This much I know: Transitioning from CFO to CEO 

Margherita Della Valle – Group Chief Executive, Vodafone

• Tell hard truths
• Focus on action
• Lean into risk
• Welcome tension and discomfort

After 16 years as CFO at Vodafone, Margherita Della Valle wasted no time on becoming CEO: “I had to say straight away, ‘Make no mistake, things are going to be tough because change is tough, and we need to have radical change’.” She also revealed, “All that we [did] in the [first] year implied tension and discomfort, but I think all companies need tension and discomfort to be successful and win. It’s not just what doesn’t work, which comes very easily for finance to say, but also, ‘So what are we going to do instead?’”

Jakob Stausholm – CEO, Rio Tinto

• Focus on relationship-building
• Lead with empathy
• Cultivate connections
• Win hearts and minds

A CFO for 25 years before becoming CEO of Rio Tinto, Jakob Stausholm says, “As CFO, you must be extremely diligent. You need to know all the numbers. [As CEO], it’s much more about attention, energy, and relationships. It’s a more holistic challenge. It’s quite rewarding, the more you use compassion and empathy to try to understand somebody and what they’re trying to achieve. You go out and say, ‘Now I’m the CEO, we’re going to do this.’ And you know what happens? Absolutely nothing. You must cultivate deeper connections and bring hearts and minds with you.”

Carsten Knobe – CEO, Henkel

• Be brave
• Try new ideas and concepts
• Work as a team
• Shift focus from efficiency to growth

Carsten Knobel likens the role of CFO to that of a co-pilot: “As a co-pilot, you support the decisions, offer opinions, and have an impact, but, ultimately, you’re not the final decision maker.” As CEO, he strongly believes in empowerment, enablement, and fostering an open feedback culture: “I encourage everyone to be brave and venture into new ideas and concepts. If you’re not working as a team, it’s not possible to win. Efficiency comes to an end at a certain point. If you want to survive in the long term, you need to incorporate a growth component – that’s the only way to attract and convince customers and consumers.”

Markus Krebber – CEO, RWE

• Leverage everything you learned as CFO
• Retain humility
• Defer to expertise
• Have faith in your replacement

Markus Krebber spent almost five years as CFO with energy multinational RWE before becoming CEO. He observes, “Becoming CFO means you already understand all of the businesses in depth and through a financial lens. This gives you a strong starting position [to become CEO] because you know the different divisions, not just the one you ran before. That is a big advantage.” He believes that leveraging everything you learned as CFO is key to transitioning to CEO, as is having the humility to defer to expertise.