The role of CFO has evolved in the dental industry to involve more complex duties that require strong engagement with other key leaders.
Travis Franklin, the executive vice president and CFO at Heartland Dental in Effingham, Ill., recently shared with Becker’s his insight on the key questions CEOs should be asking their CFOs.
Note: This response was lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What questions should dental CEOs ask their CFOs more often?
Travis Franklin: The first thing CEOs should be demanding is an operational CFO — one who spends less time relitigating last month’s results and more time focused on next year’s results and the lessons the current financials are teaching us about where to go. The role has moved well beyond closing the books and reporting variances; the modern CFO is a forward-looking, strategic partner who connects financial discipline to operating decisions before they show up in the P&L.
It is also important to be clear about who we serve. As a DSO, our customers are the doctors and their teams — the clinical professionals who own the patient relationship and make every care decision. Our job is to support them with the infrastructure, insights and resources that let them focus on patients. Part of that support is helping our supported doctors see the trends developing in their patient base and in the broader external environment that could create pressure on their practices, so they can lead their teams with foresight rather than react after the fact.
That is why the second thing CEOs should be demanding is that their CFOs consistently monitor the external environment and what is going on around them. I use Bell Leadership’s external environment framework, which organizes the forces acting on a business into eight domains that every dental CFO or dental executive should be actively thinking about:
1. Economy: consumer demand trends, practitioner sentiment and broader macroeconomic conditions.
2. Owners and stakeholders: capital markets, cost of capital and long-term value creation.
3. Technology: Artificial intelligence, data, data security, revenue cycle automation and clinical innovations that support the doctor.
4. Culture and workforce: team sentiment, retention, professional development, supply and demand trends, etc.
5. Competitors: industry evolution, service model innovation and the patient experience our doctors deliver.
6. Patients of our supported doctors: demographic shifts, evolving benefit designs and access to care.
7. Legal and regulatory: the full range of compliance obligations across the jurisdictions we serve.
8. Vendors and suppliers: supply chain resilience, procurement discipline and cost stewardship.
When CEOs ask their CFOs about these forces with intention — not once a year in a strategy offsite, but continuously — the partnership stops being about reporting the past and starts being about helping our supported doctors and their teams build stronger, more resilient practices for the patients they serve.
At the Becker's 5th Annual Future of Dentistry Roundtable, taking place September 14-15 in Chicago, dental leaders and executives will gain insights into emerging technologies, practice growth strategies and the evolving landscape of dental care delivery, with a focus on innovation, patient experience and operational excellence. Apply for complimentary registration now.