In a new interview with blogger Steve Player, Michael Kramer looks back on his tumultuous years as CFO of Super Lube and Walls Industries, Inc. Here, Kramer explains how a flair for execution can count for more than a technical finance background.

Steve Player: Jeremy Hope’s book Reinventing the CFO describes the seven roles of the finance leader: freedom fighter, analyst and advisor, architect of adaptive change, warrior against waste, master of measurement, regulator of risk, and champion of change. What role do you see as the most prevalent among finance leaders?

Michael Kramer: Finance at many organizations tends to be a stepchild. You’re pure overhead, you’re not bringing in any business. You’re almost a hostile group. Nobody likes finance because all they’ve got is bad news; all they want is policies and procedures and expense reports filled out.

But it should be seen as a strategic position. So many people who get involved in the CFO role come through accounting or treasury, not from business or operations, and that means they have limited their exposure to the business. They have really been in one department.

If you look at my background, I’m not a CPA. I understand cash, and I know enough about accounting to be dangerous. But I think my experience with companies’ operating problems and with restructuring gives me a much better perception, and probably more credibility, when I’m talking about people decisions and making changes.

So the two ways I would characterize myself from that list you gave would be as an adaptive manager — which means understanding that the world is going to change around us whether we change or not — and champion of change. Those are really the most important things, and you could probably apply those to anybody who is an executive or leader in any corporation.

SP: Since you were not coming from a finance background, were you ever worried that your accounting wasn’t correct?

Kramer: You do worry about it, but I could certainly question what I was looking at, and I’ve always been very fortunate to have strong controllers. We always used outside auditors at Walls and Super Lube. Even at our little company now, we use an independent accountant. And I question everything if I don’t understand it. One of the old lines is: There’s a lot of things I don’t know as a CFO, but there isn’t anything I’m not supposed to know.

SP: I often think that understanding cash is the key. If you follow the cash, it shows you where everything is lined up.

Kramer: That’s right, and that’s really been my experience. If you manage the cash well, generally most of the financials and the incentives are going to be okay. ###