Why CFOs Need to Think Like Tech Leaders
Modern finance leaders are operating in a fast-evolving landscape, and businesses that fail to recognise this shift risk being left behind.
For too long, finance has been treated as a back-office function: reactive, process-heavy, and painfully repetitive. In many growing companies, it still sits at the end of every workflow. Manually chasing numbers, reconciling errors, and producing reports after the decisions have already been made.
This isn’t just inefficient, it’s a strategic risk. When finance is disconnected from the core of the business, opportunities are missed, growth slows, and clarity fades.
To compete in today’s fast-paced, tech-driven environment, finance leaders need to think differently. More agile. More connected. More forward-thinking.
It’s time for CFOs to start thinking like tech leaders.
The Problem: Repetition Over Reinvention
We believe that finance leaders are some of the sharpest minds. Analytical, detail-driven, and deeply strategic. But too often, their teams are stuck repeating the same manual tasks, month after month.
Whether it's pulling reports, chasing invoices, or copying data between disconnected systems, valuable time and talent is lost to inefficiency. Not because the team lacks skill, but because the function has inherited outdated processes that go unquestioned.
In traditional finance, risk-aversion and caution are seen as strengths. And while those qualities are vital, they can also lead to stagnation. A reliance on “what’s worked before” often prevents teams from asking the simplest, and most powerful, question: Could this be done better?
The result? A bloated, reactive finance function that’s slow to deliver insights, disconnected from the wider strategy, and ultimately holding the business back.
Enter the Tech-First CFO
Modern finance leaders are no longer just guardians of the balance sheet, they’re architects of scalable systems, stewards of data, and enablers of growth.
They think like tech leaders.
Rather than simply maintaining what exists, they step back, assess the full picture, and reimagine how finance can function more effectively. That might mean unpicking outdated processes or rebuilding from the ground up. Not for the sake of change, but to create something leaner, smarter, and future-ready.
Tech-first CFOs:
Spot inefficiencies and eliminate them with smarter tooling
Build integrated systems that scale and reduce manual effort
Use real-time data not just to explain the past, but to shape the future
Take ownership of transformation, not just oversight
Position finance as a driver of strategy, not just a processor of transactions
This shift in mindset is what separates reactive finance functions from proactive growth enablers. When finance operates more like a modern tech team, agile, automated, and fully connected, it becomes a competitive advantage.
What That Looks Like in Practice
We’ve worked with businesses that scaled quickly but kept their finance function stuck in the past. They had large amounts of data, disconnected systems, and a finance team buried in manual tasks, ad-hoc queries and spreadsheets. Without a single source of truth, decision-making became slow, unreliable and inefficient.
By shifting to a more strategic, tech-enabled approach, we reduced their finance workload by over 60%, freeing up valuable time for more meaningful work. Instead of chasing numbers, the finance team started contributing to business growth through real-time insights and data-driven decisions.
The key? A change in mindset. It’s not about doing more with less. It’s about doing things better - with smarter systems and a focus on the future.
The Skills Modern Finance Leaders Need
Leading a modern finance team doesn’t require coding expertise, but it does require a shift in mindset. Today’s finance leaders must be curious, adaptable, and collaborative. They need to:
Understand how data flows across systems
Know when to automate and when to optimise
Collaborate with IT, operations, and commercial teams
View finance as a partner in driving every part of the business
By embracing a tech-forward mindset, CFOs don’t just modernise their teams, they elevate the entire finance function and secure a seat at the strategic decision-making table.
Bringing Finance to the Frontline
In today’s fast-paced business world, successful companies treat finance as a strategic partner, not just a support function. This shift happens when finance leaders embrace innovation, challenge the status quo, and encourage their teams to think beyond traditional boundaries.
When CFOs think like tech leaders, they not only streamline finance but also foster stronger collaboration across departments. This creates a ripple effect, strengthening the relationship between finance and other teams, driving data-driven decision-making, and aligning everyone towards the common goal.
Even businesses that don’t consider themselves "tech companies" are recognising the need to adapt. The evolving business landscape is demanding it. By embracing tech-first thinking, CFOs help future-proof their organisations, unlocking efficiencies, improving agility, and positioning the business for long-term growth.
Ready to Future-Proof Your Finance Function?
If your finance team is still buried in manual tasks, or your systems aren’t built for the pace of your growth, let’s talk. We help ambitious businesses modernise their finance function, automate where it counts, and turn finance into a strategic powerhouse.