Soft Finance

Be honest, when did you ever think of finance as a 'people business'? The phrase sits badly with the idea of finance as a disciplined, emotionless function. There is something touchy-feely about it; something soft, weak and woolly-minded.

The reality, of course, is that finance became a people business some years ago, when chief financial officers decided they wanted to play on the chief executive's strategy team. Once you start mixing numbers with more subjective values - such as vision, creativity and intuition - you bring into play a whole range of human qualities not normally associated with the finance function.

CFO