The hidden cost of ignoring financial infrastructure—and why heroic CFOs aren’t the solution

I recently came across a sharp, insight-packed LinkedIn pitch – the kind we all scroll past daily. The story was familiar: a CFO leaves, the business slows, the forecast softens, Board decks lose clarity, and meetings drift into opinion because the numbers aren’t there.

Spotting symptoms is easy. Diagnosing the root cause requires more honesty.

It reminded me of Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets:

“I’m drowning and you’re describing the water to me!”

So what’s actually happening beneath the surface?

When a CFO leaves and the foundation collapses, that CFO didn’t lead – they performed. A resilient finance function shouldn’t seize up when one person exits. If it does, the fundamentals were never built.

The real work of a CFO isn’t the Board presentation or the M&A pitch. It’s the quiet, unglamorous operational backbone: a three-to-five-day close that doesn’t depend on heroics; a finance engine that produces dashboard-style Board content every month; a standard profitability and ROI model used consistently across the business; a clean process flow from procurement to payables to cash, payroll, and revenue; forecasting discipline with documented drivers and assumptions; controls, schedules, checklists, and documentation that survive turnover; and a finance team empowered to run the engine independently.

This is the dirty work. The essential work. And it’s rarely done between 9 and 5.

But before concluding the CFO failed, ask one uncomfortable question: Did the CFO ignore the foundation like an individual contributor craving the spotlight… or did leadership ignore what the foundation required?”

Sometimes the CFO truly did leave gaps. Other times, the CFO pushed for a reporting tool, cleanup of the chart of accounts, tighter processes, a backfill for an exhausted team, a basic data refresh, or a lightweight budgeting system and heard:

• “Not this quarter.”
• “Too expensive.”
• “We need to focus on growth.”
• “Let’s revisit after the fundraise.”

Then everyone acts shocked that the machine wasn’t built to last.

What’s the true test of the foundation? M&A and audit-level scrutiny.
Modern CFOs need M&A capability at any company size. It’s the ultimate litmus test for whether the underlying systems, documentation, and controls can withstand real diligence pressure. And today, every company is either perpetually for sale or perpetually evaluating purchases—even if only to benchmark, access market-leading innovations, or adopt the latest productivity improvements. A CFO without basic M&A and diligence readiness leaves the business vulnerable, regardless of whether a deal is imminent. A mentor once told me, ‘You’re only as good as your last audit.’ He was right – durability comes from repeatable processes, not heroics.

Investment doesn’t have to mean big dollars. Smart CFOs build incrementally: automating reconciliations inside existing tools; creating better spreadsheet templates and shared assumptions logs; implementing simple rolling forecasts; adding light process maps and checklists; hosting informal lunch-and-learns on Excel or productivity hacks; and teaching and mentoring the team personally, trading time for scarce dollars. Frugal, incremental improvements can dramatically increase speed, accuracy, and resilience – and they fit the company’s size and stage.

Real change requires ownership, not another hero hire. If the plan is simply to wait for the next “rock star CFO” to parachute in and save the day, the cycle will repeat. A durable finance function is built deliberately. Frugally. Incrementally. With shared ownership from leadership.

Are you ready for that kind of change or just holding the fort until the next savior arrives?