The CFO Sounding Board · Sponsored programme
A sponsored twelve-month development programme for finance leaders and their identified successors. Structured method, applied to live decisions, delivered by a former Group CFO.
Enquire about the programmeThe gap this addresses
The distance between understanding strategy and operationalising it is where finance careers stall. It is not a knowledge gap. It is a judgement gap, and judgement is built by working through real decisions with someone who has already made them.
Executive coaching addresses how a leader operates. Business education addresses what strategy is. Neither addresses whether the finance function this particular leader has inherited is structured to deliver what this particular organisation is asking of it.
The board sees your finance leader as the expert. The CEO needs them to have answers. Their team looks to them for direction. External advisors give generic counsel without understanding the function from the inside. Most make their most consequential decisions without anyone who can challenge them at their level.
Organisational sponsorship is what makes that conversation legitimate rather than private.
Who it is for
Incumbent track
Technically strong, strategically isolated. Their team reports to them, their CEO evaluates them, their board expects answers, and there is often no one they can think a decision through with before they have to defend it.
Succession track
A Deputy CFO, Group Financial Controller or Head of Finance with the technical foundation but not the exposure: defending a number to a board, telling a chief executive no, deciding with incomplete information and owning the consequence. The sitting finance leader joins the charter and endorses the programme. Without that endorsement the programme does not proceed.
What the programme is
A structured, confidential advisory relationship between the participant and a former Group CFO, running monthly over twelve months against development areas agreed at the outset by the sponsor, the participant and the practitioner together.
The method is defined: an entry assessment establishes the starting position, each session follows a fixed architecture, quarterly step-backs test whether the agreed areas remain the right ones, and the work draws on the FrontCFO frameworks for finance maturity, strategy and operating model design. What is not fixed is the material — the sessions work on the decisions the participant is actually facing, not on case studies.
Six components. One continuous relationship.
MONTH 0 · CHARTER
A tripartite charter session. Sponsor, participant and practitioner agree the development areas, the cadence and the confidentiality boundary. On the succession track the sitting finance leader attends. This is what the sponsor approves against.
BEFORE THE FIRST WORKING SESSION
The participant completes a structured written diagnostic across five areas: what is not working in the finance function and why, the gap between how they think the CEO perceives finance and how they actually do, what the board believes about the function that may not be accurate, the feedback received most consistently that is hardest to act on, and the three decisions most needing a second pair of eyes. Session content is never shared.
90 MINUTES · MONTHLY
Every session follows the same four-part rhythm. Current situation review — what has moved, what is live, what has surprised them. Deep work on one primary challenge. Strategic horizon — what is coming in the next 90 days. Forward commitment — one thing they will do before the next session, one thing the practitioner will provide. The question underneath every session: what are you not seeing clearly here — and what would change if you could?
BETWEEN SESSIONS
Between sessions the participant has access for specific, bounded requests. A board paper before it is submitted. A decision about to be made. A communication being prepared. One substantive request per week on the Standard cadence. Response within 48 hours. Written reaction and challenge — not a report.
EVERY THREE MONTHS · 2 HOURS
Every quarter we step back from the immediate agenda. What has become clearer. What has been done differently. What new blind spots have appeared. Whether the charter areas remain the right ones. A written step-back note follows — a named artefact of the programme. This is also the natural moment where a FORGE™, SCALE™, or STRATA™ engagement may present itself when the evidence supports it.
SCALE™ ANNUAL REFRESH
The annual stakeholder review is delivered through the SCALE™ Annual Refresh — available separately to Sounding Board clients. With permission, brief conversations with the CEO and one board member surface the gap between how the finance leader thinks they are perceived and how they are actually described. That discomfort is the value.
What the programme produces
| Artefact | When | Written by | Held by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development charter | Month 0 | All parties jointly | All parties |
| Entry assessment | Month 1 | Participant | Participant and practitioner only |
| Forward commitments | Each session | Participant | Participant and practitioner only |
| Quarterly evidence statement | Months 3, 6, 9 | Participant | Sponsor |
| Step-back note | Months 3, 6, 9 | Practitioner | Participant |
| Twelve-month review | Month 12 | Practitioner, with the participant | Sponsor and participant |
| Joint readiness assessment | Month 12, succession track | Sponsor, incumbent finance leader and participant | Sponsor and participant |
Confidentiality
Progress against agreed development areas is documented by the participant — not the practitioner — and shared with the sponsor. Quarterly evidence statements and the twelve-month review are the sponsor's evidence trail.
Succession and development decisions are made on evidence rather than impressions, which is why the programme produces a documented record without the practitioner reporting on session content.
Sponsored terms
The sponsored programme includes the charter, the evidence trail and the twelve-month review — because the organisation needs a record. The monthly rate is the same as the direct retainer; what is being bought is not.
Standard
$2,500
per month
$30,000 over 12 months
Intensive
$4,500
per month
$54,000 over 12 months
Opt-out. The participant may withdraw at the end of the first month without explanation and without further fee.
Maximum 6 active clients at any time (direct and sponsored combined).
Current availability: Limited availability
Also available · Direct retainer
Some finance leaders prefer to engage independently, or their organisation will fund the relationship directly without a development budget process. That route is available on the same monthly cadence — $2,500 per month (Standard) or $4,500 per month (Intensive) — with a 3-month minimum, rolling monthly. It does not include the charter, the evidence statements or the twelve-month review. Session content is never shared.
Sponsors: note that you are purchasing for a participant. Direct retainer or sponsored programme — select below. We will respond within 48 hours to confirm fit and schedule an initial 30-minute conversation — no obligation.