Turnover has increased among chief financial officers since 2005, and boards should worry about it. The average tenure of CFOs in the top 500 companies is now 4.1 years, vs. 5 years in 2005, and there are few signs of the trend stabilizing. High turnover isn't healthy for corporate governance, especially in a bear market. CFOs with superb technical skills and the required leadership capabilities are hard to find in normal economic times. In the kind of turbulence we're experiencing now, CFOs face unusual difficulties providing financial results, making accurate business forecasts, and allocating capital accordingly.
Read the full article first published on Businessweek.com on July 31, 2008.