📬 Conscious Capitalism: Balancing ESG and Shareholder Interests

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AJ from Ireland asked:

Do you have any career advice for a soon-to-be qualified accountant with no finance experience and a background in operations management?

Currently, I'm an operations supervisor for an MNC.

Business partnering for a sexy company is probably my preferred option, or an influential position in an SMB. Here's the rub - no finance experience. I'd rather not start at the bottom again.

Thanks AJ. This is an interesting question.

It all depends on where you are trying to head in the long run. Based on your question, I’m making the assumption that your goal is climbing the finance ladder. So I’m answering it through that lens.

It sounds like an operational business partnering role would be the perfect next step. If you are in an MNC there will be many operational/finance crossover roles.

And good finance leaders know the value of having people that deeply understand the operation in at least some of the roles like these. So you should exploit that advantage. That is your strength.

Try and get to know the finance people closest to you in your current role, and tap them for the best way to throw your hat in the ring.

Once you are in that hybrid operations/finance role, you can build the trust of the finance community by doing a great job as a finance pro but in a familiar setting. That will open up many more routes and give you options in the long run.

I don’t understand the desire for a ‘sexy company. ’ You should focus on the best way to break into finance now (if that’s what you want), sexy company or not. Once you have more options and have proven yourself in finance, you can be more picky.

Also, it depends on which qualification you are taking, but I assume you need some practical finance experience in order to formally secure your status as a qualified accountant. If you’ve done the hard work of the exams, you need to make sure you grab that experience and the credentials that come with it.

Best of luck, AJ.

Acquired from Minneapolis asked:

My business unit just got sold to a Fortune 100 company. I’m about 6 years into my career working for a Fortune 200 company and aiming to move up to a Principal Analyst or Manager position with my next move. I know the sale could be a great opportunity for me to experience something unique, but I’m worried my current position and level are too low to get the experience and visibility that I’d find valuable.

I’m thinking maybe it’s time to move to a new company. I think with the sale, it’s going to slow down my progression while things get ironed out. I’d be curious to get your take on how someone early in their career could approach this. Thanks!

It’s funny. I had an almost identical experience in my early career. I was working for a subsidiary of a large public company. It got sold to PE. I was too junior to get any real exposure to the transaction.

I was too immature and impatient to understand what it meant at the time. I let it unsettle me, and I left a job I LOVED to go and work in another business. It worked out well for me, and I don’t regret the outcome. But if I go back, I can see now that I got lucky, and it probably was not the right decision based on what I knew at the time.

I could have stayed for 3-6 months just to see what would happen. To see what the integration looked like. I would still have had the opportunity to jump ship if I didn’t like what I saw.

Businesses are a funny place post-merger. Careers can get made (or broken) quite quickly. Some doors shut, some open.

I think the prudent thing to do would be to hang around and get a taste for what’s to come. Put your hand up, say you want to be involved in the integration. See if you can put yourself in the middle of it. Post-merger integration roles are career accelerators (funnily enough, it had that effect for me in a different situation a few years later).

So, see if you can get involved somehow.

Either way, once you’ve given it a few months, if you don’t like what you see, you’ve still got the option to jump. So much about career management is having optionality. Think about your decisions as one way vs two way doors. Hanging around for 6 months would be a 2 way door decision.

Best of luck, Acquired.

John from São Paulo, Brazil asked:

I have been part of the Conscious Capitalism Community for some time, and one of things mentioned most is about prioritizing community with shareholders’ interest.

How could a CFO approach the shareholders to show the long-term impacts of ESG, over time, favor them too?

Hey John - thanks for the question. Love this one.

Let’s be clear: your job as CFO is to deliver value to shareholders. But that doesn’t mean it has to be at the expense of everyone else. In fact, if you believe in stakeholder capitalism, you know that long-term shareholder value is a by-product of doing right by your employees, customers, suppliers, and communities.

The key is to speak the language of capital - returns, risk, and time horizon - and translate the ESG or community-driven initiatives into something a shareholder can measure, even if their horizon is shorter than yours.

There’s been a real shift in ESG investing in recent years. More funds now have ESG criteria or green hurdles that companies must meet just to be eligible for capital. On the surface, that sounds like progress. But here’s the cynical truth: most of the people running these funds don’t actually care about ESG. They care about raising cheaper capital, and an ESG fund gives them access to it. Once that fund exists, they have to find qualifying assets to deploy it into - even if the ESG lens is more marketing than mission. If you’ve seen the latest season of Industry, think Harper Stern at her most ruthless. If you haven’t - you should!

But that’s OK. It just means you understand the game you’re playing. Your job is to play both your game and theirs. Your game is building a business that genuinely prioritizes long-term value and ESG-conscious decision-making. Not just for signaling, but because it drives resilience, differentiation, and trust. Their game is to find assets that tick boxes. So you give them what they need, but on your terms.

The trick is to prioritize ESG initiatives that deliver business impact, not just societal impact. Because when you do that, the shareholder value story becomes clear and measurable.

You don’t have to sell ESG as “doing the right thing.” Sell it as margin protection, talent attraction, risk reduction, and access to cheaper capital. If your energy efficiency capex boosted ROI, say so. If a community partnership improves employee retention or customer loyalty, bring the data. If your ESG profile qualifies you for a new class of investor, quantify the impact on cost of capital. Investors don’t need to believe in your purpose - they just need to believe in your numbers.

Some shareholders will play along for the optics. That’s fine. As long as you know how to tell a story that aligns their short-term goals with your long-term value creation, you’re doing your job.

Every week I’ll share a book I loved or found useful.

A few of the biggest stories that every CFO is paying close attention to. This is the section you probably don’t want to see your name in.

CFO turnover reaches six-year high: Russell Reynolds

More than 50% of departing CFOs are retiring or leaving to take board positions (so, a form of retirement). I’m one of them. Combine that with businesses’ demand for highly experienced Chief Financial Officers, and the CFO talent pool is shrinking (and fast).

Former Just Salad CFO ‘deprived’ of $1.2M bonus for ‘doing job too well,’ says lawsuit

I’m ‘Team Boyd’ on this one. We gotta stick together.

Macy’s to Claw Back Executive Bonuses Due to Accounting Scandal

This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but Macy’s CFO is being replaced, and the department store will claw back more than $600k from execs.

Deloitte to Lay Off U.S. Consultants After Government Cost Crackdown

It’s not entirely clear what the affected consultants will base their entire personality on if it’s not “being a Deloitte consultant.” On the plus side the government cull of consultancy spend is going to put some serious strategy talent in the market.

ICYMI, some of my favorite finance/business social media posts from this week. In the words of Kendall Roy, “all bangers, all the time”:

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Disclaimer: I am not your accountant, tax advisor, lawyer, CFO, director, or friend. Well, maybe I’m your friend, but I am not any of those other things. Everything I publish represents my opinions only, not advice. Running the finances for a company is serious business, and you should take the proper advice you need.