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Finance candidates don’t always make it to the final round—and not because they lack the chops. In executive hiring, especially in CPG, strong financial operators are too often misread or undervalued. Not because they aren’t capable, but because they’re not packaging themselves for how companies actually hire leadership today.
Let's unpack why finance talent gets overlooked, how hiring managers can adjust their lens, and what finance candidates can do to position themselves more strategically.
The Underrated Role of Finance Talent in CPG
Finance teams are the operational heartbeat of most CPG organizations—but they’re rarely treated like growth drivers. While sales and marketing functions tend to take the spotlight, finance is expected to quietly handle reporting, controls, and cost containment.
That thinking is outdated. In today’s margin-pressured market, finance leaders are central to driving agility and efficiency. Whether it’s shaping scenario plans, optimizing pricing strategy, or identifying investment priorities, finance is now a key voice in steering the business forward.
Yet when it’s time to hire at the executive level, finance professionals often lose out to candidates who seem more dynamic or commercially savvy. The risk? Brands overlook the exact leaders who could’ve brought the operational clarity and fiscal discipline their teams actually need.
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What Hiring Managers Prioritize in Executive Searches
When hiring executives, decision-makers are weighing more than resumes. They’re paying attention to how a candidate communicates, whether they project leadership presence, and how fluently they speak across functions.
This often puts finance candidates at a disadvantage—not due to lack of experience, but due to how they tell their story. A VP of Finance might spend most of the interview detailing audit controls and ERP upgrades, when the panel really wants to hear how they partnered with sales to unlock margin or supported a go-to-market pivot.
That disconnect matters. Leadership hiring is as much about influence and clarity as it is about capability. If a candidate can’t make the leap from function to strategy in their answers, they won’t get the benefit of the doubt.
How Finance Candidates Undersell Their Impact
Most finance professionals are trained to focus on facts and figures. But in executive hiring, numbers without context fall flat. Hiring teams want to understand the why behind the metric—what decisions were made, who was involved, and how the business changed as a result.
Consider the difference between saying “We reduced COGS by 12%” and “We collaborated with procurement and operations to redesign our cost structure, leading to a 12% margin expansion that supported reinvestment in trade marketing.”
One is accurate. The other tells a leadership story.
Many finance candidates also forget to highlight how they’ve built teams, aligned with cross-functional peers, or influenced cultural change. In a hiring environment where leadership fit is often the deciding factor, that omission can quietly remove them from contention.
Interviewing Finance Leaders: What to Listen For
Hiring finance executives requires a different ear. Beyond the technical depth, the best candidates reveal how they work across silos, influence decision-making, and think about long-term value creation.
Listen closely for candidates who can explain how they’ve contributed to revenue strategy, partnered with brand or sales leadership, or shifted org structures to support company growth. These signals are often buried under more tactical answers, but they indicate whether the person in front of you is a finance leader—or just a financial controller with a better title.
Equally important is their comfort navigating ambiguity. Can they speak to big swings or turnarounds? Do they show appetite for complexity? These cues matter, especially in today’s CPG climate where certainty is rare and agility is everything.
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Reframing Finance Talent for Modern Executive Roles
Helping finance talent succeed in executive interviews isn’t about dumbing down the work—it’s about elevating the story. Great search partners and internal hiring teams can make a difference by shifting the frame.
First, prep your interviewers to go beyond technical screens. Bring in cross-functional leaders—brand, ops, or sales—to assess how finance candidates will integrate. That’s where collaboration fluency shows up.
Second, coach candidates to connect their wins to bigger business outcomes. Encourage them to replace “I closed the books on time” with “I rebuilt the FP&A process to give commercial leaders faster, more accurate forecasting that helped them reduce missed targets.”
Finally, broaden your sourcing beyond traditional finance pipelines. Candidates from finance-forward organizations often come in with the storytelling, agility, and commercial IQ you need—they’ve simply been trained to think more like operators than controllers.
“If finance isn’t in the room when key decisions are made, your org is missing a strategic anchor.”
Let’s find finance leaders who move the business forward.
Contact Protis Global
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