Editor's Note: The following white paper was inspired by Longview Solutions' Dialog 2003 Round Table: For the Record. Participants included: Valerie Adamo, Vice President and CIO, Workplace Safety & Insurance; Judy Curry, VP of Finance & Controller, Tupperware Corporation; Mike Gabaly, Director, Enterprise Financial Excellence, Lockheed Martin; Lee Geishecker, Vice President and Research Area Lead, Gartner Inc.; Susan Gershman, Chief Marketing Officer, Longview Solutions Inc.; Paul Kellett, Finance Business Services Executive, Marks & Spencer; James O'Brien, Project Manager Khalix Implementation, Royal Bank of Scotland; Kate Rowley, Director of Planning, Charter Communication; Matt Townley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Longview Solutions; and Karl Wixtrom, Controller F&A Systems, United Parcel Service. Dave Murray, CFO of Longview Solutions, served as moderator.

Imagine this: you are in first century Rome. You stand before a massive temple in the middle of a vast empire rich and diverse in cultures. Within the temple are two doors, one in front, one in back. Between the doors stands an imposing statue with two faces pointed in opposite directions. One looks toward the back door, reflecting on the past. The other peers ahead, into the future.

This is, of course, the chief temple of Janus, god of gates and portals, the patron of beginnings and endings. It could also be an apt symbol for the evolving role of any organization's finance group, and in particular its leadership.

The double-edged responsibility of any organization's finance function is not new. Financial officers have been responsible for recording the past since well before Fra Luca Pacioli first codified double entry accounting in Renaissance Venice. They have also, in more modern times, played a growing role in guiding the future of their organizations, weighing risk and opportunity against the cold, hard reality of the numbers.

Today, however, there is a shadow over the forward-looking face and a glaring spotlight on the history-oriented, bookkeeping visage. In our post-Enron world, legislators and regulators have, justifiably, unleashed new breeds of watchdogs - with names like Sarbanes-Oxley - to ensure that the records of what has happened are right.

What may happen next is not of as much interest as the current state of affairs - ensuring financials of your corporate house are in order. The pressure on CFOs today is to focus on the past and leave strategy to another day. Get your numbers. Close your books. Make sure your CEO can certify in writing that, yes, this actually did happen. This material accurately reflects the reality of three months ago, or a year ago. And therein lies the risk for finance groups regardless of their sector.

No question, the role of steward of the past is an important one and must be carried out with vigilance. But it pales beside the imperative to be future-oriented strategists who bring insight and discipline to the business of setting organizational direction and making critical decisions. And no one is in a better position to provide that strategic view, those informed opinions, than the stewards of the numbers.

Given this growing emphasis on 20/20 hindsight and the focus on having financial houses in order, we gathered a representative group of senior financial executives from large organizations in differing industries to better understand the new pressures.

In the roundtable discussions, we found a strong sense that the balance should begin to shift back to the strategic role - and quickly. These experts told us it's not an issue of either/or - it's not about being steward OR strategist. It's all about being steward AND strategist. And they gave us 10 concrete ideas on how to get there:

1. Get your house in order, gain credibility and insight and the right to strategize for the future.

This is the basic building block of credibility, the keystone of the arch of a financial group's responsibilities. Getting the numbers right is elementary. We have to be able to tell our organizations what happened. With rigorous accuracy. Every month. Every quarter. That is the basic value we bring to our organizations. If we cannot do that, we shouldn't be surprised if no one asks us to contribute to important strategic decisions. Every hole in our reporting capability is a credibility leak.

In today's multinational, multicultural, multicurrency environment, this is no simple task. But it is critical, because with accurate information we can begin to see how and where value is being created within our organization. In turn, that enables the organization to make informed decisions about future direction.

2. Tight financials are in vogue. Take advantage.

Sarbanes-Oxley is not a four-letter word. That legislation - and all the other oversight activities unveiled since Enron and its ilk began to unravel - has caused many a gray hair in boardrooms around the world. The fallout has reached the darkest corners of most organizations and dramatically increased the attention paid to making sure every reported number accurately reflects the organization's position at a given point in time.

Certainly, the external pressure has resulted in a tighter - some might say too tight - focus on document keeping and compliance to the Nth degree. Seven years of detailed data is no trivial matter. In that regard, it is tougher today for CFOs to exercise the future-oriented strategic muscles they routinely trotted out just a few short years ago. But every cloud, as they say…

And in this case, expectations of an organization's financial function actually serve to raise the profile and importance of the finance group. Finance is not just important; it's important in a way it has never been before. Granted, it may be important in a kind of get-it-right-so-we-don't-go-to-jail sort of way. But that's a short-term benefit. The reality is, we have the attention of the whole company, from the chairman of the board through the CEO and right on to the secretary. And attention means clout. Finance organizations are in an unprecedented position of strength when it comes to defining a stronger role for themselves as stewards AND strategists.

3. Build your sphere of influence.

With attention comes the opportunity to influence. Now is the time to impress others in your organization - and motivate colleagues in the finance group itself - by bringing to the table best practices that could or should be adopted and adapted by your company. Call it the endorsement strategy - find a third party that is already doing what you want to do and use that information to get your colleagues to think outside the boxes we all have built within our organizations.

Ask for help. No one is all knowing. Consultants, for example, are an excellent resource, who will comb the global community for the ideas and stratagems that could drive your business - and build the credibility of the finance group.

Show them, for instance, how a worldwide delivery company uses technology to exploit fluctuations in the global transportation tax systems to make decisions about whether to use air or ground -- and to drive the bottom line.

4. Improve the visibility of your numbers.

If we have learned anything from the scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia and others, it is that organizations must become more transparent with their numbers. And the basis of transparency is visibility. People inside and outside of the organization feel a new sense of entitlement to know what the numbers are. And know it now.

By insisting on high visibility for the work you do, you buttress a culture in which there is never a doubt that you are being frank, open and honest. No skeletons here. The kimono is open. Certainly, there continues to be a serious legal and competitive need to protect the security of corporate financial information. But the environment has shifted; we must comply with external realities and expectations. More than that, there is tremendous opportunity to use visible numbers to tangibly influence the conduct of the business, for the better - to help reduce stale receivables, to drive sales, and eliminate redundancies.

5. Think outside the silo.

There tend to be many silos in large organizations. And finance groups, traditionally, have led the way in isolation. That's partly because of the arcane and specialized nature of much of the work.

There is an unprecedented opportunity now to change that, to move finance groups more clearly into the mainstream, day-to-day operations of their organizations instead of appearing to be people who pop up every three months with a blinding package of numbers telling us how well, or poorly, our company is doing.

It's important, now, to build on the attention that is being focused on finance in general, for instance by insisting finance people become integral participants in cross-functional teams. That's where they can show off their particular understanding of the value chain and the drivers of return on investment.

They become communicators: this is our target and this is how we could achieve it. Or, during a receivable review, identify why certain customers are not paying their bills. Acting as a support for the operations and as a check on the health of the business strategy.

In getting involved at a more grassroots working basis, they build relationships throughout the company. And most important, they build credibility not only on the basis of numbers but also on a foundation of the solidity of their analysis, ideas and strategic acumen.

Over time, the finance organization will be seen as a strategic partner, even leader, as well as just the curator of past performance. It's about trust and understanding, and a sense that everyone, even finance, is working toward the same goal.

6. Enhance your organization's financial IQ.

Openness without context can be risky. As they say, a little learning can be a dangerous thing. That's why there is opportunity now, within the context of the intense scrutiny under which the finance function operates today, to communicate to others within the organization just what it is that all those numbers mean.

As subject matter experts, finance could work with other departmental teams to offer courses to upgrade the entire organization's financial IQ. This kind of professional development is also available in sophisticated software that maximizes impact while minimizing costs.

As well, there is a need to upgrade the specialized professional development available to people in finance groups, more focused than the run-of-the-mill curricula usually available from the smorgasbord of rudimentary courses offered through HR. Again, there is sophisticated software available to accomplish this.

In these ways, the credibility of the finance group gets a boost. As does finance's reputation as a contributor to the company's future, not just a stern monitor of its yesterday's performance.

7. Adopt a 'four-eyes' approach.

Some companies have developed an interesting approach to their hierarchy at the top of the house: the chief financial officer has the same power as the chief executive officer. They are at the same level, in one box on the organization chart.

They call it the "four-eyes" approach and while it may not be for every organization, at least in that form, the concept is worth a second look. Consider an adaptation: a senior finance person working at the same level as the leaders of every significant area of the organization. Any person responsible for operations has at his or her right hand a senior finance official. It may be a duplication, but it reinforces that finance ignites the power of the organization.

CFOs traditionally have strong links and relationships with CEOs. But in today's world, given the typical tenure of a typical CEO, it's not enough to trust in the longevity of such a relationship. It's a winning strategy to have a legacy planning strategy and to put an extra pair of eyes at critical points throughout the organization, to improve monitoring and compliance, of course, but also to build relationships and demonstrate strategic competence.

8. Use financial and non-financial data to ignite the power of your finance organization.

Some organizations have enhanced the clout of the finance group by designating the CFO as the corporate officer responsible for what you might call the enterprise information. What used to be IT issues separate from finance, may now be an integrated information issue, solved with a combined organization that delivers more than the numbers, but numbers with meaning.

Such an information engine gives people throughout the enterprise the customized tools they need to interpret and apply action to the ebbs and flows of the business. Such an approach empowers key people throughout the organization. But it also centralizes control, enabling a common, enterprise-wide view of the past, present, and future.

9. Leverage the power of one.

They used to say that the sun never set on the British Empire. The same can be said today for many multinational organizations which, like the empires of old, have within their corporate boundaries dozens of time zones, cultures, currencies, business practices, subsidiaries with embedded infrastructures, and on and on.

It is not uncommon for a large enterprise to have 10 or more different processes and tools to accomplish one task. Clearly, these are organizations who must spend more time reconciling their internal variations and translating their differences than paying attention to the most important element of the business: generating higher levels of value.

Today's CFO has the opportunity to take that value vision and support it with an integrated, unified tool that delivers the power of one: a single repository of collecting, reporting and reviewing that enables the finance group to capture economies of scale and leverage the most comprehensive, up-to-date data into the intelligence the company needs to make the right strategic decisions. Said simply, getting everyone on the same page.

10. Leverage the power of now.

How different is your world today than a year ago? Three months ago? Even last month. The data finance organizations so zealously collect and codify - even more zealously today thanks to the prodding of Sarbanes-Oxley et al. - is fine. But if the numbers are two months old, do they really matter?

It's not quite as bad as Henry Ford said. History is not necessarily bunk. But things change so fast today that last quarter's snapshot can skew today's reality. And that says nothing about tomorrow.

What is needed is to know the truth and know it now. To know where value comes from today enables swift reaction to grow tomorrow. It's the worldwide department store retailer that has invested in a corporate performance management tool that, every day, gives executives reports on consumer trends that are happening as the doors to their stores open up.

This is not Spring sale information in the middle of June. This is school's out stuff in the middle of June.

Financial truth, at the right time, improves market insight and creates new levels of competitive advantage. It clarifies options and increases confidence in the choices made. It enables finance professionals to roll up their sleeves with their colleagues throughout the business, identify sales lags so the sales group can respond, spotlight blips on the collectables radar before they become bogeys.

It's the power of now. It is the Janus-like power of being able to reflect on the past to see the future more clearly. To be a steward AND strategist in support of the organization's value creation.