The Smartest CFOs

Founders should support Founders

Do you know anyone saying their business is going great guns right now? If they are (probably on LinkedIn), do you trust them? I’ve been thinking a lot about the value of trust recently, and about two other ‘Ts’ – transparency and truth.

A few months ago I mentioned CrossFit, the popular workout regime. I don’t do it to be macho. I do it because being in good shape makes ordinary tasks much easier.

There are two reasons you might look over your shoulder. First is fear: what’s approaching out of your eyeline? You might have an uneasy feeling or hear a noise.

You’re probably reading this a few days before the election. The campaign hasn’t been terribly edifying, has it? The Conservative Party seems to be on a self-destruct mission, while Kier Starmer’s “safe and steady” approach has been pretty “low energy” (to borrow a phrase from that other 2024 electioneer, Donald Trump).

It’s funny how the “back to school” feeling lasts well beyond your school days. After a summer hiatus, we get back into work mode with new energy, long to-do lists, and a fresh sense of optimism.

What a dismal month. I’m writing this a few days before Rachel Reeves delivers the first Budget of the new Labour government, and the steady drip of negative stories about the economy and politics in general is souring the mood. (The weather hasn’t helped.)

At the start of the year, the big story was the elections in India, the US, the UK and across Europe. A big year for democracy, then – but, as it turned out, a bad year for incumbency. There’s been a lot of change in 2024. What does that mean for 2025 and beyond?

No, not really. Older readers might know that this email’s subject line is lifted from a 1973 cover of National Lampoon. 50 years later, the need for sensationalist triggers to attract our attention is greater than ever. There’s so much competition for your time, everyone’s at it – in the media, on your socials, even in your meetings and board packs.

Iggy Pop: punk progenitor, psycho-pop legend, David Bowie’s mate, 6 Music DJ – what’s not to like? A lyrical highlight? "I'm bored....I'm the chairman of the bored...." he sang in 1979. And it feels pretty relevant when I look across the finance recruitment landscape in 2023.

Welcome to the newsletter, which opens with a confession: I don’t write this all on my own. The best thing about this job is getting out and about, meeting all sorts of people – finance execs, board members, investors, HR folk – and working out how to match-make for the best results.

It's almost the holidays! Most people are gearing up for a slowdown this week. Seasonal businesses like retail and hospitality are obvious exceptions, but 2023 has been a year of stop-start for lots of us. And while my own business has ramped up all of a sudden – typical, just when it would be nice to settle into the festivities – there have been quieter periods this year.

2024 has kicked off with a slightly different mood in the business world. We seem to have shifted from mild pessimism to cautious optimism.

Non-finance folk often think the FD doesn’t need to be a good networker. You’re back office! Marketing people schmooze, HR people are gregarious – but finance is like IT. Your value is technical skills!

Heard of CrossFit? Wikipedia calls it “constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity”. As someone who’s been doing it for a while, that's accurate... but hugely underplayed. CrossFit’s own slogan is “forging elite fitness” – a more compelling branding.

Well, this has been a busy first couple of months to 2025. The news agenda has responded predictably to the arrival or President Trump, revving up to manic levels as everyone responds to the flurry of executive orders, foreign policy interventions and corporate reactions to his second term.

Becoming the CFO of a listed business is a huge step.

How flexible are you? When we talk about flexibility – outside of the yoga kind – it could mean any number of things. Are you flexible on salary? Can you shift your working commitments around? What about your skill-set – can that change?

One of the nice things about being on holiday is the change of scene. OK, admittedly I had to decamp to a Regus office one afternoon to shepherd through a couple of urgent placements, and one room-with-a-desk looks much like another. But Devon in the spring was beautiful and restorative.