CEO
Focuses on how CFOs can align with and effectively advise the CEO across core strategic decisions, from budget design and growth economics to M&A, fundraising, and investor relations. It explores the CEO’s blind spots, turnaround conversations, technology investment decisions, and the dynamics of the CFO-CEO working relationship.
Speaking the CEO’s Language
The epistemological gap between CFO and CEO thinking. How CEOs process financial information differently. The CFO communication failure — why financial precision loses the…
The Strategic Planning Conversation
Why strategic planning fails without the CFO. The CFO's role in the annual planning cycle. Translating strategic priorities into capital allocation. Targets vs. aspirations…
Revenue and Growth Economics
Revenue as the most misread metric. The unit economics stack from lead to lifetime value. CAC fully-loaded. LTV and its sensitivity to gross margin…
The Budget as a Strategic Contract
Why most budgets fail as strategic documents. Five properties of a real budget. The process that builds CEO commitment. Headcount as the most consequential…
Capital Allocation — The CEO’s Most Important Decision
Capital allocation as the CEO's highest-leverage activity. Portfolio mental model. Return on invested capital as the universal metric. Opportunity cost and the path not…
The Board Conversation
Board meetings won or lost in preparation. What boards actually want. Building the financial package. Arming the CEO for difficult questions. Navigating the difficult…
M&A — When the CEO Wants to Buy Something
The CEO acquisition instinct and when it is wrong. Six M&A evaluation questions before due diligence. Valuation methods for growth-stage deals. Synergy — the…
Fundraising and Investor Relations
Fundraising decision — timing, sizing, structure. Building the equity story. Financial data room preparation. How investors set valuation. Managing ongoing investor expectations. CFO role…
The Turnaround Conversation
Recognising a turnaround early. The cash runway crisis and 90-day irreversibility window. Triage — where to cut and where to protect. Revenue stabilisation. Communicating…
Compensation, Incentives, and Alignment
Compensation as the CFO's most neglected strategic lever. Executive compensation architecture. Sales compensation that drives right behaviour. Equity, options, and the cap table. CEO…
The CEO’s Blind Spots
Why CEOs repeat the same financial errors. Error 1: growth at any cost. Error 2: the hockey stick model. Error 3: margin compression as…
Technology and Digital Investment
Technology investment as the CFO's hardest evaluation. ROI, risk, and optionality framework. Build vs. buy vs. partner. AI investment evaluation. Infrastructure as hidden cost…
Case Studies I — Two CEO Finance Scenarios
Two CEO finance case studies. Case 1: the growth trap — Nexus pursuing ARR growth at deteriorating unit economics until capital constraints force the…
Case Studies II — Two More CEO Finance Scenarios
Two CEO finance case studies. Case 3: the turnaround — Nexus executes the 90-day plan from Part 9, bridge financing secured, and the path…
Master Summary
Complete reference for CFO Speaks CEO. 50 essential concepts across six domains. 35-term CFO-CEO glossary. 12 decision frameworks with application guide. Governance architecture reference…