For six months now, a Bangalore-based mid-sized hotel chain has been looking for a CFO. The slowdown over the past few years has seen the company’s financials come under pressure: room tariffs have fallen, sales are down, and, like any other borrower, it has a fraught relationship with banks, although it sees growth returning now. “Our earlier CFO’s job was not very complex, but now we need a CFO who is both a fire-fighter and strategist to help the hotel emerge from the slump and grow as we plan to acquire new properties,” said the HR head of this hotel who requested anonymity and did not want her firm to be named.

1. Hunt For CFOs Heats Up As Firms
Look At Expansion, Fund Raising -
Funding & IPO Support

2. For six months now, a Bangalore-based mid-sized hotel
chain has been looking for a CFO. The slowdown over
the past few years has seen the company’s financials
come under pressure: room tariffs have fallen, sales are
down, and, like any other borrower, it has a fraught
relationship with banks, although it sees growth
returning now. “Our earlier CFO’s job was not very
complex, but now we need a CFO who is both a fire-
fighter and strategist to help the hotel emerge from the
slump and grow as we plan to acquire new properties,”
said the HR head of this hotel who requested
anonymity and did not want her firm to be named.
http://mycfo.in

3. The hotel chain is among several mid-sized and start-up
firms that have given mandates to search firms such as
ABC Consultants, RGF Executive Search, Lighthouse
Partners, Manpower Group, Antal International to hire
CFOs. The number of such mandates has increased by
at least a third in recent months, say executives at the
search firms. “Demand for CFOs from sub-Rs.1000
crore (in sales) companies has doubled for us compared
with two years ago,” says Shiv Agrawal, managing
director, ABC Consultants, adding that the company
has received six-eight mandates in the past three
months alone.
http://mycfo.in

4. Some of the demand is coming from start-ups that are
growing rapidly and are looking for fresh investments
and funding. Online lingerie retailer Zivame.com,
Pokkt.com, a platform that helps app developers
monetise their offerings, and Rez Next Global Solutions
Pvt. Ltd, which connects customers with hotels, are
among the firms that have given out mandates to hire
CFOs. “We are business and tech guys who are focused
on running the business,” says Rohit Sharma, founder of
Pokkt, which raised $2.5 million in July.
http://mycfo.in

5. Looking to close another round of funding in two
months, Sharma believes the time has come to hire a
CFO. E-commerce firms and start-ups have typically had
trouble hiring CFOs, as most established finance heads
don’t want to jump into the relatively high risk start-up
world. After having its CFO post vacant for nearly 18
months, e-commerce giant Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd is
likely to hire former Tata Communications finance chief
Sanjay Baweja for the job. “We received a lot of
applicants, but we are looking for the right person, as we
cannot afford to make mistakes,” said Richa Kar, founder
of Zivame, which has raised $6 million in Series B
funding last year and has been looking to a hire a CFO
for six months now.

6. Investors, too, are pushing start-ups to find professional
CFOs. “While most companies we meet are run by strong
entrepreneurs, they usually have not paid a lot of
attention to the finance function. Therefore, after we
invest in the company, one of the first searches we
embark on usually is for a CFO. More than 50% of the
companies we invest in, we help improve their finance
function by first helping hire a CFO,” said Abhay Pandey,
managing director of Sequoia Capital India. Tougher
compliance and governance norms put in place by the
new Companies Act that was passed last year are another
reason for the sudden demand for CFOs. Among other
changes, the Act now makes it mandatory for a CFO to
sign off on a firm’s profit and loss account; earlier, the
Company Secretary could do so. http://mycfo.in

7. “We were not keen to fill this position earlier, as we
were managing with our finance team, but with tighter
corporate governance norms in addition to our pan-
India expansion plans, we felt the need to fill that
position,” said R.P. Trivedi, HR head, of the five-decade
old VRS Foods Ltd, a Delhi-based dairy company,
which is looking for a CFO.
http://mycfo.in

8. Still, there is a limited pool of highly-skilled CFOs. Of the
65,000 firms above Rs.100 crore, only 10% have a CFO,
says Deepak Narayanan, co-founder, MyCFO, which
provides chief financial officers for temporary
assignments. The shortage of trained professionals and the
increased demand and responsibility has also meant that
the salary of a CFO has gone up by about 20%, says
Agrawal of ABC Consultants. As Narayanan says, “It is a
good time for skilled finance professionals, as there is a
real war for talent amongst companies.”
http://mycfo.in

9. Read More On This Blog
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