What I learned reporting on CFOs this year

Let’s pretend you’ve been a CFO Brew subscriber since December 2023. And let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you’re a CFO Brew superfan who read along rapturously when we wrote about what we learned in 2023.

Oh, what’s that? You were too busy chugging eggnog and wrapping gifts? Oh, huh? You just started subscribing last week? You “have a life?” Details, details.

Point is: We’ve done this before. And as an old pro, I have to admit, I thought I’d seen it all. So, did any CFO-adjacent topic shock me, rattle me to my core, reframe my understanding of human life on Planet Earth in 2024? I mean, when the Fed cut rates for the first time since 2020, I was like “OK, whoa.”

But for the most part, life in the top finance seat seemed to chug along, with CFOs more adjusted to the new normal established by a global pandemic, tech upheaval, and political uncertainty.

Yet for all the chaos and uncertainty now baked into the CFO position, it was comforting to learn that many CFOs were prioritizing exactly what you’d want them to prioritize. And thus:

New beginnings Near the end of 2023, we started asking CFOs about their first days on the job: How did they prepare? Who’d they meet with? How did they get ready for Day Two?

The timing made sense. CFO turnover at public companies hit a five-year high in 2023, per Russell Reynolds Associates. Subtext: Lots of CFOs with new jobs.

Maybe naively, I expected everyone to have fairly different first days on the job. Surely internal hires, with decades of institutional knowledge, couldn’t possibly value first-day introductions as much as fresh-faced newbies? Boy, was I humbled.

Throughout 2024, as we continued the series, it became clear that, no matter the industry, no matter the amount of time they’d spent at a company previously, relationship-building was the thing that every CFO prioritized on Day One.

But don’t take it from me. Here’s Airbnb CFO Ellie Mertz on the topic: “Any new CFO coming in can, either internally or externally, learn very quickly the business model. But I think the real value in terms of stepping into a role [where] you’ve known the organization for a long time is actually the value of the relationships that you’ve built. And the trust that you’ve not only built but earned over time, because those obviously don’t materialize overnight.”

Then there was Claire’s CFO Chris Cramer, who said while first days are “always a whirlwind,” he stressed that “to me, it always starts with people and relationships.”

Meanwhile, there was also Instacart CFO Emily Reuter, who stressed the importance of continuing that relationship-building year round. “Whether you’re talking about May or January, you would have just seen me spending a lot of time with the executive leadership team, meaning I was going out to dinner with people and just having a glass of wine and getting to know them, going on walks with my finance team,” she said.

See? CFOs have their heads in the right place. But you already knew that. Now go chug that eggnog.