Category: The Accidental CFO
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๐ง๐ต๐ฒย ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐นย ๐๐๐ขย โย What Christmas Teaches Us Every Year ๐
๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ดย ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅย ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ดย ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎย ๐ข๐ฏย ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅย ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บย ๐ช๐ฏย ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ. Every December, I relearn the same lessons. No matter how many years youโve spent in leadership, control is mostly an illusion. Plans change. Forecasts break. Markets move. Life does too. You can do everything โrightโ and still be surprisedโand thatโs not a failure. Itโs reality. What Christmas gives me, every year, is perspective. And
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๐ง๐ต๐ฒย ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐นย ๐๐๐ขย โย ๐ง๐ต๐ฒย ๐๐ถ๐ฒย ๐ช๐ฒย ๐ง๐ฒ๐น๐นย ๐ข๐๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐น๐๐ฒ๐ย ๐๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ย ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐๐ต
๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ดย ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅย ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ดย ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎย ๐ข๐ฏย ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅย ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บย ๐ช๐ฏย ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ. There is an old punchline that has circulated through businesses for decades. It usually comes up when a salesperson is defending a discount, or a founder is justifying a cash-burning growth strategy: โSure, we lose a little money on every unit we sell… but donโt worry, weโll make it up in volume.โ It always
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The Accidental CFOย โย Your Numbers Are Perfect. Thatโs Why You Arenโt CEO Yet
Stories and lessons from an unexpected journey in finance. CFOs trade in precision. CEOs trade in possibility. I recently witnessed an exchange that perfectly captures the gap between the two. CEO: โWhy should the market bet on us right now?โ CFO: โBecause our EBITDA margins are top quartile.โ CEO: โThatโs a result, not a reason.โ This is the trap. We
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The Accidental CFOย โย Why the Best CFOs Make People Uncomfortable
Stories and lessons from an unexpected journey in finance. I didnโt become a CFO to be a decision architect. Like many in this seat, I earned the role through reliability. My numbers were accurate, the close was tight, and the narrative always reconciled. Yet, despite the competence in the roomโsmart boards, talented executives, and endless
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The Accidental CFOย โย Part 4: The Public/Global Enterprise CFO โ Scale, Risk, And Strategic Steering
Stories and lessons from an unexpected journey in finance. When you step into a large public company or global enterprise, the CFO role transforms againโthis time into one defined by scale, governance, and orchestration. During the years I led multi-billion-dollar business units, the complexity was unlike anything earlier in my career. Youโre no longer building
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