The COO's Weekly Playbook
Your finance team isn't just about the numbers anymore; they're your strategic partners in growth. Stop treating them as scorekeepers.
The Intake
Operator intelligence for your mid-week. The playbooks and practices you need to run your business better, distilled for the arena.
This week's scan:
• Intelligence from:11 leadership conversations across 9 top podcasts
• Total runtime analyzed:407 minutes of operator experience
• Featuring voices from:24 executives and builders including Alex Louisy and Charly Kevers
The Playbook
The CFO as Your Growth Engine: A Playbook for Scaling Finance Beyond the Balance Sheet
Traditionally, operators have viewed the finance function as a necessary evil—scorekeepers, cost-cutters, and the perennial "office of no." But as the market demands aggressive growth alongside clear paths to profitability, this old model is a liability. Your CFO, and the entire finance team, needs to be deeply embedded in the operational fabric of your business, not just tallying up the results after the fact.
The flawed approach is to silo finance, expecting them to deliver strategic insights without providing them access to customer feedback, product development, or direct sales conversations. This creates a disconnect where financial reports become abstract rather than actionable tools for growth.
The Operator's Playbook:
- Integrate Finance with Customer Understanding: Your CFO should be as interested in your Net Promoter Score (NPS) as they are in your EBITDA. Alex Melamud, CFO of Engine, surprisingly prioritizes NPS, understanding that positive customer signals are the ultimate leading indicator of financial health. Encourage your finance team to engage directly with customer feedback and sales data.
- Embed Finance in Cross-Functional Teams: Break down the walls. Charly Kevers, CFO at Carta, builds a cross-functional finance role that includes engineers. This ensures the finance team understands the technical and operational nuances of how value is created. It's not just about compliance; it's about making every dollar work harder for product development and customer acquisition.
- Shift from Optimization to Building: For high-growth, venture-backed companies, the finance team's primary role isn't just to "find pennies in the couch," but to actively build the team and company. Manu Diwakar, CFO at Virta Health, emphasizes that in these environments, finance is a co-builder, not just an optimizer. Empower them to think beyond short-term cost savings to long-term value creation.
- Leverage Finance as a Strategic Partner for Operators: Instead of dictating budgets, the finance team should partner with operators to identify levers for optimizing the business. Diwakar warns against finance simply presenting a plan for operators to execute, arguing it's a "game of bluff" that lacks grounding in reality. Instead, they should co-create. For example, "over the last several years [we've] offered working capital lines to our customers, allowing them to have one to two weeks of float if you will, on their travel expenses to alleviate that working capital mismatch," says Engine CFO Alex Melamud. This proactively solves a customer problem while strengthening the core business.
- Embrace AI for Efficiency, Freeing Up Finance for Strategy: Automation in accounting can significantly shorten month-end closes and improve forecasting. Engine's CFO, Alex Melamud, highlights how AI and automation have shaved off days from month-end close processes, freeing up the team for more strategic analysis. This isn't about replacing people; it's about increasing the value each person delivers—a point underscored by Tim Crawford on CXOTalk.
The result is a finance function that doesn't just report on history, but actively shapes the future, acting as a true strategic partner in driving aggressive growth while ensuring a clear path to profitability.
The Rundown
① Fractional CFOs are the New Power Move for Scaling SMEs. The traditional full-time CFO role doesn't fit every growth stage. Sara Daw, CEO of The CFO Centre Group Limited, highlights how the fractional model provides C-suite expertise and fresh perspectives without the overhead, allowing companies to scale their finance function flexibly. This insight comes from a conversation on (CFO Weekly). • The Operator's Take: If you're a CEO leading a company with revenues from $2M-$20M, stop settling for a bookkeeper or expecting your COO to manage complex financial strategy. A fractional CFO can provide the strategic leadership you need for smarter capital allocation and managing growth, without the commitment of a full-time executive salary. The "soft skills" and cultural fit are more important than industry specificity for these roles.
② Your First 10 Seconds of Leadership Communication Are Critical. Mark Bowden, a world-renowned body language expert, explains that perceptions of authority and trustworthiness are formed almost immediately and primarily non-verbally. This early judgment impacts how everything else you say is received. This insight comes from a conversation on (SPEAK LIKE A CEO). • The Operator's Take: Forget trying to be "natural" in high-stakes presentations. People make snap judgments based on visual cues. Leaders need a repeatable plan for non-verbal communication, like using open-palm gestures at navel height, to project confidence and build self-trust. Don't let your body language undermine your message, especially when presenting financial results.
"The more that they can see, the more they feel they can trust their prediction. And the more they feel they can trust their prediction, the more positive they'll make their prediction." — Mark Bowden, World’s #1 Communication Keynote Speaker and Body Language Professional at Truthplane
③ AI ROI is an Execution Problem, Not a Technology Problem. Despite 88% of companies using AI, less than 6% derive measurable value. Tim Crawford, CIO Advisor, emphasizes that the issue isn't AI's capability, but CIOs lacking deep business understanding and companies stuck in "pilot purgatory" due to rapid tool evolution and poor change management. This insight comes from a conversation on (CXOTalk). • The Operator's Take: Stop viewing AI as a pure IT initiative. If your IT leadership can't articulate how AI directly drives business outcomes (outside-in approach), you're just burning cash on pilots. Demand a product-oriented IT strategy where AI is deployed to solve specific customer or operational problems, not just for efficiency gains. AI is critical, but only if you actually get value from it.
④ Cash Flow is King, Even for Profitable Companies. Steve Coughran highlights a stark reality: "70% of companies that go bankrupt, they're actually profitable when they close their doors because they run out of cash." This underscores the critical difference between profit and free cash flow and the need for rigorous management of both. This insight comes from a conversation on (Strategy Meets Finance). • The Operator's Take: If you're only tracking P&L, you're missing the full picture. Focus on the eight cash flow levers—especially pricing and capital intensity—to sustain growth. Ensure your finance team provides clear insights into free cash flow and actively manages it, not just profitability. Your burn rate isn't just about revenue; it's about how effectively you're managing cash in, cash out, and cash on hand.
⑤ In a "Post-Truth World," Curiosity and Authenticity Cut Through the Noise. Fareed Zakaria argues that in an era of contested facts and fragmented information, genuine curiosity about others' stories and a clear, focused narrative are essential for effective communication. He notes the shift from centralized media to a "networked many-to-many broadcast system" that challenges traditional hierarchies of information. This insight comes from a conversation on (Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques). • The Operator's Take: Your leadership communications, both internal and external, are more scrutinized and more easily challenged than ever. Instead of relying on authority, cultivate curiosity and authenticity. Focus on concise, linear narratives without "throat clearing," especially in virtual settings. Humanizing high-stakes communication, through storytelling and empathy, is no longer a soft skill—it's a critical tool for retaining trust and influence with your teams and stakeholders.
The Bench
What your peers are putting in the game. A real-time look at the operator's toolkit.
🟢 WORKING — Proven Practices • **Fractional CFO Model**: Provides cutting-edge skills and flexibility to entrepreneurial businesses. (Sara Daw on CFO Weekly) • **NPS as a CFO Metric**: A leading indicator for customer focus and business health. (Alex Melamud on CFO THOUGHT LEADER) • **Cross-Functional Finance Teams**: Integrates finance with engineering and sales for deeper operational understanding. (The Growth-Minded CFO) • **Eight Cash Flow Levers**: Strategic framework for sustained business growth. (Strategy Meets Finance)
🟡 TESTING — Emerging Approaches • **AI Agents in Customer Service**: Sometimes outperforms live agents in CSAT scores, showing unexpected effectiveness. (CFO THOUGHT LEADER) • **Product-Oriented IT**: Shifts focus from project management to delivering measurable business outcomes. (CXOTalk) • **Agentic AI**: Balancing fully autonomous systems with human-in-the-loop approaches. (CXOTalk) • Digital Healthcare Business Model: Leveraging technology and remote care for metabolic disease reversal. (GrowCFO Show)
🔴 RETIRING — Outdated Moves • **Siloed Finance Functions**: Limits strategic contribution and business building. (GrowCFO Show) • **"Just Be Natural" Communication Advice**: Unhelpful in high-stakes, unnatural situations like public speaking where non-verbal communication is critical. (Mark Bowden on SPEAK LIKE A CEO) • **Memorized Presentations**: Adrenaline impairs short-term memory, rendering them ineffective in high-pressure situations. (SPEAK LIKE A CEO) • **Solely Focusing on Profitability**: 70% of bankrupt profitable companies run out of cash due to poor cash flow management. (Strategy Meets Finance)
The Debate
No significant operator debate this week. Consensus is forming around the strategic evolution of the CFO role from a scorekeeper to a holistic business builder and growth partner.
The Bottom Line
The best CFOs understand your customer, your product, and your levers for cash flow—not just your P&L.
Your Move
- Schedule a "Day in the Life" swap for your CFO. Have them shadow a sales rep or a product manager for a day to gain deeper operational insights, a tactic implied by Charly Kevers on The Growth-Minded CFO.
- Review your AI initiatives for measurable value. Bring your IT and business leaders together and challenge them: are your AI projects delivering clear, outside-in outcomes, or are you stuck in "pilot purgatory" as discussed on CXOTalk?
- Identify the 2-3 most critical cash flow levers in your business. Work with your finance team to create an action plan focusing on these, rather than just chasing profitability, a strategy emphasized on Strategy Meets Finance.
What We Listened To
The Growth-Minded CFO: "Revisiting: Charly Kevers (CFO @ Carta) On The Role Of The Finance Team In Scaling"
• Runtime: 45 min
• Guests: Alex Louisy (Co-host of The Growth Minded CFO; Fintech CEO and Y Combinator graduate, Upflow), Charly Kevers (CFO, Carta), Lauren Pearl (Host, The Growth-Minded CFO)
• For Operators: This episode is essential for understanding how to integrate your finance team deeply into your operational units. Kevers provides an actionable model for CFOs to expand beyond traditional roles into strategic cross-functional leadership, including engineers and sales and product teams. If your finance team is siloed, this offers a blueprint for transformation.
"The job of the CFO is much harder because you are expected to push growth aggressively while proving that you have a clear path to profitability at the same time and that both are non exclusive." — Charly Kevers, CFO of Carta
CXOTalk: "CIO Agenda 2026: The Enterprise AI Promise | CXOTalk #909"
• Runtime: 56 min
• Guests: Michael Krigsman (Host, CXOTalk), Tim Crawford (CIO Advisor, Former CIO, AVOA), Isaac Sacolick (CIO Advisor, Former CIO, StarCIO)
• For Operators: If you're struggling to derive real value from AI investments, this episode dissects why. It provides critical insights into shifting IT strategy from technology-first to customer-centric, emphasizing CIOs must genuinely understand the business, not just the tech. Essential listening for any leader overseeing AI implementation.
"88% of companies use AI, but fewer than 6% get measurable value. The pilot era of AI is over." — Michael Krigsman, Host at CXOTalk
CFO THOUGHT LEADER: "1164: From Boardroom Lens to Operator Reality | Alex Melamud, CFO, Engine"
• Runtime: 56 min
• Guests: Alex Melamud (CFO, Engine), The Future of Finance is Listening (Host, CFO THOUGHT LEADER)
• For Operators: Alex Melamud offers a refreshingly operator-centric view of the CFO role, prioritizing customer NPS and strategic cost savings beyond headcount. His application of AI to enhance customer experience and sales productivity offers actionable takeaways for any leader looking to leverage finance for top-line growth and bottom-line efficiency.
"The first one that may surprise you as a CFO that I look at is actually NPS. At the end of the day, we focus on the customer and if the customer is giving us positive signal, we know that we're moving in the right direction." — Alex Melamud, CFO of Engine
Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques: "264. Show Your Receipts: Communicating in a Post-Truth World"
• Runtime: 26 min
• Guests: Matt Abrahams (Host and Professor of Strategic Communication, Stanford Graduate School of Business), Fareed Zakaria (Host of Fareed Zakaria GPS, Columnist, and Author, CNN & Washington Post)
• For Operators: In today's information environment, leaders need new communication strategies. Fareed Zakaria’s insights on curiosity, authenticity, and focused narratives are crucial for cutting through noise and building trust with your teams and the market. Learn how to communicate with impact when facts are constantly contested.
"The most important thing is being genuinely curious, genuinely believing that everybody has a story to tell. Everybody has something to teach you. Everybody has a lesson you can learn." — Fareed Zakaria, Host of Fareed Zakaria GPS and Columnist for Washington Post
SPEAK LIKE A CEO: "312: The Body Language Expert: You’re Losing Authority in the First 10 Seconds"
• Runtime: 48 min
• Guests: Oliver Aust (Host, founder, Speak Like a CEO Academy), Mark Bowden (World’s #1 Communication Keynote Speaker and Body Language Professional, Truthplane)
• For Operators: This is a must-listen for any leader who gives presentations or engages in high-stakes conversations. Mark Bowden breaks down the science of first impressions and non-verbal cues, offering highly practical advice on how to project confidence and trustworthiness in any setting. Transform how you're perceived by mastering your body language.
"If you go in with a plan and you execute your plan, you will feel more confident, more trusting in yourself." — Mark Bowden, World’s #1 Communication Keynote Speaker and Body Language Professional at Truthplane
GrowCFO Show: "#271 How to Scale Without Burning Cash with Manu Diwakar, Chief Financial Officer, Virta Health"
• Runtime: 34 min
• Guests: Kevin Appleby (Host, GrowCFO Show), Manu Diwakar (Chief Financial Officer, Virta Health)
• For Operators: Manu Diwakar, CFO at Virta Health, shares critical insights for CFOs in hyper-growth environments, emphasizing building teams and companies rather than just optimizing. His focus on "efficient capital" generation and the importance of EQ in leadership offers a valuable perspective for any executive scaling a venture-backed enterprise.
"When you come to be a CFO or a finance leader for very mature companies, the name of the game is often optimization and finding pennies in the couch... When you're in these growth businesses that are venture backed, you have to actively think about how to build your team and help build a company at the same time." — Manu Diwakar, Chief Financial Officer of Virta Health
Secrets of Rockstar CFOs: "Navigating The Ride-Sharing Industry With Erin Brewer"
• Runtime: 40 min
• Guests: Erin Brewer (CFO, Lyft), Jack McCullough (Host, Secrets of Rockstar CFOs)
• For Operators: Lyft CFO Erin Brewer offers a masterclass in balancing aggressive growth with a clear path to profitability, drawing lessons from Lyft's journey to GAAP profitability. Topics include AI implementation for internal efficiency and the critical CEO-CFO partnership, providing direct lessons for leaders steering complex, high-stakes businesses.
"The most important factor that you want to consider is that relationship with the CEO, because it's everything for a CFO." — Erin Brewer, CFO of Lyft
Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques: "265. Complexity to Connection: Humanizing High-Stakes Communication"
• Runtime: 24 min
• Guests: Matt Abrahams (Host, Think Fast Talk Smart), Jonathan Berek (Professor, former Chair of the Stanford Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford School of Medicine), Phil Polakoff (Distinguished Health Transformation Advisor, Consulting professor at Stanford School of Medicine, CEO of A Healthier We, A Healthier We)
• For Operators: Learn from medical communication experts on how to humanize complex information. This episode emphasizes storytelling, empathy, and conciseness, critical skills for leaders who need to simplify intricate business strategies for diverse audiences without losing impact or connection.
"People feel the emotion when they see a story. In my case, I do a lot of medical related types of films and I use patient stories, which tears at the heartstrings often. And I think that gets the message across more than if I were to just say, well, I'm doing this little science project and there's this molecule and we're trying to do that and people, their eyes glaze over." — Jonathan Berek, Professor, former Chair of the Stanford Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford School of Medicine
CFO Weekly: "Greatest Hits: Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Fractional CFO with Sara Daw, CEO of The CFO Centre Group Limited"
• Runtime: 39 min
• Guests: Megan Weis (Host, Personiv), Sara Daw (CEO, The CFO Centre Group Limited)
• For Operators: This episode makes a compelling case for the fractional CFO model, outlining its flexibility, the critical soft skills required, and how it enables entrepreneurial businesses to access C-suite talent. If you're a founder or CEO scaling past basic bookkeeping, this provides a clear argument for leveraging fractional expertise to de-risk growth and gain strategic financial insights.
"I would say $2 million, $3 million revenues upwards is when you need to generally start thinking about bringing in a fractional CFO or C suite, someone more than the bookkeeper." — Sara Daw, CEO of The CFO Centre Group Limited
Strategy Meets Finance: "The 8 Cash Flow Levers Every Business Owner Should Know | Ep 215"
• Runtime: 29 min
• Guests: Steve Coughran (Host, Coltivar Group, LLC), Steve (Host, Cultivar.com)
• For Operators: This episode is a quick, tactical guide to understanding and managing your company's cash flow, beyond simple profitability. It introduces eight key levers and provides actionable strategies for increasing perceived value without discounting, crucial for any business owner focused on sustainable growth and avoiding common bankruptcy pitfalls.
"70% of companies that go bankrupt, they're actually profitable when they close their doors because they run out of cash." — Steve Coughran, Host at Coltivar Group, LLC
Strategy Meets Finance: "The 3 Generic Strategies and How to Tell If Yours Is Working | Ep 214"
• Runtime: 10 min
• Guests: Steve Coughran (Host, Coltivar Group, LLC)
• For Operators: A concise breakdown of Michael Porter's generic strategies and how to financially measure if yours is actually working. This episode provides clear metrics (NOPAT, invested capital turnover, ROIC) to evaluate your differentiation, cost leadership, or focus strategy. Essential for ensuring your strategic intent aligns with your financial reality and avoiding the trap of "straddling."
"If you're pursuing differentiation successfully, you'll know it because it will show up in one key metric, which is net operating profit after tax as a percentage of your revenue." — Steve Coughran, Host at Coltivar Group, LLC
