The finance director and diversification

I've been looking at the role of the finance director in diversification. Interesting to find that the FD has a critical role to play.

Much will depend on the position of the FD in relation to board decisions, but there is quite an involved role in putting together a structured view of diversification opportunities. This is, of course, where the finance chief becomes a real strategic player. This isn't the run of the mill compliance and reporting role.


I spoke to consultants and a former FD about how to organise your diversification approach. Carefully, seems to be the order of the day. Don't rush into anything. There's room for putting together tonnes of empirical research. This should be useful whether you're a big international player or an SME seeking new business opportunities.

But as finance chief this is where you make a difference to the business model and the future growth of a company. It's not easy though and there is still room for a big judgement call at the end of the day. How big the judgement is will depend on the preparation you do in advance (the empirical stuff), your experience and your intuition. But this element of the decision making is really where the finance director enters the realm of being a strategic player. Diversification is a key route to growth in the current economic circumstances which means, in turn, that the strategic skills for an FD are also at a premium.

Anyway, here's the article at Financial Director magazine. (Click here). And come back to let know what you think.


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