Rahul Shah

In the realm of business planning, the traditional calendar-based approach is outdated. Rooted in tax cycles and management principles from decades past, the annual budgeting ritual often feels like a relic of a bygone era. It's time to usher in a new era of agility and adaptability through the adoption of continual planning.   Picture yourself on your daily commute, encountering a sea of red tail lights ahead. At that moment, you're faced with a choice: do you stick to your intended route, resigned to sitting in traffic, or do you pivot, seeking alternative exits and side roads to reach your destination faster? This scenario mirrors the essence of business planning.   Continual planning offers a host of advantages over its annual counterpart. Instead of being bound by a rigid yearly cycle, businesses can embrace monthly or quarterly iterations, allowing for more frequent adjustments and refinements to strategies. It's akin to driving with a constantly updated GPS, enabling you to navigate unforeseen obstacles and optimize your route in real-time.   Gone are the days of exhaustive, once-a-year planning sessions. Instead, the focus shifts to agile adjustments and strategic thinking. Rather than fixating solely on year-end outcomes, businesses can build dynamic 12-month rolling forecasts—a fluid roadmap that evolves alongside shifting market dynamics and internal priorities.   Transitioning from annual budgets to toll gate planning and continual forecasting empowers businesses to cultivate resilience and responsiveness. It's about fostering a culture of adaptability, where flexibility becomes a strategic advantage in navigating the complexities of today's business landscape.   In this paradigm shift, the emphasis lies not on adhering to arbitrary calendar milestones, but on embracing and adjusting with change. By leveraging continual planning, businesses can stay ahead of the curve, driving innovation and charting a course towards sustained success in an ever-evolving marketplace.

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CFO plays a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of emerging companies. Here’s how CFOs drive strategic building within startups:   - Financial Planning and Analysis: According to Deloitte survey, 72% of high-growth companies attribute their success to effective FP&A practices. CFOs utilize data analytics and forecasting techniques to guide decision-making.   - Strategic Partnerships: CFOs facilitate strategic collaborations by evaluating financial viability. Effective partnerships enhance market reach and competitiveness, fostering growth and innovation.   - Capital Management: CB Insights research indicates, 29% of failed startups cite running out of cash as the primary reason for their downfall. A CFO optimizes capital structure, ensures efficient resource allocation, and makes sure that startups don’t grapple with capital constraints.   - Risk Management: In the dynamic landscape of startup growth, CFOs identify and mitigate financial risks. PwC report highlights that 65% of CEOs are concerned about uncertain economic growth impacting their business.   - Regulatory Compliance: CFOs ensure startups adhere to tax laws, regulatory requirements, and accounting standards. Compliance mitigates legal risks and enhances investor confidence, significant for long-term sustainability.   In the end, CFOs play a strategic role in the growth journey of startups. By leveraging financial expertise, risk management acumen, and data-driven insights, CFOs enable startups to navigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities. In the competitive landscape of entrepreneurship with effective financial leadership startups can chart a course towards sustainable growth and profitability. #CFO #startup #startups #finance #CorpwisAdvisorsPrivateLimited #leadership #growth #entrepreneurship

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It was great to help out on this article with CFO.com. AI is critically important to companies who are trying to harness the power of technology to drive process and productivity improvements. Start small and knock down simple use cases. Then build upon those learnings, to drive even more innovation. That's what we are doing!

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Traditional CFO vs. Modern CFO. Let's review the ten main differences... No CXO role changes faster than the CFO role. In two decades, demands have shifted dramatically! Traditionally, the CFO was branded as a beancounter. Now, the CFO has stepped out of this stereotype. The modern CFO is a true business partner. The remit expands well beyond Finance. Let's look at what separates the two... Ten characteristics of a Traditional CFO:  1. Financial stewardship  2. Cost control  3. Historical reporting  4. Silos  5. Risk aversion  6. Compliance-centric  7. Budgeting  8. Financial analysis  9. Transaction-focused 10. Limited technology emphasis Ten characteristics of a Modern CFO:  1. Strategic partner  2. Value creator  3. Data-driven  4. Risk management  5. Innovation-oriented  6. Performance management  7. Digital transformation  8. Strategic finance  9. Change agent 10. Cross-functional collaboration Is this also the development you have observed? #Finance #CFO #Leadership #BigData #Analytics ‪#FutureofWork‬ Source 🙏 Anders Liu-Lindberg

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Addressing the Debate: Are CFOs Good CEOs? The debate around whether CFOs make good CEOs is a hot topic, but it's important to recognize that CFOs bring valuable skills to the table that can make them exceptional leaders across various sectors, especially financial ones. The notion that CFOs aren't fit to be CEOs often stems from broad generalizations rather than individual assessments. In reality, the qualities that make a great CFO—strategic thinking, financial acumen, risk management, and analytical skills—are equally essential for a successful CEO. It's a matter of understanding that each candidate's strengths and challenges are unique. In some cases, recruiters might have personal preferences based on prior experience and case studies, which can influence their decisions. However, it's crucial to note that "one size doesn't fit all." Just as "a rising tide lifts all boats," CFOs can elevate an entire organization when given the helm. Their deep understanding of the financial landscape can drive growth, innovation, and sustainable success. The road to the top is diverse, and the CFO role is just another route to being at the helm, demonstrating that there's "room at the top" for everyone with the right skills and mindset. So, rather than "throwing the baby out with the bathwater," let's recognize that CFOs are equally competitive and capable of leading organizations to new heights. Their journey to the top might be different, but it’s no less valuable. After all, the diversity of leadership styles is what drives innovation and success in the corporate world. In short, having a CFO as a CEO can be a game-changer, bringing unique insights and strengths to the leadership table. - #Leadership - #CFOtoCEO - #BusinessGrowth - #CorporateLeadership - #StrategicThinking - #FinancialAcumen - #InclusiveGrowth - #ExecutiveLeadership - #SustainableSuccess - #BusinessInnovation - #LeadershipJourney - #CFO - #CEOMindset - #DiversityInLeadership

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Advance tax numbers bring cheer to the economy! cfosme #cfoservices #financeplanning #strategyexecution #strategyconsulting #financing #costeffective #fundamentals #growthpotential #cashflow #marketoutlook #problemsolving #Decisionmaker #strategies #analyses #KPIS #operations #performance-driven #Riskmanagement #compliances #sharedcfoservices Visit us at: www.cfosme.in

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4 Observations About the Current State of the Private Equity Sector: 1️⃣ Private equity (PE) funds are holding onto their portfolio companies well beyond their initially expected exit dates. This includes investments that were previously made in dental support organizations (DSOs). 2️⃣ There is increased pressure on PE funds to sell existing holdings and distribute returns to investors before making new investments. 3️⃣ More PE funds are preparing for a potential increase in M&A activity due to anticipated reductions in interest rates. 4️⃣ We may see a faster rotation of DSO ownership in the next 12 months. #healthcare #dentistry #privateequity #finance

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A recent study by Gartner sated that 50% of #cfos are planning to invest in AI initiatives in the coming year. Here is an article from CFO magazine discussing how to do it with minimal risk. One key point is to start small and scale fast. #1mind can help with the start small by simply adding or replacing 1 BDR to your sales team for next year and see a 6.5+X return. See our Superhuman AI, Mindy, in action at www.1mind.com. #AIinFinance #fintech https://lnkd.in/gJnwHc_8

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The role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has evolved significantly, becoming a strategic partner to the CEO and playing a pivotal role in shaping company strategy and financial performance. Research emphasizes that CFOs actively involved in strategic planning and performance management contribute to stronger financial outcomes. Factors like education levels and alignment of tenure between CEOs and CFOs are key in fostering successful partnerships, driving collaboration, and mutual understanding. For companies aiming to optimize financial performance, it is crucial to engage CFOs in decision-making processes. Hiring CFOs with backgrounds similar to CEOs can enhance the effectiveness of this partnership. Aspiring CFOs should prioritize the development of strategic and leadership skills alongside financial acumen to achieve success in this evolving landscape. In today's intricate business environment, CFOs play a critical role in shaping corporate strategy. Forward-thinking organizations empower CFOs to move beyond traditional finance functions, embracing a more strategic approach. Share your insights on CFO-CEO collaborations in the comments below.

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Looking to ensure mission-driven development for your CFO? Introduced by the CFO Leadership Council in 2018, this model, geared specifically to the role of #CFO, can be easily applied to guide their own and their leadership team's growth. This model brings a lot to the table - it sets the tone for high value, high impact throughout all members of #finance. It's rooted in 7 guiding principles + organized into 4 anchors. The model further links into supporting attributes that should be developed to ensure the mission-driven development of the CFO. Developing this area is mission critical to any business. Having a set of leadership principles and a framework is the starting point, it's what guides development. Having perspective on how to apply the concepts is where the rubber hits the road. Leadership in an ongoing process - it demands constant attention, constant practice in order to be successful. Leadership matters. #Leadership #CFO #Finance #talentoptimization #leadershipdevelopment #CFRO

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Why PE-Backed CFOs Must Drive Team Alignment to Unlock Enterprise Value In the world of private equity-backed companies, every decision is scrutinized through a lens of value creation. The stakes are high, timelines are compressed, and the goal is clear: drive rapid growth and maximize enterprise value. For a CFO, financial strategy is only part of the equation; the true multiplier lies in aligning your team around a unified vision. Not too long ago, I was introduced to the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) methodology. This system emphasizes accountability, data-driven decision-making, and streamlined operations. For this or any methodology to be truly effective, team alignment becomes the critical component to drive long-term value. Here’s why: 1. Focus on Key Priorities When every team member understands the mission and how their role ties into larger goals, distractions give way to strategic focus. With EOS, each team member owns key metrics linked to the company’s KPIs, ensuring that all efforts contribute to a growth-oriented culture and, ultimately, valuation. 2. Predictable Performance PE thrives on predictability, and EOS offers just that. Aligning teams with a structured system provides predictable results, reducing risk in projections and enabling strategic moves backed by data, not gut feel. 3. Accountability Drives Velocity Time is money, and cash is king! With a system focused on accountability, teams can move faster with clear ownership over tasks and a relentless focus on execution. Alignment reduces the need to constantly course-correct, freeing leadership to focus on high-level strategy. 4. Cultural Resilience Through Change In a high-stakes PE-backed environment, change is constant. Aligned teams adapt seamlessly, with EOS creating a shared language to handle shifts. From integrating new tech to pivoting to a new market, alignment helps teams thrive through change. 5. Enhanced Enterprise Value Ultimately, enterprise value is the bottom line. Alignment minimizes inefficiencies, maximizes productivity, and creates a cohesive organization that’s agile, resilient, and focused on value creation. For investors, alignment signals scalability and growth, making the company a more attractive target for acquisition or IPO. In the end, creating enterprise value as a PE-backed CFO isn’t just about hitting numbers; it’s about building a team invested in the mission. When everyone is aligned, the value created isn’t just financial; it’s cultural, strategic, and—most importantly—sustainable. PE-Backed CFOs: What systems have you used to successfully drive alignment and enterprise value in your portfolio firms? #Leadership #PrivateEquity #EnterpriseValue #EOS #TeamAlignment #CFO

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The mandate to deliver value comes with the responsibility of acting like a fiduciary. The capex-oriented financial budgeting practice — beloved by many Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) because of the ability to amortize physical resources to tax advantage — is no longer viable in a cloud and FinOps world. CFOs will need to adapt to an opex-oriented model and explore new optimization and budgetary best practices. This represents a fundamental and foundational shift from the last four decades of IT cost management and budgeting. Cloud is a massive budget item and leaders responsible for data, analytics and AI have to act accordingly. 🔮 Gartner predicts that by 2027, generative-AI-enhanced cost optimization will automate 40% of data and analytics spending in cloud-based data ecosystems. So data and analytics leaders need to: 1️⃣ Actively track and report cloud spending at the workload* level by acquiring appropriate tools and implementing best practices to use them across the financial and line-of-business organizations. 2️⃣ Introduce greater granularity to D&A budgets by linking specific workloads or projects to budget line items, and tracking cloud spend. 3️⃣ Introduce FinOps as an interactive discipline through a phased approach by continually evaluating workloads for their price/performance and value over time, and eliminating or optimizing those workloads that do not provide sufficient value for cost. 4️⃣ Establish explicit lines of communication between the offices of the CFO, CDAO and CIO by formalizing regular assessments of cloud spend and its business value. * "Workload" = a cohesive body of work that meets a specific business requirement. A workload may require a single cloud resource, or a set of cloud resources all working in tandem. For example, a business intelligence (BI) team may need to produce a set of reports each week that provide a snapshot view of the health of the business. These reports rely on multiple resources to produce their end-user-facing content: the data warehouse, the BI reporting tool and the data integration processes that load the data warehouse. Different workloads will require different sets of resources. The forward-thinking cloud practitioner will logically tag these resources for budget and alerting capabilities in the cloud. If #FinOps #Analytics #Data #AI #Cloud interests you as a Gartner client subscribe to our D&A research, check out our brand new research from my colleagues Adam Ronthal and Michael Gabbard: "Cloud Transition Requires CDAOs to Collaborate With CFOs" https://lnkd.in/ema98knP (requires client login)

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Based on my experience as a former CEO and director on the boards of numerous companies, these are the expectations that CEOs and boards have of their CFO. CFOs who meet these expectations will earn trust and confidence and be effective in their role.

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I'm happy to have contributed to this article on CFO.com - take a look! With an AI-driven data strategy, CFOs can help ensure better decision making around customer retention strategies, responses to business trends, and contribute meaningfully to top-line growth. Even if you're not a technologist, you have an important role to play.

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Spreadsheet problems that Vareto solves, part 1. This is the story of how Vareto transforms the chaos of many spreadsheets into a single, beautiful model. 🎉 --------- Every finance leader that's led annual planning, long-range planning, or any other complex planning process knows it's painful. Primarily because it involves many different people. First, you create a calendar that lays out when inputs will be requested, collected, and approved. Then you bake in buffer time for reminders and iteration (aka "herding cats"). It takes hours to create spreadsheet templates for each stakeholder, usually with input cells highlighted plus a whole lot of additional data, calculations, and instructions to give people the right context. You do a lot of set-up work, you try to make it easy for everyone, yet the process still feels hard and frustrating: (1) Spreadsheet data goes out of date quickly, so you have to keep sending new versions of actuals. (2) Linking individual spreadsheets back into the main financial model is a special type of torture. Links break. Copy/paste errors abound.  (3) Your main financial model has no record at all of who did what and when because comments and approvals happen elsewhere (often via email). No matter how perfectly you execute this process, it is going to feel exhausting. Now there's Vareto, and everything is different. Imagine that you build a single beautiful model instead of many spreadsheets. Imagine you can share different pieces of this model, and each stakeholder sees and edits only what they're supposed to. Imagine that you can see their inputs in real-time, yet have full control over if and how the data flows into your financial summaries. Imagine that all discussion and approvals get captured in the same place, for easy iteration and auditing. If this resonates, you're going to love Vareto. Come talk to us. 😃

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CFO turnover continued to rise in Q1! Stay informed about #financetips and #costaccounting to navigate the evolving landscape. Explore #growthpotential and #liquidity strategies to optimize your business's financial health. For more insights, visit us at www.cfosme.in #cfosme #costeffective #budget #finances #sharedcfoservices #funds #financing #business #growth #funding

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From the CFO War Stories & Executive Insights Blog, System Implementation - A Career Killer, by Mike Kovar CPA, CFA: https://bit.ly/MKBlog1. "Your job is at stake and the company stands to lose millions. The task directed to you is to select and implement the next generation ERP system that should make the entire company more efficient. Will your legacy be as the sponsor who picked the wrong system that turned out to be a waste of millions? The software will impact HR, accounting, budgeting, reporting, point-of-sale, inventory, benefits, credit card processing, executive dashboard and cash management. The corporate goal of increased efficiency can backfire into increased inefficiency if you have the wrong system or poor implementation. This will cost the company millions in time spent learning a system that doesn’t address needs – and it is not a one-time cost but a continued annual cost to employees, management and shareholders..." READ MORE HERE: https://bit.ly/MKBlog1 #SystemImplementation #CFO #Accounting #MikeKovar

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Manufacturing is about building—products, profits, and a legacy. But what happens when: 🔄 Margins shrink due to rising costs? ⚙️ Investments in tech aren’t yielding ROI? 💼 You’re forced to make tough calls with incomplete data? I help women CEOs in manufacturing harness financial clarity to grow confidently and profitably. Don’t just manage the present—build a foundation for tomorrow. 🚀 Curious how I can help? Let’s connect. #CFO, #leadership, #manufacturing, #CPA, #profitability

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