains how you became CFO.

Your raison d’être explains why people want you to remain in the role.

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Jon Brett will be speaking at this year’s CFO Magazine Sydney CFO Symposium on Tuesday 18th August 2026 at the Sydney ICC, Darling Harbour on ‘What Makes a Great CFO’ – For CFOs & Snr Finance Leaders wishing to register, please visit: www.NSWCFOSymposium.com

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About the Author: Jon Brett

Jon Brett has spent more than three decades in senior executive and board roles as CEO, CFO, Chair, Audit and Risk Chair, non-executive director, founder, and adviser.

His career has included leadership roles with Techway Limited, a pioneer of internet banking in Australia; Investec Wentworth Private Equity and Investec Bank (Australia). He has also served on the boards of numerous ASX-listed companies.

He created and hosted The Taking of Vocus, a podcast series examining the rise of Vocus Group from start-up to a market capitalisation of more than $5 billion, and the turbulence that followed the acquisition of M2 Telecommunications. It was subsequently adapted into a book.

The Taking of Vocus is available on Kindle.

Follow or connect with John on LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile