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As businesses face constant disruption and accelerating change, CFOs at private companies–including those with investment from private equity or other capital partners–are expected to be more than stewards of financial health. They are embracing a broader role as strategic leaders–helping shape the company's next chapter.
In private companies, there is added pressure to improve operations, boost efficiency and create long-term value. These CFOs face a distinct mandate: deliver strategic insights and operational agility, often with leaner teams, tighter timelines and elevated expectations from owners and stakeholders.
Delivering on today’s expectations means finance can’t just stick to the basics. To lead effectively, the finance function needs to evolve from a traditional support role into a digital, insight-driven engine for the business. That shift starts with boosting productivity through automation, building a more connected finance tech ecosystem, and equipping teams with the digital skills to match.
The end goal is a finance function that helps shape strategy — delivering real-time insights, improving forecasting accuracy, and driving smarter decisions across the business.
Flipping the finance model
Finance modernization starts by strengthening the core—then flipping the model to prioritize insights, technology, and talent.
How do you get there? It requires a transformation that starts with strengthening core operations like reporting, forecasting and planning. Then comes layering in digital tools like AI, automation and cloud platforms to boost speed, accuracy, and scalability. Along the way, proper tax planning can help improve the ROI of your business imperatives. And finally, it’s about building a finance team that thinks strategically, moves quickly and plays a central role in shaping what’s next. Below are six strategic actions to consider.
1. Modernize your finance tech stack
Technology is advancing rapidly, yet many private companies still operate with legacy systems that slow decision making and limit visibility. As a result, even the most capable CFOs can find themselves in reactive cycles—managing manual processes and navigating disconnected tools that make timely decision-making more difficult. To lead effectively today, CFOs need to modernize their finance systems so they can move faster and guide the business with clarity.
What’s at stake?
Outdated tech hampers reporting, clouds visibility and limits scale. Many competitors are investing in AI, automation and cloud-native systems to help accelerate decisions.
CFO Scenario: Best suited for CFOs leading a tech refresh—especially if legacy systems are slowing down decisions or insights.
Key actions:
- Evaluate whether the current ERP system supports your future growth, business model evolution and operational complexity.
- Consider leveraging the R&D tax credit to help reduce the cost of implementation.
- Move away from manual budgeting and forecasting. Adopt scalable FP&A/EPM platforms with AI-driven forecasting and strong scenario modeling.
- Leverage automation not just for efficiency, but to reduce manual error, improve accuracy and enforce compliance through workflow controls.
- Drive AI adoption through high-impact use cases. Start with practical tools, align AI to business goals and build strong governance. Upskill employees and bring in specialists to help reduce risk and move faster.
Pro insight: A cyber-secure digitally transformed organization can no longer be an option and should be viewed as a necessity to stay competitive.
2. Build data stores that enable reliable and insightful analytics, fast
CFOs are often expected to uncover inefficiencies, close gaps and align financial strategies with their company’s goals. For CFOs in private companies—where teams are leaner, data may live in disparate systems, and stakeholders expect fast, confident decisions—those expectations can feel even more intense. But if your data is disorganized or siloed, it’s hard to see where the gaps are—let alone fix them. That’s why getting the basics right is step one: protect your data and embed risk management within your core financial processes and systems.
What’s at stake?
If your finance function inherits fragmented systems that don’t easily relate across domains, your stakeholders may operate with blind spots, create delays, and compromise decision making. Without trusted, well-governed data and embedded controls, even the most sophisticated strategies can fall short—delaying profitable growth and eroding stakeholder confidence.
CFO scenario: Best suited for a CFO new in the role, where the first 90 days are often imperative. Use this window to assess financial health and surface operational gaps—laying a stronger foundation for growth, strategic investments or transactions down the road.
Key actions:
- Integrate your data seamlessly across departments. Reliable cross-functional KPIs are imperative for managerial reporting and strategic insights.
- Create a performance management framework to help track KPIs aligned to business strategy, with self-service access for CXOs and real-time forecasting built on reliable data foundations.
- Strengthen core systems and controls by embedding automated checks, audit trails and role-based access to reduce risk exposure and improve data integrity.
- Establish a unified data governance framework to define ownership, enforce standards, and ensure consistency across systems and business units.
Pro insight: Don’t think of data and controls as back-office tasks—they’re foundational to strategic agility. Clean, secure, well-governed data enables faster decisions, more accurate forecasting, and stronger trust with stakeholders.
3. Get investor-ready — before the deal is on the table
In the world of private capital, opportunities rarely come with advance notice. Whether it’s raising capital or acquiring assets, CFOs are often called to lead high-stakes deals. The most effective private company CFOs build a state of deal-readiness into their everyday operations, embedding the rigor, transparency and strategic foresight needed to act quickly and confidently when opportunity knocks. From clean data and streamlined reporting to agile scenario modeling and risk visibility, the ability to respond—not just react—is a powerful competitive advantage.
What’s at stake?
In today’s market, execution speed, credibility and preparedness separate winners from those who miss out. Missteps can lead to mispricing, failed deals or strategic misalignment.
CFO Scenario: Best suited for CFOs preparing for transactions—especially those navigating tight timelines or high-stakes investor scrutiny.
What you can do now:
- Go beyond traditional quality of earnings and debt analysis. Evaluate the levers that can truly impact value: revenue volumes and pricing, direct cost savings and fixed cost synergies.
- Don’t stop at the close. Plan for post-close execution, especially the first 100 days, to track performance against the investment case.
- Model cash flow across best- and worst-case scenarios to help confirm liquidity and avoid tapping into financing too early.
- Leverage tax and incentive strategies to help improve valuation and deal efficacy.
Pro insight: Know when to bring in external support. Assembling the necessary extended team can pay dividends. This is an opportunity to gain a more holistic value creation strategy and not the time to cut corners.
4. Build financial flexibility with smarter capital management
Strong profitability can’t guarantee liquidity. In today’s uncertain economic climate, rising interest rates, volatile markets, and supply chain disruptions have underscored the importance of actively managing cash flow, capital structure, and financial risk. For private companies, where access to capital may be constrained and treasury resources limited, smart cash and capital planning is no longer just a back-office task—it’s a frontline strategy. CFOs must have clear visibility into their liquidity position, deploy capital efficiently, and build the flexibility to pivot quickly when conditions change.
What’s at stake?
Poor liquidity planning can raise borrowing costs and expose the business to risk. At the same time, fragmented banking relationships and limited treasury resources often hinder agility.
CFO Scenario: Best suited for CFOs seeking to unlock liquidity, strengthen cash flow and enhance capital allocation—particularly in fast-changing or capital-constrained environments.
Key actions:
- Deploy a cash and capital playbook leveraging AI-driven forecasting to enhance liquidity across short- and long-term horizons.
- Turn financial data into actionable cashflow insights. Align reporting with strategic decision making.
- Enhance working capital through automated payables, receivables and inventory management.
- Consolidate banking partners to help streamline operations, reduce fees and improve scalability.
- Strengthen controls with proactive fraud mitigation, internal audits and disciplined governance.
Pro insight: Strong liquidity management enables you to act, not react. Private company CFOs manage working capital and leverage liquidity levers to help propel growth.
5. Build a finance team that’s ready for what’s next
The demands on finance teams are evolving—and so are employee expectations, especially in private companies where talent often takes on broader responsibilities. Today’s professionals want to move beyond repetitive tasks to solve problems, collaborate, and help drive the business. For CFOs, that means rethinking the workforce: building digital skills, redesigning roles, and promoting continuous learning. This isn’t just a talent issue—it’s a strategic one. The right people, with the right tools, can turn finance into a driver of growth and agility.
What’s at stake?
Failing to modernize roles and workflows can cause you to lose top performers and fall behind more agile competitors.
CFO Scenario: Best suited for CFOs looking to transform their workforce—especially those trying to do more with leaner teams and evolving talent needs.
Key actions:
- Redesign roles to prioritize strategic thinking and automate routine tasks wherever possible.
- Hire and develop finance professionals who can collaborate cross-functionally and help drive value beyond core finance.
- Invest in upskilling programs focused on AI, analytics and business collaboration—not just accounting.
- Offer compelling career paths and compensation packages to help attract and retain high-potential talent.
- Use managed services to augment your team while aligning with long-term goals.
Pro insight: The finance function of the future is a blend of human intelligence and AI-powered automation—CFOs should design their teams accordingly.
6. Navigate tariffs by building resilience into your cost structure
As global trade dynamics continue to shift, tariffs remain a key variable that can significantly impact margins, supply chain costs and pricing strategies. For private companies and private equity-backed portfolio companies operating across borders or reliant on imported inputs, tariff exposure can quickly erode profitability if left unmanaged. Proactive CFOs are embedding trade strategy into financial planning, scenario modeling, and sourcing decisions—helping their organizations stay ahead of cost shocks, protect margins, and seize competitive advantage through smarter cross-border operations.
What’s at stake?
Unanticipated tariff increases—or the expiration of favorable trade agreements—can spike costs and targets and diminish investor confidence.
CFO Scenario: Best suited for CFOs at global or import-reliant companies—particularly those facing unpredictable cost pressures.
Key actions:
- Assess exposure to tariffs across suppliers, trade lanes, and cost structures.
- Model different tariff scenarios to test margins and pricing flexibility.
- Collaborate with sourcing and operations to explore nearshoring, alternative inputs or supplier diversification.
- Tap into trade credits, duty drawback programs, and smarter classification strategies to recapture value.
- Monitor trade regulations in real time to act ahead of shifts.
Pro insight: By embedding tariff scenario planning into broader financial models and collaborating early with sourcing and supply chain teams, finance can help protect margins, boost resilience and uncover hidden value in cross-border operations.
A call to action: Shift from tactical to transformational
Modern CFOs aren’t just reporting the numbers—they’re shaping the future. That means freeing up time from tactical work to focus on deal support, capital strategy, margin management and growth.
With the right technology, data foundation, talent model, and proper tax planning to support investment strategies and increase ROI, CFOs can lead a finance transformation that drives resilience and long-term success.
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