Dow Chemical's CFO explains the best way to drive sustainable growth

howard ungerleider the cfo of dow chemical says you need to have strong accountability focus within the organization

(Dow Chemical)
Howard Ungerleider.

Dow Chemical CFO Howard Ungerleider is a strong believer in developing a value-based culture inside the finance function.

Ungerleider recently shared his best piece of financial advice with Business Insider, and it's centered around the need to understand value drivers and become a "co-pilot" for a company's overall strategy needs.

The Dow Chemical Company is a global material science company with 2014 annual sales of more than $58 billion.

Ungerleider joined Dow in 1990, and his career with the company has spanned a wide variety of commercial, business, financial, geographic, functional, and enterprise-level leadership roles.

His advice is simple but also highly effective. "In this more volatile macroeconomic environment, finance organizations hold a significant leadership role in developing true value-based cultures," Ungerleider said. "It begins with a strong accountability focus within the organization — a clear understanding of value drivers, coupled with scorecards based on common financial metrics."

"In this way, the finance organization elevates from the transactional and becomes a true 'co-pilot' in driving business strategy for attractive, sustainable growth," he said.

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