Pierre-Jean Sivignon uses a sporting analogy to des-cribe how his fellow chief financial officers should behave in a recession. "There is a tendency to make sure the rules of the game are being respected, to be a referee. In a crisis you almost have to stop being a referee and become a player," says the CFO at Dutch conglomerate Philips.

The financial crisis has thrust CFOs centre-stage. For many of them, trained as accountants and used to dealing with numbers, that could be an uncomfortable place to be. But now is not the time for CFOs to be timid observers: companies need them to move to the front line as they fight to survive the impending global recession.