Question

Do the roles of the CEO and CFO overlap? If so, how?

Answer 1

The CEO is the top executive position of a company, while the CFO is the highest financial rank of the company and typically works under the guidance and orders of CEO. However, sometimes it is possible that their roles may get overlap on certain issues. For example, if a CFO wants that his staff should be trained in a particular manner for the purpose of work that needs to be done and if CEO wants them to get trained in an different, their viewpoints are different in this situation and because CEO is a higher rank than CFO, most of the time its CEO who's saying has to be implemented. The CEO is the head of operations of the business and therefore he will be directly responsible for any decline in company's performance and growth, therefore, CEO is having more powers than CFO in terms of implementing business decisions. Due to the fact that CEO is a executive position, the appointee usually is a person who is having good knowledge and experience in the field of management not necessary finances. Therefore, this is the primary reason that necessary independence is given to CFO for taking decisions with regards to the finances of the company. Hence, if CFO takes a decision related to finance on his own and the same is not liked by the CEO then this will result in a contradiction between two and may lead to overlapping and overriding of each other's authority and decision making powers.