Forthcoming Book
Why the Best Finance Functions Fail —
And the System That Sets Them Free
By Gavin Jordan · Expected Q1 2027
They fail because nobody ever gave them permission to stop doing the wrong things.
Buried by Competence is the book for CFOs who know something fundamental needs to change but have never had a framework for what that change looks like — or a language to take it to the board without sounding like they are complaining.
It is built on three proprietary frameworks developed from 25+ years of operational experience across Caribbean, African, and Latin American multi-entity groups. It is written for Marcus — the CFO who is technically excellent, increasingly sensing that excellence at the wrong things is not enough, and ready for a system that changes that.
You have delivered clean accounts, managed the close, built the governance. The CEO still makes decisions without you. The board still treats finance as a cost centre. You know something is wrong. You have never had a framework for what to do about it.
You built the strategy. The board nodded. The first budget cycle quietly killed it. Nobody called it failure. It just stopped being a priority. This book explains exactly why that happens — and the sequence that prevents it.
You are not looking for inspiration. You are looking for a system. FORGE™ diagnoses. SCALE™ mandates. STRATA™ builds. This book is the intellectual architecture behind all three — written for the reader who wants to understand why before they commission anything.
The book stands alone. The free companion pack gives you something tangible to start — drawn from the same frameworks, before any advisory conversation.
Roadmap, Maladies, Three-Layer Sorter, Six Levers & Mandate, Liberation Audit, Health Check — each mapped to a chapter Discussion Question.
Pre-release readers receive the first chapter when it is ready — not a newsletter dump of generic tips.
A personal note when Buried by Competence publishes. Expected Q1 2027. The public date stands.
Start before the manuscript is final
Live · Chapter 1
Absorption, invisibility, board pack, vendors, talent — which is most severe right now?
Live · Chapters 3 & 9
Two finance functions → Entity Anchor, Shared Service, Strategic Finance.
Live · Chapters 4–5
FORGE™ levers, a conservative leakage figure, and three commitments — approval is not a mandate.
Live · Chapter 7
Stop, Automate, Transfer, Reduce, Outsource — before you try to elevate.
Live · Conclusion
Twenty questions. A scored readout of where the function is buried.
Register now. You get companion tools as they ship, the first chapter when it is ready, and a personal note when the book publishes.
Expected Q1 2027. Now in writing.
The frameworks in this book are deployed through FrontCFO.
Learn about the Finance Transformation System →