Working smarter.

• Position: Financial Executives Institute - Includes related articles on FEI officials - Cover Story

What would you need to become the best financial executive you can be? Better financial research? A quick course in managing human resources? A technology expert who stays by your side? Ten more hours in the day?

Like so many traditional roles in business, the role of the senior financial officer is changing. It's evolving into a proactive leadership position in the strategic management of the company. Today's financial executive is expected to take a panoramic view of the company, to understand the full extent of its operating businesses and to possess the more intangible qualities of leadership, like being a big-picture thinker, an effective influencer, a team player.

"More and more operating chiefs are looking to their chief financial people to provide not only integrity in financial reporting but to add their financial expertise in evaluating business opportunities," explains Bill Parfet, Financial Executives Institute's chairman for 1997-98. "To prepare financial executives for these and other demands, FEI is committed to continually improving the offerings we provide our members."

Ideas You Can Use Right Away

For starters, we're fine-tuning FEI's focused services offerings to address the specific needs of different member groups. Programs like the one for CFOs held in conjunction with Harvard University will become annual offerings. Future programming plans include alliances with world-class partners like the Juran Institute, Andersen Consulting, Hyperion Software, Price Waterhouse and Deloitte & Touche.

We'll provide members more access to vendors' benchmarking and best-practices data, replicating the success of FEI's information-technology benchmarking program underway with The Hackett Group. And FEI's conferences and seminars now feature not only general presentations by innovative thinkers, but also smaller, interactive sessions on specific topics.

Two new national technical committees promise to provide corporate controllers and members of private and closely held companies the chance to interact with their peers on issues of common interest.

As members have less time to be away from their offices, the programs available to them in their own communities become more important. So FEI is working at the national level to support chapter programs and to enlist the aid of chapters in presenting programs that are available both locally and regionally. We're also developing a mentoring program to link small FEI chapters with larger chapters, enabling them to benefit from the successes of their counterparts.

FEI's Internet home page, at www.fei.org, will continue to expand members' peer network by providing useful, interactive information and facilitating communication among members, chapters and the national headquarters - in effect creating a "seamless" FEI. Perhaps the most significant feature of the web site is the new secured access to the full membership database through an individual password assigned to each member. When it's fully implemented, the site will also provide members with interactive forums where you can talk business with colleagues in a secured environment.

The Backbone

To coordinate all these new initiatives, FEI recently adopted a new governance structure, approved by members by proxy at the annual business meeting in June. The new structure will take advantage of the experience and insight of chapter presidents and national technical committees in FEI's decision-making process. The major elements of the new structure are:

* Restructuring the six regional Area Operations Committees, made up of area chapter presidents and the area vice president, into Area Boards that will make sure FEI chapters have enough resources. to reach their membership and professional development goals

* Restructuring the present national board of directors into a new Leadership Board by adding chapter presidents and technical committee chairs as members

* Adding technical committee representation and expanding the scope of the governance responsibilities of the national executive committee, while reducing those of the Leadership Board to allow it to focus on chapter and area operations matters.

FEI is positioning itself for the next century by working smarter - and by helping you to work smarter, too.

FEI in the Year 2000

* A proactive, growing, flexible organization that's oriented to members and value-added programs and services

* Global in focus

* Accessible

* A preferred partner in sponsoring professional-development programs

* Proficient in using information technology to deliver services

* Balanced in sources of revenue, with a decreased dependence on member dues

What To Expect From FEI

* Exposure to best practices from top-rated companies

* Opportunities to exchange ideas and experiences with others who share your interests and concerns

* Access to today's experts in corporate financial management, who willingly...