CEO Wavelength
Top 5 Qs a CEO can ask their CFO
Kate Ayotte, Fractional CFO Consultant, Aspire CFO
March 2025
It’s tough being a CEO, I get it. It requires superhuman abilities, on the easiest of days. There are shining moments I have when working with my CEO clients, as I take them through business transformations to set them up for sustained success.
Here are my top 5 favorite things a CEO will ask me, giving me the confidence their business is going to go the extra mile:
5. Let’s go through the scenarios we considered in the financial model… This is a great idea. CEOs are meant to live and breathe by dynamic scenarios – what if’s... As the chief visionary officer for a company, this is where I like to see my CEO clients spend their time and partner with me as their CFO on mapping out the main scenarios a business needs to brace for or pursue.
4. Can we be more efficient in how we do things… Another favorite question I like to hear from the CEOs I work with. There is so much opportunity to be more efficient, including and especially for small to medium-sized businesses. Infusing more technology to automate repeated, manual processes is a big area I focus on, so team members can move to higher level work of strategizing.
3. I need help getting better at understanding the Finance function. This is a powerful ask and I love hearing it. A CEO is not meant to and cannot do everything, brilliantly - a CEO and CFO are meant to partner on business strategy and how to bring that strategy into fruition. The right CFO can help a CEO and his team sail through a balance sheet, build the right assumptions in a financial model and more, while they pursue their competitive advantage in the market with the product or service they are delivering.
2. I have a great product, how can I expand into foreign markets? Most CEO’s have an eye to expand and grow, in both domestic and international markets. Working with the team to determine real potential and how to plan a corporate structure that will support healthy growth while considering tax and resource planning are critical for a successful expansion.
1. I don’t have a succession-plan and I think I should. Yep, 100%. Every business leader will exit, eventually. Establishing your exit plan, while there’s time, is so very important. An essential step to setting up effective succession plans is establishing clearly-defined operating policies, especially in finance. Opportunities to test the established and developing processes can be taken when a CEO or CFO take a break – short term and longer term, with a team empowered to carry on with business and prove up the value of plan.
