Promoting from within is sometimes a matter of "hire the devil that you know," says Boyle. However, he says the more likely reason for promoting a controller is that the executive has played "an incredibly important leadership role" across several divisions. For example, a controller who has rolled out an enterprise resource planning system for a multinational may be poised for a trip up the ladder. The same goes for a controller who has reworked a decentralized global finance and sales operation into a centralized system.

At smaller companies, Hack says, boards and investors are still looking for CFOs who are good accountants, can run tight ships, build financial infrastructures, and have operation and strategy in their backgrounds. In a category all their own are private equity firms, which are small from an organizational perspective, and usually seek operationally strong CFOs who don't necessarily have public company experience. That's where private company CFOs can go to gain public company experience, the headhunter says.

The bottom line for controllers who aspire to be CFOs, says Boyle, is that they must guide their careers away from simply providing analysis for the five-year plan and day-to-day financial management. They must become "the financially savvy person that the CEO wants to have a discussion with."

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