Article at a glance:

Building a competitive finance function: An executive roundtable

• This article presents a roundtable conversation among current and former finance executives at a recent McKinsey CFO forum in London.
• The participants—Jesper Brandgaard, executive vice president and CFO of Novo Nordisk; John Connors, a partner at the venture capital firm Ignition Partners and former CFO of Microsoft; Jonathan Peacock, CFO and chief administrative officer of Novartis Pharmaceuticals; and Helen Weir, a group finance director of Lloyds TSB—joined our panel discussion about the changing demands on CFOs and finance organizations.
• They exchanged opinions about how finance organizations can create value, the types of professionals the finance function needs to do so, and the challenges of recruiting, motivating, and retaining these employees.