Hiring a finance director affects far more than the running of a department. The appointment influences the quality of business decisions, the management of risk and the company’s ability to fund its ambitions.
Yet the search sometimes begins with a list of skills: accounting, management accounting, treasury, tax, financing and team management. Sector knowledge, systems expertise and international experience are then added to the list.
These criteria are useful. But they do not answer the first question: what do you actually expect from your next finance director?
A business that needs to improve the reliability of its accounts has different priorities from one preparing for an acquisition. An industrial group building a new factory may not need the same profile as an SME facing cash flow pressures.
The recruitment process should therefore start with the company’s circumstances, constraints and expected outcomes. Only then does the profile you need become clear.
Start with the problems that need solving
Before defining the ideal candidate, it is worth setting out what works well and what needs to change within the finance function.
Are the accounts produced on time? Are cash flow forecasts sufficiently reliable? Does management understand the profitability of its main activities? Does the team have the skills it needs?
These questions help distinguish a need for continuity from a need for change.
A departure may mean replacing someone whose organisation of the function worked well. It can also expose longstanding weaknesses that their personal commitment or knowledge of the business had previously helped to offset.
Reusing the predecessor’s job description without examining these issues risks perpetuating an operating model that no longer fits the business.
A good role specification begins with a small number of tangible outcomes. These might include making reporting more reliable, improving cash flow forecasting or giving operational managers a clearer view of their margins.
Those outcomes need to be prioritised. Asking the new finance director to transform everything at once provides no guidance on the trade-offs they will be expected to make.
When the priority is to strengthen the fundamentals
Some businesses first need to improve the reliability of their finance function.
Period-end closes may be difficult, responsibilities poorly allocated or information scattered across several systems. Management then spends too much time checking the figures before it can use them.
In this context, the right candidate needs strong accounting expertise and a genuine ability to organise the function.
They must be able to review processes, identify weaknesses, allocate responsibilities and introduce controls proportionate to the risks.
Their experience should not be measured solely by the size of the teams they have managed. It is important to understand what they have personally put in place and how they achieved lasting results.
One candidate may have worked in a highly effective finance function without ever having to build it. Another may have a less prestigious background but have carried out exactly the work your business needs.
The recruitment process must bring that distinction to light.
When the business wants to accelerate growth
A growing business expects its finance director to help assess what it can fund, at what pace and on what terms.
Revenue growth alone does not reveal the company’s cash requirements. It may be accompanied by higher inventory levels, longer payment cycles or expenditure incurred before the first receipts arrive.
The finance director must make these relationships clear and anticipate their consequences.
They must also be able to build alternative scenarios, challenge sales assumptions and assess proposed investments.
Consider a company planning to open a new site. The financial assessment includes the initial cost, but also the ramp-up period, recruitment needs and the time required to reach break-even.
The right candidate can connect these factors with the company’s resources. They help management choose a sustainable growth path.
During interviews, it is therefore useful to explore situations in which the candidate supported comparable growth and examine the decisions to which they personally contributed.
When cash flow becomes a priority
A business with limited cash flow visibility needs to understand the nature of the problem before recruiting.
Does it stem from inadequate forecasting, late customer payments, excessive inventory, insufficient profitability or an unsuitable funding structure? Several causes may be at work.
The finance director you appoint must be able to identify those causes and coordinate a response with other functions.
Experience of banking relationships can be valuable. It does not, however, replace the ability to work with sales teams on payment terms or with operations on inventory levels.
In a pressured situation, behaviour matters as much as technical expertise: communicating difficulties, distinguishing urgent issues and proposing decisions that can be implemented.
The new appointee’s scope to act must also be clear. A finance director cannot reasonably be held accountable for actions they have neither the authority nor the resources to advance.
The quality of the appointment therefore also depends on the organisation in which they will work.
In industry, understand what drives margins
Recruiting an industrial finance director requires particular attention to the connection between financial data and operational reality.
Depending on the business, profitability may depend on material yield, scrap rates, equipment utilisation, energy consumption or production cycle times.
The finance director must be able to work with the people who understand these factors and grasp their financial implications.
They are not expected to take the place of the operations director. They do, however, need to question product costs, assess capital expenditure and identify assumptions that require further examination.
Sector experience can make this easier. But it needs to be assessed carefully.
Two companies in the same sector may have very different business models. High-volume production, make-to-order manufacturing and long-term project delivery call for different approaches to financial management.
Similarity of business challenges can therefore matter more than similarity of products. A candidate from another sector may be a strong fit if they understand comparable production, investment or contract management constraints.
When acquisitions are planned
A company preparing for an acquisition may need specific financial experience.
The new finance director may be expected to contribute to the assessment of the target, the financing structure and the evaluation of the transaction’s implications for the group.
Their role must then be defined in relation to those of the shareholders, advisers and other members of the leadership team.
But the assessment should not stop at the transaction. An acquisition also requires integration: aligning methods, establishing reporting, managing cash and enabling teams to work together.
Having participated in a transaction does not mean having led all these activities.
Interviews should establish the candidate’s precise responsibilities, the difficulties they encountered and the results achieved after completion.
This distinction is essential if you are to appoint someone equipped for the work that remains to be done in your business.
Large group, mid-sized company or SME: establish what success requires
The size of a candidate’s previous employers provides context, but it is not enough to determine their suitability.
Within a large group, a finance director may have specialist support in tax, consolidation and treasury. In a smaller organisation, they may have to address these matters with a lean team and external advisers.
Moving between these environments therefore requires practical adaptation.
You need to establish what the candidate can handle personally, which resources they depend on and whether they can work effectively with less sophisticated systems.
Conversely, someone accustomed to an autonomous SME may need to learn how to operate in a matrix organisation, with several approval levels and additional reporting requirements.
Neither background is inherently superior. The question is under what conditions the individual will be effective.
Being open about your resources, constraints and organisational maturity makes it possible to address this from the first conversations.
Define the relationship with the chief executive
The finance director works closely on decisions that can shape the company’s future.
Does the chief executive primarily expect reliable information, support in assessing projects or close involvement in developing strategy?
These expectations need to be explicit. Terms such as “right-hand person” or “strategic partner” remain too broad unless they are translated into specific responsibilities.
In particular, you need to establish the issues on which the finance director will be consulted, those they will lead and the decisions they will be authorised to make.
The ability to express disagreement also deserves attention.
A candidate should be able to explain how they challenged an assumption, raised a risk or proposed an alternative while preserving a constructive working relationship.
The chief executive, in turn, must be willing to hear that perspective. Appointing someone capable of challenging decisions means giving them the room to do so.
Give team leadership the attention it deserves
A finance director achieves a substantial part of their results through the team they lead.
Before defining the profile, you should therefore review the skills available, vacant positions, levels of autonomy and any difficulties in cooperation.
An experienced, stable team may need a leader who provides clear direction and helps resolve competing priorities. A team facing difficulties may need closer support and clearer roles.
These two situations call for different management approaches.
During interviews, general statements about leadership reveal little. It is more useful to ask how the candidate developed a team member, handled a significant mistake or reorganised a team.
Relationships with other departments also need to be explored. Finance depends on information generated elsewhere in the business and must secure cooperation from people it does not manage.
The ability to explain a request and understand other people’s constraints then becomes critical.
Separate essential skills from those that can be acquired
A search can become difficult when every criterion is treated as non-negotiable.
Knowledge of the exact sector, experience of the same ownership structure, familiarity with the same ERP system and proficiency in several languages: each additional requirement reduces the available pool of candidates.
Some requirements are fully justified. Others mainly reflect a preference for a familiar career path.
To distinguish between them, ask what would genuinely prevent the candidate from succeeding when they take up the role.
Financing experience may be crucial if a transaction needs to be completed quickly. Knowledge of a particular software package may be less decisive if the team already knows it well and can support the new appointee.
The same reasoning applies to international experience. Specify the countries, stakeholders and working situations involved rather than asking for an international background in general terms.
This prioritisation broadens the search while preserving the requirements that really matter.
Look beyond job titles to actual achievements
The titles “finance director” and “finance and administration director” can cover different responsibilities.
Depending on the company, the role may include IT, legal affairs, procurement or certain administrative functions. The level of autonomy can also vary considerably.
A career assessment must therefore go beyond titles and the reputation of previous employers.
Which decisions did the candidate make? To whom did they report? Which matters were handled by their team, head office or external advisers?
For each significant achievement, establish the starting point, the resources available, the individual’s actions and the results observed.
A reduction in closing times, for example, needs to be examined in context: what was the problem, what did the candidate change and how was the reliability of the accounts maintained?
This approach helps assess the person’s actual contribution and their ability to apply a similar approach in a different environment.
Build a coherent recruitment process
The quality of interviews depends on how clearly the need has been defined beforehand.
If the chief executive wants a strategic adviser, the HR director wants a leader who can bring the team together and the shareholders want a financing specialist, these expectations need to be aligned before candidates are interviewed.
They may be compatible, but their relative importance must be discussed.
A shared assessment framework makes it possible to evaluate the same criteria and distinguish observed evidence from personal impressions.
A practical exercise can complement the interviews. Candidates might be asked to comment on a few fictional performance indicators, suggest priorities for their first months or explain how they would assess an investment proposal.
The exercise should be proportionate and directly related to the role. Its purpose is to observe the candidate’s reasoning, the questions they ask and the way they communicate.
Reference checks, conducted with the candidate’s agreement, can then shed light on their responsibilities, management practices and working relationship with senior leadership.
The chief executive and HR director have a part to play in explaining the remit, facilitating introductions and supporting decisions that fall within the agreed mandate.
A well-judged appointment delivers its benefits when the responsibilities described during recruitment become real responsibilities in practice.
Prepare the conditions for a successful start
Recruitment does not end when the offer is accepted.
The new finance director needs to understand stakeholder expectations, know the key deadlines and have access to the information required.
It is useful to distinguish matters requiring immediate intervention from those that need an initial assessment.
Demanding rapid change without allowing time to understand the organisation can lead to poorly judged decisions. Conversely, an urgent cash flow problem cannot wait until the end of a lengthy observation period.
Priorities for the first few months should therefore be discussed before the start date, then confirmed in light of the initial findings.
Choose the right profile for your next stage
The best candidate is not necessarily the one whose CV contains the longest list of skills or the best-known employers.
It is the person whose experience, judgement and working style address your company’s priorities, with the resources you can provide.
Before launching the search, three questions clarify the essentials: what results do we expect, what difficulties will this person need to overcome and what authority will they have?
The answers guide the selection of target companies, the assessment of career backgrounds and the conversations with candidates.
At BOISANGER, these are the issues that shape our approach to recruiting a finance director: understanding your situation, clarifying responsibilities and identifying candidates who can succeed in your environment.
Are you considering hiring a finance director, or would you like to clarify the profile your business needs? I would be delighted to discuss it with you. Let me know what works for you.
BOISANGER Recruitment of Executives & Managers
1, rue de Stockholm, 75008 PARIS
Tel : +33 (0)7 68 27 94 18
