Q&A: Deloitte’s Norbert Kagoro on the shifting role of the CFO to Chief Value Officer and the CFO Awards 7th edition  As has been the norm, for the last six years, Chief Financial Officers in Uganda (CFOs) have been celebrated and awarded for the critical role they play in driving financial stewardship, strategic decision-making, and sustainable growth within their organisations. By honouring exceptional leaders in the finance community, organisers of the awards, seek to to inspire, connect, and elevate the standards of financial excellence in Uganda. Organized by ACCA Uganda and Deloitte CFO Network Forum, this year’s (7th) edition will be held on October 12th under the theme “The Future Proof CFO: The Emergence of the Chief Value Officer”.

Due to the ever-changing working environment, Financial Officers have been tasked to focus on value addition rather than only focusing on numbers within the organisations they serve to fit into the future Chief Value Officer role. To better understand this, CEO East Africa Magazine’s Nelson Mandela sits down with Deloitte Uganda Country Managing Partner, Mr. Norbert Kagoro in a ten-questionnaire interview.

To begin with, who is a Chief Financial Officer?

A CFO is ordinarily a head of finance. The CFO does quite several things but is responsible for analysing how well an organisation is meeting its financial obligations. Recently, we have seen a shift from the heads of finance to engaging in several other things; talk of being catalysts to a strategic process, building value within the organisation, and driving organisation strategy without necessarily dropping their stewardship roles.

How does a CFO differ from a Chief Value Officer?

Recently, CFOs began to transform themselves into Chief Value Officers (CVOs). As I highlighted earlier, CFOs were mainly more concentrated on the numbers but of recent, we have seen a shift whereby they are becoming value creators. They are not only concentrating on the numbers but also looking at what kind of success should an organisation have. So, money becomes sort of a support system other than it being the level of concentration. In that way, they are looking at where the organisation wants to go, the kind of activities needed to get the organisation there, and what resources are needed. The two are a bit distinct because a CVO doesn’t ordinarily look at the financial success of the business only, and with automation coming into place, there are certain things an accountant used to do that are now done by machines.

Why the sudden change from a CFO to CVO and why didn’t this change occur maybe a decade ago?

Well, if we went back ten years ago and looked at organisations that were at the helm of various activities and now, you would really see that technology has transformed quite a lot of things. Just look at 2020 when COVID-19 came; quite several organisations were not ready to transform and work in an environment that was created. So, we have seen several technologies; including Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning among others. We have seen people relying on data for decision-making making which used not to be there. We are seeing a lot of automation coming in, hence the need to begin thinking of the value the CFO creates within an organisation.

Considering the CVO role is new, is it not rather early to judge Finance Officers based on the value they bring to their organisations in the 7th edition of the CFO awards?

I wouldn’t think so because when you look over time, there are four main phases of a CFO; CFO strategist, CFO catalyst, CFO steward, and a CFO as an operator. Most CFOs ten years ago and beyond used to play mainly stewardship and operational roles. The stewardship role is about controls and making sure the finances are available and you (the organisation) are not paying more than what you should pay. They have not abandoned that but still, their amount of work is largely being a catalyst and contributing to the strategic process of an organisation. As we look at the 7th edition of the CFO awards, we must look at those who are adding value, not only through the development of their people but also what they contribute towards the strategic process of an organisation.

Speaking of awards, here comes the 7th edition, how have they been impactful to the Finance Officers since inception?

From their personal growth, we have seen several CFOs who have won awards moving on to end up being leaders of organisations (CEOs). In the first edition, we had two strong candidates but one beat the other by a few margins and we found it important that we recognise that person’s performance and we created a run-up award and the two have gone up to become CEOs. The other people who won at later stages are bringing a lot of contributions to their respective organisations. 

On the growth of their businesses, there are perspectives they used to have, and there are things they used to lead in the transformation of organisations but they never looked at it as being important to them but now through the awards, they have been able to realise how it is important to continuously recognise the role they play within the transformation organisations. So, what we have noticed over the years is that people have developed themselves on a personal level, but also they have gone ahead to develop their organisations. Also, we have had CFO forums where most of them are coming in to help young accounting professionals understand and appreciate the journey where they need to be.

This year’s theme is “The Future Proof CFO: The Emergence of the Chief Value Officer”.  What is the thinking underlying this theme? 

The CVO mainly is coming in because of the value that the CFOs have been creating within the organisation. Value is very broad and when you look at it from the organisational perspective, what value are we talking about? Is it financial growth or how can you correlate an organisation’s financial growth to the value created? If you look at the staff’s well-being, has it improved, are you getting good productivity out of those people? It’s not only them earning money within an organisation but what is it that value they are generating in terms of profitability, productivity and all those are arising out of what resources are you allocating to the staff for them to drive that kind of performance. So when we measure value, how are we correlating it with the financial growth of a business? So, the emergence of CVO is really broken around how you correlate value with financial growth and how you correlate where resources have been allocated versus the end result.

In your opinion, what makes one an exceptional CFO?

First, where is this CFO spending his time? Is it driving an organisation, or is it catalysing an organisation? Research has shown that heads of finance that concentrate on stewardship and operational matters have not helped organisations grow. So, the good characteristics of a good CFO, I would look at how much time they spend on catalysing the organisation’s growth and participating in the strategic direction of the organisation.

There has always been a challenge of mismanagement of funds by Financial Officers, what do you make of that?

I think it’s all about one’s ethical behaviours. We (CFOs) are supposed to be custodians of controls and if we circumvent those controls and mismanage the funds then we are not helping the organisation succeed. Also, of recent, we are all trying to become rich faster than we should. Why should I have been in an organisation for 5 years and I believe I should be 15 years ahead? So, it’s really an ethical behaviour killing us.

How would you advise Finance Officers to better perform their duties?

My advice to all CFOs is – we developed ourselves as accountants, we are at the helm of the organisation’s growth, we are participating in creating value and we need to continuously control our heads high by appreciating our teams, continuously develop our people to be able to drive value within our organisations. We shouldn’t stick to the numbers but we need to look at the holistic picture of the entire organisation’s growth and we do play a key role, both by catalysing processes within the organisation and also by participating in the strategic process of the organisation, without forgetting the fact that we need to remain ethical. That way, value is going to continue to be created and we will continue to drive growth and transform our organisations financially.

Conclude by speaking to both winners and none-winners of this edition

Number one, whoever has been selected, we commend them for going through the entire process. This process is very helpful. We’ve seen people go back, think through what could have gone wrong, come back with a different approach, and in the end, they won. So, yes, one is awarded in every category but everyone is a winner in the sense that we’ve seen people go back, transform, and emerge winners in various categories.

The CFO Award 2023 Categories in detail

• Public Sector Award: This award will go to an outstanding Head of Finance, Assistant Commissioner, Principal Accountant or Senior Accountant in a government ministry, parastatal, agency or department who has demonstrated outstanding financial management, value creation and the seven vital qualities as identified in the ACCA report.
• Not-for-Profit Award: This award will go to an outstanding CFO or Head of Finance currently making a vital contribution to the financial leadership of a not-for-profit organisation, who has a track record of ensuring that the donor funds are appropriately spent and accounted for by the relevant and applicable reporting framework of the entity and donors and has exhibited value creation and impact in the implementation of donor projects. The winner will also have demonstrated the seven vital qualities of professional accountants.
• SME Award: This award will recognise a CFO or Head of Finance in a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME), who has demonstrated outstanding financial management, contributed to the growth of the enterprise, and demonstrated the seven vital qualities of professional accountants. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) include all types of formal enterprises irrespective of their legal form (such as family enterprises, sole proprietorships, or cooperatives), employing between 5 – 100 employees and total assets not exceeding UGX 360 million.

• Young CFO Award: This award will recognise an accounting professional who quickly rose to the position of CFO/Head of Finance, is 40 years and below and has a proven track record of good financial performance with the added advantage of having turned around an entity from loss-making to a profit-making enterprise. The Young CFO will have shown attributes of innovation, and exceptional professional competence and made an impact on their organisation in addition to demonstrating the seven vital qualities of professional accountants.

• Compliance & Governance Award: The Compliance and Governance Award will recognise the CFO/ Head of Finance who is a champion in helping the business achieve its goals in a way that is open, honest, ethical and principled, should have demonstrated extensive contribution to building and implementing policies, procedures and systems designed to detect and prevent compliance breaches. He or she should have led the development of a value-driven strong compliance culture and best practices that secure buy-in from executives, managers, employees, contractors and business partners all at levels. This award also recognises individuals, who have gone above and beyond to raise awareness, encourage and facilitate good governance. Individuals who have built strong and influential relationships and partnerships with a variety of stakeholders or taken on a high-profile project that had a positive impact or demonstrated effective leadership in the achievement of departmental and organisational objectives and demonstrated the seven vital qualities of professional accountants.
• Strategy Execution Award: This award recognises a CFO or Head of Finance who has shown agility and resilience in dealing with significant disruptions and changes in the business environment, enabling the business to successfully adapt to new demands and challenges. This CFO or Head of Finance will have shown great leadership and innovativeness in creating the right (financial) conditions to execute the organisation’s strategy as well as actively contributed/participated in the implementation of the organisational strategy. The awardee will have demonstrated how their contribution to strategy increased the value of their organisation and demonstrated the seven vital qualities of professional accountants.
• Finance Transformation and Technology Award: This award recognises a CFO or Head of Finance who has championed transformative solutions in their finance function and has been successful in redefining the role of finance within their organisation. It also seeks to recognise CFOs who have invested in and unlocked technologies that had the power to transform the business and will have played a crucial role in crafting and executing a successful business-aligned IT strategy to provide businesses with value delivery. The winner will have demonstrated revolutionary results in digital agility, leadership and execution to enhance the structure of the finance function and value creation in their organisation and demonstrated the seven vital qualities of professional accountants.
• Sustainability Award: This award will recognise a CFO or Head of Finance who has demonstrated leadership in creating long-term value by integrating sustainability measures into strategies, standard processes and procedures as well as reporting on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impacts in their annual reports. The CFO will have demonstrated exceptional management of natural environmental and social resources through a clear strategy (including risk management), procedures and suitable governance structures. The awardee will have demonstrated how the sustainability programs that they championed increased the value of their organisation. and demonstrated the seven vital qualities of professional accountants.
• Leadership Award: This award will recognise a CFO or Head of Finance who has demonstrated excellence and foresight in leadership for themselves, team members and their organisation through technical mastery and assertive flexibility, fostering cohesion with other departments, proactive contribution to organisational strategic decision-making, building influence and trust with team members steering the next generation of finance leaders. The awardee will have given an account of how their leadership has transformed their teams, enhanced collaboration and human capital development in the organisation and demonstrated the seven vital qualities of professional accountants.
• CFO of the Year Award: This is the only category not to be nominated for. Judges will determine the winner of this category. This award will go to an outstanding CFO or Head of Finance who has demonstrated financial leadership and outstanding performance over several years. The individual should have demonstrated great contribution towards addressing post-COVID-19 pandemic and geo-political related challenges in their organisation. This CFO or Head of Finance leads by example demonstrates leadership through their future-focus and displays the seven vital capabilities of professional accountants. The CFO of the year will have demonstrated that they are Chief Value Officers of their organisations.