C-Suite urged to adopt 'think like a CFO' strategy

An outlier service provider is calling on C-Suite executives to adopt a different mindset towards value delivery in terms of revenue, cash, and expenditure.

Dan French, co-founder and CEO of London-based Consider Solutions, specialises in offering outcome-driven efficiencies and savings for large enterprises worldwide. French observes that business leaders often rush to address the "How" before considering the "Why," "What," and "Who."

French explains: "We all tend to habitually see our world from inside-out, focussed on the machinery related to our role in our organisation unit or team - our own performance measures, activities, standards and vocabulary."

He emphasises that an "outside-in" approach is more effective. French further elaborates: "Thinking and behaving outside-in is the most effective strategy, because it answers the ultimate question, why - why does this process exist, what value does it deliver to whom, what is the customer experience, plus why are we trying to transform or improve? Being clear on these questions is a powerful platform for everything that follows and the metaphor we use is Think like a CFO."

When evaluating priorities, process improvements, and technology projects, adopting a "Think like a CFO" perspective is beneficial. According to French, it reorients focus towards critical business elements such as the profit and loss and working capital impact within a defined timeframe.

French states that thinking like a CFO requires all initiatives to measurably contribute to one or more objectives: driving profitable and cash-generative growth for the company, increasing operational efficiency, and strengthening financial resilience and risk management.

This mindset promotes the development and refinement of strategies like the dual operating model, "shift left" thinking, the trust equation, stakeholder extension and expansion, and delivering clear economic value in 100-day cycles. It also fosters the development of the 'execution muscle' within organisations.

French adds: "Driving meaningful change at pace requires practical steps to implement or refine an effective end-to-end process. However, the hardest question to answer about anything complex is 'what does good look like?'"

He continues: "It might seem obvious at first, but the answer is nuanced and in reality is a very delicate balance. Remember that the essential, existential need to understand and agree what good looks like is for all stakeholder and participant segments. Don't even start thinking about KPIs until you are clear on this. There is no single KPI that measures what good looks like for an end-to-end process, as any CFO worth their salt well knows."