I want to become a CFO

Most people chasing a CFO role are chasing a version of it that no longer exists. 

That's not cynicism; it's an experience. I've held CFO roles across multiple organisations spanning nearly three decades. And the difference between the role I stepped into at the start of my career and the one I held most recently? Almost unrecognisable. 

The CFO Role Has Already Been Reinvented 

When I became a CFO 26 years ago, the scope was vast. Accounting, AR/AP, tax, reporting, treasury, costing, planning, controlling all sat under one roof. I owned a full P&L with a large operational team and had a direct hand in nearly every financial decision the business made. 

By my last CFO role, half of that had quietly disappeared. Centralised. Automated. Moved to shared services. Absorbed by global functions. The title was the same. The job was not. 

What remained and what grew was something different: compliance governance, business enablement, cross-functional influence. Less transactional control. More strategic weight. Less ownership of process. More accountability for outcomes. 

Finance isn't shrinking. It's transforming. And the people who thrive in it are the ones who can see that clearly. 

The Most Powerful Finance Roles Might Not Be "CFO" 

Here's the shift that most career frameworks haven't caught up with yet: some of the most impactful finance roles today don't carry the CFO title at all. 

Commercial Finance Directors. FP&A Leaders. Transformation Heads. Business Partnering Leaders. These aren't consolation prizes. In many organisations, they sit closer to real decisions, real growth, and real impact than the CFO office does. They're in the room where strategy is shaped, not just reported. 

Finance careers are no longer vertical ladders. They're dynamic portfolios. The path to relevance isn't always straight up. 

The Question Nobody Asks Themselves Early Enough 

I did reach CFO level. Multiple times. But somewhere along the way, I had to be honest with myself about what I was actually chasing. 

It turned out my real passion wasn't finance at all, it was people and leadership development. The finance career gave me the platform. But what truly energised me was helping people grow into leaders, not managing balance sheets. 

That realisation didn't feel like a detour. It felt like an evolution. 

So if your goal is CFO, I'd ask you to sit with two questions before your next career move: 

Do you want the title or the impact? And are you certain those two things still come in the same package?