CFO best practices: lessons from the trenches

Automation is a key part of newly-appointed Branch CFO Matt Peterson’s plan to help the workforce payments provider get to the next stage of growth, he said.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based business has grown its revenue by more than 1,200% over the last three years, and is looking to continue that trajectory by expanding its payment infrastructure and enterprise reach, according to a Feb. 17 press release announcing the CFO appointment.

“If you really want to help a company grow and become an enduring business, you need to be just as agile as the products your company's making in the finance team,” Peterson told CFO Dive in an interview. “So what does that mean? That means we're automating our systems. We're automating as much manual work as possible.”

The speed to scalability jump

Peterson’s career has spanned numerous financial leadership stints at usage-based technology companies, joining Branch after a three-year span in the top financial seat for gifting platform Snappy, according to his LinkedIn profile. Previous roles include serving as SVP, finance for text messaging marketer Attentive, VP of finance for Fastly — where he helped to navigate the company’s 2010 IPO — and as a senior associate, M&A for Union Square Advisors.

He is joining Branch at a time when the workforce payments platform is at a key place to make a crucial jump from “speed to scalability,” he said. Early-stage businesses need to be nimble and adaptable, he said, but as they grow and begin to craft longer-term plans, that mindset needs to necessarily shift to “add some more operational rigor and discipline,” he said.

As such, a huge focus for Peterson coming into the seat is “aligning the financial plan to the product roadmap,” he said, an area where he sees careful, strategic use of automation as playing a crucial role. The company has already laid a “decent foundation” when it comes to its core operating systems, policies and procedures, but Peterson’s goal is to help mature that foundation.

“I’m about 100 days in. I feel like we have the reporting already to a really decent spot,” he said. “Now we're in the process of, ‘we made it exist. Now we need to automate it.’”

Peterson views AI and automation as an amplifying tool, rather than a replacement for skilled employees. For instance, Branch’s finance team is currently at about 10 people, and Peterson sees effectively tapping automation as way that could enhance that team: helping the business to scale without adding to that headcount.

The team has already begun building out tools to do daily journal entries and automated reconciliations, he said. In accounting, the “ultimate goal” of automation is to enable the team to do more strategizing and recommending, leading not just to a faster, but ultimately tighter close, he said.

“Your rules are more accurate, he said. “You can get the books out sooner, get the news to your FP&A team sooner, so you can start planning and adjusting the business as needed.”

Moving beyond ROI

Effectively utilizing automation and AI can also help to upskill the whole of the finance team: freeing up time means a vice president can take on my strategic tasks, filtering down through to the controller and other members of the team, “and now you have your junior staff doing work that they otherwise would never get exposure to because they were too busy doing manual tasks,” Peterson said.

When looking to implement new automated tools, it’s also important for CFOs to keep in mind that return on investment is just one part of the puzzle.

“There's a lot of abstract software out there. It's not about just the tangible ROI; that's table stakes,” Peterson said. “It's, does it fit within my three-year roadmap? Does this software tool scale to x100 million or billion of revenue without me needing to replace it?”

Whether finance chiefs are implementing a new enterprise resource planning system or updating an existing one, ERP projects are a major undertaking for many CFOs.

They must collaborate across teams to find the right platform and vendor, ink contracts that limit liabilities and transition to cloud-based systems without missing an operational beat. It’s a tricky process: where the rubber meets the road when it comes to realizing the buzzy promises of AI and digital transformation.   

Adding to the complexity, some growing companies making the switch to an ERP platform, or simply a more robust one, can arrive at the juncture under pressure from the old systems reaching their limit. Tim Naddy, VP of finance at the growing professional baseball team Savannah Bananas, likened the jump to a new system to flying a plane needing repairs. 

“You’re in a plane, you’re putting duct tape on the wings as this thing is flying, right?” Naddy said as part of a panel during CFO Dive and CFO.com’s Modernizing the ERP Transition event last week. “You’re trying to figure out, ‘okay, which piece is falling off the plane, and how do we get this thing moving?’”    

Below are four dos and don’ts shared by ERP experts that CFOs and other finance leaders should consider as they lead ERP transformation or implementation projects. 

 

1) Do: Nail down thorny issues before inking a deal

It may seem obvious, but companies and finance leaders under pressure to find a relatively quick fix to their ERP needs should be mindful about leveraging their power before signing any agreements. “You never have as much leverage as a customer as you do when you’re negotiating before you sign with them,” Marcus Harris, a partner at law firm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister, who specializes in drafting and negotiating enterprise software-related licenses and agreements, said during one of the panels. “You’ve got to play it smart.” 

Be aware that the companies selling the system will sometimes try to pressure you into signing by the end of the quarter or the end of the year, injecting the process with a “false sense of urgency,” Harris said. Instead of rushing, take your time, talk to more than one vendor and wait to reveal which one you’re going with. Also make sure to vet the legal terms of the contract, such as the liability and warranty terms. If you don’t get concessions upfront on those issues, you could ultimately face high legal fees later on if something goes wrong with the ERP. 
 

2) Do: Reconsider the one-size-fits-all ERP paradigm

Historically, many ERP vendors, whether they were serving small, middle-sized or larger businesses, provided the same monolithic large and costly systems, which can run into the millions of dollars in terms of cost and be prohibitive to smaller companies. But that is changing, partly due to AI and other new technology tools.  

Joe Locandro, EVP and CIO of Rimini Street which provides ERP software support, suggests that companies pursuing a new ERP system or upgrade should avoid thinking of ERPs as a monolithic type platform and instead approach the process as one in which they can compose a system that they need. “Think composable in that now the technology and the processes are discrete so you can have a best in breed accounts payable, a best in breed type of salesforce automation…because that’s going to be a quicker time to market,” he said.

3) Do: Collaborate to strengthen protection against ERP disruptions

More mature and highly regulated industries are making a much better effort to ensure CFOs, CISOs and CIOs collaborate and are on the same page when it comes to cybersecurity, according to Britta Simms, global enterprise platform security lead at the consulting firm Accenture. 

“But one gap that we absolutely see, especially with digital transformations and/or ERP modernization programs, is we do not see enough collaboration between the CFO and the CISO office together to really make sure we are identifying; what are the security controls relevant for this ERP platform or platforms that we’re moving to, are they aligned with what our organizational standard is?’” Simms said. 

When a cyber incident occurs, security team may handle actions needed to contain the impact, but there are many other issues that need to be addressed, according to Michael La Marca, a partner at the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth. CFOs and their companies can strengthen the collaborative response by putting a multifunctional incident response plan in place that is tested annually, along with a business continuity plan that is also tested to find common points of failure and where improvements can be made. “You don’t want to be figuring it out on the fly,” La Marca said. 

4) Don’t: Think you have to install an ERP

Given the fast-moving pace of technology, it can make sense to defer the need for a large ERP upgrade or even a new ERP, Rimini Street EVP and CFO Michael Perica said, adding that in some cases his firm has been having conversations about putting an ERP on pause given the next-generation tools and technologies that are reshaping what is possible. 

There’s also the possibility of not pursuing an ERP project at all. “Don’t think you have to do this,” Perica said. “Getting to tomorrow can happen more economically, more efficiently and more inexpensively with this alternative path, these next generation technologies that don’t have to be brought to you through a large system upgrade.”

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Earlier this year, NetSuite surveyed its customers to learn more about how they’re approaching AI in their businesses. The findings showed that a majority already use some form of AI in their daily work. But what really stood out was that participants said their strongest motivator for increased AI use is integration into the systems they already use.

At SuiteWorld 2025, NetSuite unveiled its vision for integrated, practical AI. Based on these latest innovations, here are five AI trends impacting finance in 2026:

1. AI agents will become active participants in finance operations

AI is evolving beyond analysis and recommendations to become an active participant in day-to-day financial operations. AI agents, as they’re known, can interpret context, safely use company-internal data and systems, execute complex workflows, make recommendations and continuously improve.

For example, AI agents can help take finance teams from a month-end close to a continuous close model by working throughout the month to reconcile accounts, validate entries and flag exceptions.

For CFOs, this shift transforms how work gets done. Finance teams will move from monitoring transactions to managing outcomes, as AI agents handle more and more of the execution. The result is a faster, more resilient close process, more accurate forecasting and greater capacity for strategic initiatives.

2. Natural language becomes the best way to interrogate your data

The way finance professionals interact with business systems is undergoing a fundamental shift. Natural language interfaces are replacing traditional data retrieval tools, such as SQL searches, allowing users to simply express what they need and receive tailored responses. For instance, users can simply ask, “What caused the variance in Q2 gross margin?” and receive data-backed answers instantly.

Conversations with AI assistants turn complex analytics into intuitive dialogue, democratizing access to financial insights across the organization.

3. AI becomes contextually aware, personalizing how it helps you

AI systems are becoming deeply personalized, understanding not just data but the context, preferences and goals of each user. For finance, this means AI that knows your role, priorities and workflows—whether you’re a controller monitoring compliance or an FP&A analyst building a forecast.

Personalized AI improves finance productivity by reducing information overload. Instead of giving generic answers and volumes of data to consider, it gives you answers that are tailored, relevant and in step with what you’re doing at that moment.

4. AI moves beyond structured data

Traditional business systems have been limited to processing structured data, such as transactions and other records all set up with predefined fields. A significant shift is emerging where AI can now work directly with unstructured, business-specific content including contracts, policies, institutional knowledge, customer testimonials, training guides and more.

Instead of manually searching through shared drives for a vendor contract or trying to remember which policy document contains specific approval thresholds, finance team members can simply ask questions and receive answers drawn from both their structured financial data and their document repositories.

5. AI provides transparent and explainable answers

As AI takes on a larger role in finance, transparency and explainability are non-negotiable. Finance leaders need to understand why AI came to a conclusion and what information it used in the process.

The emphasis on transparency and explainability reshapes how finance teams evaluate, adopt and govern AI tools. Organizations will favor platforms that have interpretability and auditability baked into their design, so finance leaders can better determine the accuracy of AI’s results and present its findings to board members, auditors and regulators. With the ability to drill down into sources, finance teams can avoid the pernicious black box AI issue.

These trends aren't theoretical—they're showing up in the next generation of business systems. Finance teams evaluating AI solutions should look for platforms where these features are integrated from the ground up, not added as afterthoughts.

The biggest announcement from SuiteWorld 2025, NetSuite Next represents the future of NetSuite. AI will improve finance operations by providing deep contextual insights using all your data, with autonomous agents and natural language search built directly into your workflow. No more context-switching between tools or exporting data to analyze elsewhere. Just AI working for you, exactly where you need it.

Finance transformation will be a major priority for Hewlett Packard Enterprise CFO Marie Myers this year as her team looks to do more with artificial intelligence agents, focusing on use cases such as forecasting and accounts receivable processing, the executive said in a CFO Dive interview.

The team is scaling up its use of “Alfred,” an internal agentic AI tool that it developed with engineers at Big Four accounting and consulting firm Deloitte with the goal of boosting finance operations, Myers said.

After successfully piloting the tool last year, the company is now poised in 2026 to drive “far more use of agentic AI inside of finance,” she said.

The agentic AI push reflects a rising trend among corporate finance teams, according to Deloitte’s latest CFO Signals Survey released in January.

More than half (54%) of surveyed finance chiefs said integrating AI agents in their departments will be a digital transformation priority in 2026. “This likely reflects growing interest in advanced tools to augment workflows and decision-making,” the report said. 

For her part, Myers has embraced a “transformation with purpose” mindset, with a focus on using forward-looking, enterprise intelligence to drive growth, HPE and Deloitte said Thursday in a blog post highlighting their joint finance initiative.

Myers became CFO of HPE in 2024 after a three-year stint as finance chief of HP Inc. She previously held a variety of other positions at HP, including chief transformation officer, overseeing the company’s information technology and transformation organizations.

In her current capacity, Myers has prioritized greater technology adoption at HPE, according to the blog post. Beginning in 2025, she launched an effort with Deloitte to transform HPE’s finance operations “and pioneer agentic solutions that can reimagine how CFOs lead their organizations,” the post said.

AI investment race

HPE’s intensified use of Alfred comes as technology giants and Big Four firms are heavily investing in AI to beef up their offerings while experimenting with use cases internally.

Deloitte announced in March 2025 that it was launching a new suite of “ready-to-deploy” AI agents, dubbed Zora AI and built on technology from NVIDIA, for automating workflows across business functions, including financial management. The consulting firm envisioned its new agents being used to complete complex tasks and provide “on-demand insights, analysis, reporting, workflow automation, decision support and data sourcing,” according to a press release at the time.

As part of last year’s announcement, Deloitte said it was collaborating with HPE to offer a finance-specific Zora product to customers of HPE Private Cloud AI, with both companies planning to use the tool internally in the meantime.

The jointly developed finance tool, which is now referred to as CFO Insights, is cutting HPE’s financial reporting cycle by about 40%, while driving “more productive and targeted discussion around operational performance,” according to the Thursday blog post.

“By embedding agentic AI and generative AI into finance, HPE is demonstrating an approach many teams are still working toward: reimagining processes, moving pilots into production at scale, and generating real, measurable value,” Abdi Goodarzi, U.S. chief commercial officer for Zora AI at Deloitte, said in an emailed statement.

HPE affectionately named its own internal version of the tool “Alfred” after superhero Batman’s trusted butler, according to the post. Myers said Alfred is a platform that leverages both generative and agentic AI, bringing together data across key aspects of the company’s finance supply chain.

The tool allows people in finance and other parts of the company “to really interpret data and understand not just what is happening, but why it’s happening,” she said. “So, it’s a real time sort of interface for us on the key stats and performance of the company.”

‘Deterministic outcomes’

HPE worked with Deloitte and NVIDIA to ensure “deterministic outcomes” with Alfred, “meaning users get the same answer every time they ask the same question, according to the blog post.

“That might sound simple, but it solves a long-standing theoretical challenge in enterprise generative AI: making large-language models behave predictably in inherently non-repeatable LLM [large language model] environments,” the post said.

Myers’ deployment of Alfred started last year with a use case involving HPE’s regular operational performance review process.

“We chose really consciously to pick one of the most strategic processes in the company, which is our weekly ops call” that includes people from both finance and sales, Myers told CFO Dive. “Once a week, we come together on a Monday with 40 to 50 people who sort of really look at what’s happening with the business, and that call is the heartbeat of the company.”

Before the deployment of Alfred, “it was a very manual-driven, rear-vision mirror look-back call. We would spend literally days beforehand pulling together... about a hundred pages of PowerPoint … on what had happened in different aspects of the business.”

Alfred is capable of instantly analyzing data and generating insights, eliminating the need for tedious manual work and allowing the focus to shift from figuring out what happened to a more forward-looking conversation on “what we plan to do about it,” Myers said.

AI agents “now perform a lot of the analytical work that analysts were doing before,” she said. “So, analysts who were previously doing calculations around shipment data, shipment accuracy — those tasks are now performed by agents.”

Myers said the ops project gave her team “the chance to really position ourselves as finance helping to inspire and lead a broader enterprise transformation.”

She said the company is now looking to deploy Alfred on the “transactional side of finance” — from credit and collections to accounts payable and receivable processing.

“We’re in production right now with Deloitte on many of those initiatives,” the finance chief said. Forecasting could be the next major focus, she said.

For SAP Americas CFO Sonja Simon, artificial intelligence and its potential to change the way we work represents “a great opportunity to help get the finance organization ready and excited about what will come,” she told CFO Dive.

AI very much remains a “fast-moving train,” she said, with the technology continuing to evolve at a rapid pace and with much of its potential still left unclear or untapped.

When “there is such a dramatic change in what technology has to offer, it is only human to initially say, ‘Wow, what does it mean for me? How is it going to impact my job? Will I still have a job tomorrow? And if I have a job, then what will it look like?’” Simon said in an interview. “I feel, as a leader in finance, we really have to help the teams” work through that response, she said.

Getting comfortable

Strategically leveraging technology, including automation, is a critical part of how the Walldorf, Germany-based company approaches running finance. Over the course of her 18 years at the multinational software provider, SAP has grouped the tasks of its finance function by creating dedicated teams for different areas, such as human resources, compensation and revenue accounting.

The move has allowed SAP to become “very, very lean,” and to leverage technology: the finance team Simon oversees in her current role is comprised of 30 people and manages both the revenue and associated expenses of approximately 40% of SAP’s global revenue, she said.

Simon has held various roles during her near-two decade career with SAP. She was previously responsible for external reporting before being appointed to the role of CFO for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020. She took her current role as CFO of SAP Americas in April 2025, which added the U.S. and Canada to her remit, she said. Prior to SAP, she worked for seven years at the Big Four firm Ernst & Young.

As AI and automation continue to evolve, it’s important for the finance function to become familiar with new tools. Within Simon’s team, “there are some small things that we do to ensure that people get comfortable” with AI, she said. That includes bringing AI up in team meetings  and asking for volunteers who are willing to talk about how they have used the technology lately, she said — whether in a professional or personal setting.

Simon also has an individual on her team that is “tasked with continually working on what is available for us within finance at SAP today, already, to ensure that we are really at the forefront of the adoption,” she said. As a global entity, there are numerous teams at SAP which are all examining how AI could be tapped within their functions, and it’s important that finance stays top of mind.

“We always want to make sure that they don't forget about us, so that…they ask us, ‘Okay, do you want to be the first user? Do you want to be the early adopter?’” she said.

Creating a ‘failure culture’

To drive early adoption of emerging tools and technology, however, it’s key to create the room for professionals to experiment and make mistakes. Simon said she is “a strong believer in creating a failure culture,” which can particularly be a challenge in finance. As the numbers crunched by the function make their way into the reports that govern executive decisions on, there’’s little room for error.

However, opening up space for financial professionals to experiment with new and emerging tools, and to make mistakes, is also crucial to driving creativity and finding new solutions, she said.

“The tricky thing here is you really have to celebrate failure, and you really have to make it stick, because it is only human,” Simon said of her approach.

For instance, Simon challenged the team at SAP to find better insight per deal for a key performance metric at the company: current cloud backlog, a KPI which is relied upon by investors and analysts to evaluate its cloud journey.

The team did come up with a tool that helps to simulate the impact on that metric, she said.While that tool may not give the right figure 100% of the time, “that is an example of where I say, ‘Okay, what you have put together is a lot better than what we had, which was, in that case, nothing,’” she said. “’And so the fact that this isn't 100% correct, keep in mind that you still improved the process significantly.’”

CFOs and chief information security officers are significantly misaligned when it comes to cybersecurity investment goals and priorities, a survey by cybersecurity firm Expel found.

The breakdown revolves around metric and decision-making mismatches, according to the report released this month. Security leaders typically make decisions based on industry best practices, compliance requirements and ease of integration, while finance chiefs zero in on areas such as cost avoidance and risk reduction.

“Rather than doubling down on metrics that their counterparts don’t value or can’t understand, CISOs and CFOs can both benefit from educating their counterparts,” the report said. “By bridging the knowledge gap, finance and security leaders work toward better alignment, clearer communication, and more strategic cybersecurity investments.”

The findings come as escalating threats are heightening pressure on organizations to make strategic cybersecurity investments, Expel said.

Cyberattacks are expected to surge this year as criminals continue exploring ways to capitalize on advancements in artificial intelligence.

“Now, new AI-driven threat vectors stand to increase the scope, frequency and cost of data breaches,” global information services firm Experian said in its 2026 data breach forecast report.

As cyber threats become more sophisticated and the financial impact of breaches rises, CFOs are taking a more proactive role in cybersecurity strategy and investment decisions, Jack McCullough, president and founder of the CFO Leadership Council, said in a recent blog post. 

“This extends beyond just approving budgets — it involves understanding the business continuity implications and ensuring the organization is adequately protected,” he said. “Success depends on collaborating with CISOs and IT leaders to translate technical risks into business language for boards and investors, maintaining transparency about vulnerabilities and incident response capabilities, and being agile in responding to emerging threats.”

Security and finance leaders report excellent collaboration, with 74% and 68%, respectively, saying they work together early and often, according to Expel’s report. Yet the research exposed disconnects.

Security leaders said they encounter obstacles including limited understanding of cybersecurity risk when trying to obtain funding from finance. Finance leaders, meanwhile, indicated they want specific, measurable data before approving cybersecurity investments, with 40% saying that quantified risk reduction would make it easier to justify a spending hike.

More than four in 10 finance executives said better translation of technical risk into financial terms would help improve collaboration between the two teams.

To get on the same page, the teams have to learn to speak the same language, according to Expel.

“This may require security leaders to translate metrics into measurements that resonate with finance leaders,” the report said. “For example, ‘ease of integration’ might turn into a time- or cost-based metric while ‘meeting compliance requirements’ might translate into avoiding fines.”

The report was based on a survey of 136 cybersecurity leaders and 164 finance executives, Expel said.

With finance and accounting talent shortages among the biggest workforce challenges cited by CFOs, some finance chiefs report that they are playing a bigger role in finding and hiring workers to staff their teams, according to an April 28 article from Big Four firm Deloitte.

The increased involvement is just part of the evolving strategy for bolstering the workforce, as roughly a third (34%) of finance leaders said they were taking a larger role in the hiring process, while 35% said they were bringing in employees from other departments as reinforcements and turning to external human resource firms to identify candidates, according Deloitte, citing data from the company’s Q1 2025 North American CFO Signals survey.  

Because CFOs understand the inner-workings of their finance department, it makes sense for finance chiefs to be more involved. “The hands-on approach — effectively, CFO as the chief human resources officer of finance — might help finance chiefs get the right candidates in the right seats,” Deloitte states. ​​​​

The one-two punch of retiring certified public accountants and a shrinking pipeline of younger people choosing the field has galvanized momentum to bring more people into the accounting profession by easing CPA licensure requirements. To date, at least 11 states have passed legislation that removes the 150-hour-rule hurdle which effectively requires candidates to complete a fifth year of college to obtain a license, CFO Dive previously reported. 

Increasingly, finance departments are also turning to technology, including automation and AI, to fill finance skills gaps. Nearly eight in 10 (79%) finance chiefs surveyed said it is likely that they’ll use generative AI in the coming 24 months “to bridge skills gaps,” according to the report from Deloitte executives led by Steve Gallucci, national managing partner, US CFO Program. 

However, the Q1 survey found some potential challenges may be in store, with 48% of finance chiefs citing staff resistance to using new technology as their biggest challenge in meeting C-suite expectations.  

Meanwhile, CFOs are anxious about the impact of the talent shortage on the workers they do have, as well as their companies. The biggest talent pipeline-related worry was about the increased workload shouldered by existing workers, cited by 44% of CFOs, followed by the fear of a loss of credibility with institutional or private investors, cited by 42%, and concern about the eroding the board’s confidence in finance, cited by 41%. 

“Such consequences can put CFOs squarely in the hot seat,” Deloitte said, noting that only 15% of respondents said their organizations are not experiencing a shortage of accountants or other finance talent. 

The Deloitte article highlighting the workforce talent shortage that CFOs are grappling with did not include broader survey findings related to the respondents’ outlook on the broader economy, which is often part of the regular quarterly survey. Last month, a Deloitte spokesperson said the company had at that time opted not to release the traditional report due to changes in the economic environment that occurred after the survey was fielded in February. The company did not respond to requests for further comment on the report.

Deloitte’s Q4 2024 Signals report showed a sharp jump in executive optimism, with 72% of the 200 finance chiefs surveyed projecting an improved economy in a year, compared to 19% in the previous quarter.

Historically, chief revenue officers mainly focused on driving sales and revenue growth. Today, CROs are front and center when it comes to such areas as financial planning, investor relations, pricing strategies and forecasting, according to Irina Wolpert, a leader with the executive search firm Egon Zehnder. 

As businesses have become more complex and market dynamics have shifted over the last three to five years, the responsibilities of the CRO have expanded to “just encompass a much broader set of strategic and operational functions,” Wolpert said. 

That leaves CROs nudging up against CFOs’ typical remits, an evolution that comes both with potential points of tension as well as greater opportunities to create success for their businesses.

“Both roles are incredibly critical and in fact have to coexist and partner in order for the company to have a long-term, sustainable growth agenda,” Wolpert, who serves as leader, financial services, tech & fintech practice groups at Egon Zehnder, told CFO Dive in an interview.

Weighing risk versus growth  

One of the newer entrants to the C-suite, the CRO position began to gain ground as companies — especially startups in the technology and software spaces — increasingly focused on high growth, according to a 2015 article by VentureBeat.

The position, which could also be occupied by a “chief experience officer,” or “chief growth officer,” is “tasked with creating a single revenue engine — from lead generation in digital marketing to closing the sale,” a 2023 write-up by McKinsey said. “The CRO’s role goes beyond sales and marketing to the entire market landscape, customer journey, and strategic expansion plans.”

As such, one of the main areas of tension between a CRO and CFO tends to be that “balance of risk versus growth,” Wolpert said. CFOs tend to have a more conservative approach, focused on risk management and financial stability, while CROs “are typically incentivized to take much more calculated risks to achieve more aggressive revenue targets,” she said. 

“Typically, where we see the tension is, number one in the area of resource allocation,” Wolpert said. “If you think about the traditional role of the CRO, typically they tend to push for more resources to drive sales and revenue growth. The CFOs, rightfully so, are typically much more focused on budget constraints.”

Prior to joining the Zürich, Switzerland-based leadership advisory firm, Wolpert served as global head of sales enablement and go-to-market strategy for e-commerce company Amazon, according to her LinkedIn profile.

A former professional ballet dancer turned business executive, Wolpert also served a 15-year span at American Express in various roles including as head of sales enablement and marketing and VP, global sales enablement.

While the two positions can tussle over growth versus stability, both the CRO and the CFO are morphing into more strategic leaders within the C-suite.

“Given how both roles have evolved, these two critical roles can actually build a much stronger partnership than they ever could in the past,” Wolpert said. In order for businesses to achieve their goals, that collaboration is critical, she said.

“When I think about strategic planning at the end of the day, you need both functions to focus on revenue growth and they have to be completely in alignment on their financial goals,” Wolpert said. “And I think you need a very strong CFO and a very strong CRO to really come together and think about a business strategy that ultimately drives growth and profitability.”

Broadening the path to the CEO seat  

A strong relationship between CFOs and CROs — both of which typically report to the CEO — can also help top executives to more smoothly execute on their business strategies, balancing “financial frugality” with a customer-centric approach to growth and revenue, Wolpert said. As such, both CFOs and CROs are becoming more “viable contenders” for the role of the CEO, she said.

In her view, the CRO is in a slightly better position to assume the top executive seat, as those executives have a “comprehensive” view of the businesses’ entire revenue ecosystem and so, they naturally develop “a very deep understanding of how various parts of the organization ultimately work together to achieve [a] common objective,” she said.

Finance chiefs are also emerging as more popular candidates for the CEO chair, however — and for those companies which are examining their CFOs for such a role, it’s important to invest in honing the operational leadership and other key skills of their finance chiefs outside of finance, Wolpert said.

Some companies approach this by crafting “an intentional path for the CFO to step into a chief operating officer role or a divisional CEO role” within the same company, she said, enabling them to develop their operational skills.

“I also think… the most successful CFOs who ultimately become CEOs, not only do they bring the kind of operating chops and experience running other parts of the organization, but they have really cultivated tremendous relationships with the board, with their peer set,” Wolpert said.