Sam McQuade CFO of Panterra Finance about interim Chief Financial Officer advantages in this period of recession: The CFO is the top ranking executive related to managing a company’s finances. This includes managing all aspects of financial and cash flow planning, as well as analyzing its financial position. A CFO is comparable to a treasurer or controller. However, unlike a controller or accountant, a CFO is responsible for financial planning, while the other two are in charge of bookkeeping and the company’s financial statements. Big public companies may have defined the CFO role, but the chief financial officer position is becoming increasingly common in midsize and even small firms. Recent postings for full-time CFOs on job-search sites include an emerging air mobility design and manufacturing company in Massachusetts with fewer than 20 employees and a 94-bed community hospital in Hawaii.
Smaller companies, incubators and startups could not match the salaries that the full time CFO commanded on the world financial stage. The seeds for the concept of an Interim or Fractional CFO were planted in the mind of Sam McQuade almost 3 decades ago when he first entered the world of International Finance as an Entrepreneur Consultant in Geneva Switzerland after achieving his MBA/MA at European University. During this tumultuous time at the turn of the century on the international financial scene, Mr. McQuade was ahead of his time. He offered as needed financial consultation services for international behemoths the Swiss based Nestle Corporation and the US based medical device corporation Stryker. The focus of his services, which would years later be foundational in the concepts of Panterra was a new model in product development, manufacturing and marketing. See even more details on Sam McQuade CFO of Panterra Finance.
The CFO function is evolving at lightspeed. With digital transformation and societal changes, the CFO role is rapidly turning into one of a “Chief Fiduciary Officer”, which is going beyond the traditional financials to look towards the future and lead long term value creation in a world of many unknown risks. Storytelling is a very powerful tool to engage and energize teams about value creation and potential pitfall areas. The traditional path of CFO usually starts with a solid foundation based on technical knowledge and then after about 15 years, the great leaders earn the coveted title.
Internal factors include sales trends, labor and HR-related costs, the price of raw materials and more, while external data inputs could include opportunity cost for capital, shifts in market demand, emerging competitors and advances in technology. To monitor the external environment, CFOs may rely on government data, analyst firms and business and general media, supplemented with insights gleaned through trade and association memberships and the input of board members, lenders and others.
Before getting into how your business can benefit from a DAO, let’s take a look at some examples of real-life DAOs. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange built on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to trade tokens without the need for a centralized exchange. The Uniswap team has created a smart contract that governs the exchange. The smart contract automatically matches buyers and sellers and executes the trades. Anyone with a UNI token can participate in the governance of the Uniswap exchange.
Fractional CFOs can help companies: Develop existing employees and hire new ones that bring essential knowledge and skills; Implement systems that will support sustainable growth; Improve visibility and analytical capabilities to convert large amounts of data into actionable information; Explore causes of revenue leakage, cost overruns, and operational friction in a growing business and develop potential solutions. A fractional CFO is also often brought into an organization to help achieve a particular goal, such as raising capital or preparing for a sale, merger, or acquisition. Most fractional CFOs have helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and equity funding for multiple companies, and have helped oversee a number of mergers and acquisitions.
Are you looking to expand your business overseas? Our experts are able to help you at any stage. We will first start by understanding your vision and global tax and cash strategy. Once aligned, we will help execute the financial, legal, compliance and talent solution activities to build your entity and team.
Understanding DAO: Now, suppose the same transaction happens on a decentralized network like the Bitcoin network. There is no central entity here. Both parties can interact with each other directly. The product is transferred from A to B, and $100 is transferred from B to A. This transaction is then recorded on a digital ledger which is available to everyone in the network. So there is complete transparency, and everyone knows that the transaction has taken place. This process of recording transactions on a digital ledger is what we call ‘blockchain technology.’ This is not limited to just financial transactions; it can be used to record any kind of transaction. Now that we know what blockchain is, let’s get back to DAO.
The CFO is responsible for effective and efficient financial operations including accounting, financial reporting, cash management, budgeting, maintaining controls and issues such as capital structure, investor relations, and financing. The CFO is also involved with strategic planning and financial analysis related to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, as well as providing expert financial and operational guidance to business owners to maximize cash flow, minimize business risk, and increase the value of the enterprise.
Do you want to hire your first CFO or wanting only some interim coverage? We provide CFOs for immediate very short term projects and longer term engagements. Customizable with fair pricing so you solve the needs of your business and don’t have to rush into a potentially bad solution and expensive full time hire. The Fractional CFO and Interim CFO experiences gained by the executives assigned to these positions throughout Panterra Finance offers them a broad perspective of the dynamic changes in international markets. The part time CFO executives at Panterra Finance have access to worldwide teams that are proficient in and have initiated innovative strategies in projects centered on DeFi, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto, Tokenization, ICO, IDO, and STO services. Discover more information on Sam McQuade.