CFO Thought Leader

You can’t understand a business from spreadsheets alone.

What prepares someone to become a CFO? For Lucanet CFO Alistair Gurney, the answer traces back to an early career chapter inside Deloitte’s restructuring practice. cfoeq.substack.com

Why is consolidation still one of finance’s hardest problems? According to Lucanet CFO Alistair Gurney, the answer lies in the structure of modern companies.

Do CFOs still need to replace QuickBooks to prove growth? For many finance leaders, that moment has become something of an unofficial milestone—proof the company has reached its next stage of growth.

Revenue was growing. Sales quotas were being met. But something didn’t feel right. Early in his career, CFO Intekhab Nazeer of Lineaje noticed a troubling pattern—cash burn was rising even as revenue targets were being achieved.

Precision doesn’t change organizations—influence does.

Patience may be the most underrated CFO skill. In our latest CFO EQ, Tucker Marshall of The JM Smucker Company shares a story you’ll see immediately in the short “Fast Views” video — how he once tried to get a job cutting lawns at Smucker… and didn’t get it.

In finance, integrity requires more than just following the rules. Early in his journey, long before his leadership at C Spire, Derek Doyle entered a CEO's office after his company dethroned a 70-year incumbent auditor. #FinanceIntegrity #Leadership

Most executives confuse access with influence. CFO Sam Kemp reflects on how he shifted from being a Wall Street “mouthpiece” to becoming a trusted strategic sounding board.

Growth without economics is just drift. Earlier in his career at Ceres, Manu Diwakar faced a classic venture-backed temptation: scale what you’ve launched.

Curiosity may be a CFO’s most underused advantage. Early in her career—while leading strategic finance at MoneyLion—Sruthi Lanka realized something wasn’t working.

You don’t outgrow preparation—you compound it. Before leading finance at Calendly, John McCauley learned leadership in a far less obvious place: a high-school pool deck in San Diego. The rule was unforgiving: Win or lose, did you do everything possible to succeed?

You can’t demand results before designing the team.

How CFOs Turn Customer Insight Into Predictable Growth In this Finance Strategic Moment, Kevin Rubin looks back on a pivotal chapter from his time at Alteryx—when a shift in pricing strategy forced the finance team to rethink how growth really happens.

You don’t win with AI by moving fast. You win by moving deliberately. In this short clip, Zscaler CFO Kevin Rubin explains why AI must be treated as an experimentation phase, not a finished solution. The pattern matters:

You don’t create value by holding everything.

Workday CFO Zane Rowe: The Finance Moment That Changed AI Investment

Curiosity turns retention math into a leadership X-ray. When you’re staring at a flat retention line, do you stop at the metric—or follow the trail? In this Finance Strategic Moment, Aneal Vallurupalli digs past segment-level dashboards into 200+ customer calls and the full po

What if your best margin lever is rhythm?

When markets swing, CFOs discover what their risk strategy actually protects.