CFOs in the manufacturing sector face a complex set of financial challenges that differ significantly from those in other industries. The manufacturing environment requires an understanding of cost structures, supply chain management, capital investments, operational efficiency, and risk management.
In service companies, the role of the customer is significant, often integrated into the service production process. These businesses focus on meeting their clients’ needs by delivering excellent service, building relationships, and providing exceptional experiences. The CFO’s role in service companies is often extensive and multifaceted. In growth companies, the CFO's responsibilities may include finance, financial management, legal matters, and human resources. This blog post will focus on the key elements of financial reporting and planning.
When Laitex Oy started to focus more strongly on international markets, CEO Lasse Kurronen realised that strategic financial management was essential to achieve this goal. As the company lacked the necessary expertise, Kurronen turned to Greenstep - and found an experienced CFO to support internationalisation and business development.
If you’re a CFO, you already know how critical budgeting and forecasting are to your company’s success. You probably also know how stressful and frustrating the process can sometimes be. But where does that stress really come from? And can we reduce it? If you’re still managing budgets primarily in Excel, switching to a modern planning tool could solve more problems than you might expect.
How did Vesa Aaltonen become an interim finance professional? Aaltonen shares insights about his fascinating career and explains why he has not yet applied for a ‘normal job’. He also discusses the versatility of the interim CFO role and the various positions under this title.
Many companies treat budgeting as a once-per-year exercise: fill in the numbers, tick the boxes and move on. But today's most successful businesses approach budgeting as a strategic process, that drives clarity, speed and smarter decisions across their entire organisation.
ERP systems are critical to business operations, managing purchasing, logistics, billing, accounting, and more. However, as businesses grow, they can outgrow their ERP, leaving leaders to decide: upgrade the existing system or replace it entirely?
In the Finnish growth company market, there has been extensive reporting recently about the declining availability of funding and the stagnation of the growth funding boom seen in previous years. It's also widely known that a significant portion of growth companies either go bankrupt or fail to meet their objectives because the first major funding round – Series A – doesn’t materialize. Until that point, growth companies can often sustain themselves with funding from founders, angel investors, and public grants. This raises the question: what are the most common pitfalls in executing a Series A funding round, and how can a company maximize its chances of success? Let’s explore these themes from the perspective of a CFO.
Rederi Ab Eckerö describes its business as a floating bridge that safely and comfortably takes people from point A to point B. To stabilize the finance function during a period of resource change, the company chose to seek the help of a CFO interim consultant from Greenstep.