Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “How many analysts does it take to update a scenario?”

Unfortunately, that’s not the beginning of a joke…

Pulling the data, double-checking the formulas, and explaining (again) why the numbers don’t match last month’s model sucks up far too many resources.

But with Runway, it takes just one analyst.

It lets you drag a plan to adjust the timeline, tweak assumptions, and watch your burn rate and margins update instantly. No manual work. No “let me get back to you.” Just clear, confident answers—right when you need them.

That’s why teams at AngelList and 818 Tequila trust Runway to move faster.

See how Runway makes finance a strategic advantage - not a bottleneck.

Red flags

I was talking to an audit partner recently.

This was someone who headed the whole audit practice for a large region for one of the Big 4. Not just any audit partner. A big fish.

I was asking him about automation and the potential AI has to improve the quality of the audit and efficiency.

He was super excited about how it was going to transform data gathering, risk assessments, flagging anomalies, etc.

“It sounds like you will need far fewer people in the future for an audit, does that mean my fees are going to go down?”

I already knew the answer.

“Haha, no. We may need fewer people on the job, but they will need to be more specialist. More expensive people. Plus, there will be a bunch of other background overhead (like software and compute costs) that you don’t see directly, but are real costs.”

“But it does sound like you’ll need smaller new graduate intakes in the long term?”

“Yes, I think that is true.”

“So where do the future partners come from?”

He paused.

“That’s the bit we haven’t figured out.”

He’s not the only one …

With Runway, financial planning is instant. Drag and drop plans to adjust timelines, compare scenarios in seconds, and see the impact across your entire business—without any lag, broken formulas, or version control chaos.

Your business doesn’t wait. Your finance tools shouldn’t either.

See Runway in action

The CFO pipeline has sprung a leak

This is the final part of a four-week series diving into the future of the CFO role.

In week 1, we talked about how the actual responsibilities of the CFO role are not going to change that much.

In week 2, we covered where the real change will happen (in the tools, technology, and team underneath the CFO).

In week 3, we discussed the way current CFOs need to adapt to be ready for what’s to come

See the contradiction?

Finance is supposed to produce well-rounded CFOs. But AI will hollow out the foundation.

The roles beneath the top job will become more specialized, wiping out some of the traditional stepping stones. So where does the next generation of generalist CFOs come from?

The truth is, no one can answer that today.

We’re at the start of an exponential technology cycle. If you’re old enough (I am), think of AI today like the internet in the mid-90s… unquestionably transformational, but no one knows quite how and in what sequence.

Some first-order effects are obvious - we’ve discussed many of them in this series. But the second and third-order effects? Too abstract to predict.

All we can do is trust that finance pros and CFO pathways will evolve together because a) they always have and b) they must.

One thing is for certain…

Traditional CFO paths will change. Old routes will close off. New routes will open.

And as the system gets disrupted, there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for outstanding early and mid-career finance pros.

As Lord Petyr Baelish said…

So today, we’re focusing on how future CFOs can capitalize on that. What you can do to make sure you don’t end up in a career cul-de-sac. Or even skip a step (or two) and fast-track your way to the corner office.

And if you’re already a CFO? This should help you think about what your team needs to grow. The finance leaders of 2035 won’t climb the ladder the same way you did. You have a responsibility to open new pathways.

So here are 7 ways wannabe CFOs need to think differently over the next decade to accelerate climbing the ladder to CFO:

1. Lean-in

2. And then lean out again

3. Get on cross-functional projects

4. Get controlling experience

5. Be in the right place at the right time

6. Learn storytelling

7. Think business impact

1) Lean in

If it wasn’t obvious already, you need to lean into AI. That goes for everyone, from CFOs to fresh grads.

You might feel like you’re being left behind. That everyone is talking about AI, and you’re the only one not using it.

You’re not.

Just by being the sort of person curious enough to read this newsletter puts you at an edge over most. It means you are thinking ahead. And care about your career.

This is the trap of online finance content. The people reading about AI in finance tend to be the tech-savvy ones. The ones writing about it? Even more so. (Okay, maybe I’m the exception, I’m no tech expert, I just like writing.)

But the vast majority of finance pros aren’t thinking about AI at all. They’re too busy with cost inflation, interest rates, M&A integrations, product launches, tariffs… real-world problems.

So it’s still VERY early. 

Now is the time for carefree experimentation. Start small. Use AI to draft low-stakes emails or refine higher-stakes ones. Throw some sports results into ChatGPT and get it to help you build your next parlay bet. Or get it to help you build a marathon training plan, or vacation schedule and costing.

Become an AI tinkerer. In the summer, I interviewed CFOs of several companies with a $10bn-$100bn market cap. They were all using AI in their daily work life, but in a low-stakes, experimental way. They started playing, then they stumbled into valuable use cases.

Give yourself some space to understand how it works and its potential.

First play around with the foundational models (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.). Then start to take product demos and sales calls for AI-powered finance tools.

If you’re early in your career, you need to be AI-native.

Businesses scrambling to “do something” with AI will quickly anoint someone as an internal expert. That could be you. And here’s the kicker: You don’t need to be an actual expert. You just need to know the most in the room.

And in some rooms, that won’t be very much.

Over the next five years, anyone in finance who can credibly claim AI expertise will skip steps on the ladder, get fast-tracked for promotions, and see doors open that didn’t even exist before. I’ve never seen a bigger career shortcut for finance pros.

There are plenty of people out there (myself included) waiting for someone younger to show them exactly how to use this stuff. I remember the same phenomenon with the internet, except back then, I was the young person.

2) And then lean-out again

Now, let’s take the other side of the argument.

Every man, woman, child, and dog will be scrambling to look AI-clever over the next five years. It’s going to get noisy.

And in the rush, many will spend too much time in front of a screen. And underinvest in timeless skills, especially relationship-building.

Don’t be one of them. And don’t let it happen by accident.

Consider this: You run an FP&A team of six. You use AI and automation to cut that down to three while doubling the quality of your team output.

Well done.

But here’s the problem. If all you’ve done is improve outputs that someone else (your CFO) uses to look clever in the business, you’ve missed an opportunity to elevate your own role.

This isn’t about scoring points and getting “credit.” It’s about developing yourself.

As you deliver efficiencies, use the headcount savings strategically, not just to save money or improve output for your business. But to expand your own scope.

Otherwise, your team shrinks, and you get pigeonholed as the AI-whiz in a nerdy corner.

Being in the nerdy corner for a while is fine, but it can be a one-way street. You become so valuable there that you make it hard for the business to meet you.

If you want to be a CFO, you need to learn how to use the data and insight you are producing.

• Using those insights to make things happen in the business

• Partnering more closely with the sales and operations teams

• Getting more C-suite exposure

• Talking to human beings, not screens.

So yes, master AI early. But see them for what they are: a lever to climb the first few rungs faster, so you can create personal space to develop real CFO skills.

3) Get on cross-functional projects

As we said last week, generalist skills are getting harder to acquire. Finance teams will become leaner and more specialized, making it tougher to get the broad experience a CFO needs.

That’s why cross-functional projects are a goldmine.

If you’re a younger finance pro, say yes to every opportunity to work across departments.

Eventually, you won’t just be part of these projects, you’ll lead them. And when you do, you’ll start proving you can line up teams, drive outcomes, and operate like an executive. Not just as a finance specialist.

You’ll learn how to speak the language of the business. Too many finance pros get trapped in numbers and jargon, assuming that better data alone wins the argument. It doesn’t.

The best CFOs know how to frame insights in a way that sales, operations, and product leaders actually care about. And will take action on.

That is a skill set that gets you the top job.

And working on cross-functional projects is a great hack to get a taste of it earlier in your career.

4) Get experience in financial controlling early

You didn’t think I was going to forget the basics, did you?

As I said in Week 2, controlling skills are only becoming more valuable. They’re a hygiene factor for most CFO roles. It’s not what gets you the job, but what keeps you from losing it.

And yet, the opportunities to build these skills are shrinking. As AI and automation gut the layers beneath controllers, fewer finance pros will get real hands-on experience in controllership.

I get messages almost daily from career FP&A pros, rockstar MBA/ex-investment bankers and consultants who’ve just landed their first CFO role. Almost all of them say some version of:

“I had no idea how little I knew about how an accounting and finance function actually works.”

Many feel exposed. And while most will figure it out, in the meantime, they’re only as strong as their controller. And how would they know if their controller is strong?

This is less of an issue in big companies, where CFOs have layers of scaffolding beneath them. But only a small number make that leap. And if you’re aiming for a CFO role in a mid-market business or smaller, you will be a better CFO if you get firsthand controlling experience.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean you have to spend years buried in accounting. In the near future, there will be seriously interesting roles in controlling teams leading aggressive automation projects.

And as exposure to financial controlling gets harder to come by, there will be a benefit to checking this box in your early career. Rather than scrambling around to fill an experience gap at VP of Finance / CFO level…

5) Be in the right place at the right time

It’s an incredible time to be an ambitious young finance pro. Probably more so than ever.

But you need to be in an environment that matches your ambition.

I’m not an advocate of job-hopping for the sake of it.

Real development happens 18–24 months into a role, once you’ve mastered the technical side. That’s when you can start engaging with the wider business and key stakeholders with confidence. Really contributing to strategy, influencing decisions, and proving your value beyond the numbers.

BUT…

We’re on the cusp of the biggest shift in finance since accounting went digital. AI and automation are about to rewrite how finance teams operate.

You want to be part of that.

And if you can’t get on the court, at least make sure you have front-row seats.

This comes down to where you work and your role within that company. It’s not about making knee-jerk career moves, but it is about ensuring you’re positioned to capitalize on the changes ahead.

Talk to your boss (and your boss’s boss) to understand how engaged your company is in adopting AI. Will it be a leader or a laggard? Either can be fine, as long as you’re in the right place at the right time.

Speak to your peers, expand your network, and track what other businesses are doing (and. therefore, what you are missing out on). The more informed you are, the better your timing will be.

And of course, stay plugged in. Reading this newsletter is a good place to start. I’ll keep across what’s happening in CFO tech. Read the ads too. I pick our partners carefully. We only work with software companies pushing the frontier of what’s possible.

The biggest career opportunities come not just from hard work, but from timing. Make sure you’re where the action is.

6) Learn storytelling

I should declare my bias here. You’ve probably noticed that I like telling stories.

But storytelling is one of the most AI-proof skills there is, so it’s only getting more important.

Great leaders tell great stories. And great CFOs are no exception.

People respond to stories, they connect with them, and they remember them. Your job as a business leader is to get people to want to do what must be done.

The most powerful tool in your armory for this is storytelling. It’s also a very rare skill amongst finance professionals. Most aren’t good at it, and for those that are, it takes time to get comfortable in it.

Finding the story in the numbers and compelling the business to act is harder than it sounds. By becoming just a 5 out of 10 storyteller, you will be ahead of 98% of finance professionals.

And you don’t need to wait to be a CFO to practice. In fact, the sooner the better.

For example, take that deep dive piece of analysis and present it back as a story backed with data. Or if you are writing the commentary on the monthly accounts, step back and think how you can paint a picture with your words.

If you start practicing this skill at the start of your career, you will get extremely good at it by the time it really matters.

Secret CFO favorite Scott Galloway said that if he could only teach one skill to his children; it would be storytelling. I’m impressing the same thing on my own children.

This is one of those skills that is going to become much more important for all leaders, especially CFOs. So start getting reps in whenever you can.

Note: we have a series coming in April on performance reporting. As part of that, I’ll give you a framework for storytelling with data.

7) Become a commercial thinker

Hot take: most finance pros don’t understand P&Ls as well as they think they do.

They see P&L impacts in isolation. Sales price up? Good. Down? Bad. Volume up? Good. Down? Bad. Lower CAC, raw material costs, labor? All good, right?

This isn’t how P&Ls work. No line item moves in isolation.

For example, if you raise prices. You would assume that is a P&L positive move?

Well, what if that kick starts a chain of events…

• higher prices cause a collapse in demand

• lower demand means lower volumes in operations

• which means you miss supplier rebate thresholds

• which pushes input prices up

• which puts pressure on margins overturning the positive effect of the price increase

• lower volumes trigger a restructure of fixed costs

Your ‘simple’ price increase, triggered a chain reaction of effects across the income statement.

And that is all before you think about how competitors and suppliers react. Or how any of this ties to your strategy.

Managing a P&L is not straight forward.

The best CFOs see these kinds of second (and third-order) effects instinctively. (The best CEOs I have worked with have been exceptional at this too)

But, honestly… most finance pros don’t understand how P&Ls really work. You have to learn by spending time in the business.

And then you need to learn to codify the complexity into a model.

As the capability of FP&A tools improves, this sophistication will move into software. Building FP&A models that capture the circularity and complexity of real life P&L management.

I think this is the thing on the finance agenda with the single most value-add potential over the next decade.

So the more you can build your commercial thinking, the more potent you will be.

Think more deeply about your business:

• What are the real options available to the business? What are the levers?

• How would competitors and customers respond to each?

• Where would those effects touch the P&L and how?

• How does this affect the everyday challenges faced by sales, product, and operations teams?

By thinking about these problems more deeply, you will better understand your business. And, in turn, the better you will understand P&L dynamics, which will be transferable to other businesses.

This comes with experience, but you can roleplay this thinking at any level.

Net-net

We come to the end of this series on the future CFO with a fascinating few years ahead. The existing finance roles will consolidate into more specialized roles. And there will be new roles created that we can’t even conceive yet.

It’s an exciting time.

Who knows exactly what the future state will look like. But you can still take steps now that increase your luck surface area.

Take interest in the technology, and experiment, without obsessing over it and losing sight of the fundamentals.

And if you take one single message from this series, it’s this: focus on building your people skills. Personality, storytelling, and influence will be the currencies of the future.

Even for finance folk. ESPECIALLY for finance folk.

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