The CFO role has moved far beyond financial stewardship. Today’s finance leaders are expected to drive business value, lead transformation, and shape the organisation’s strategic direction.
In a period of economic, social, and technological disruption, CFOs are becoming central to enterprise-wide change, from guiding digital transformation to building the road map for AI adoption.
To explore this shift in depth, I spoke with Madeline Ling, MBA, CFO of The Granite Group, for our Reshaping Finance podcast.
Madeline has experienced the evolution of CFOs becoming chief value creators and COO-plus leaders firsthand. While the evolution is not without its challenges, Madeline chooses an optimistic view, saying, ‘The CFO role is increasingly being pulled in all directions … but being in demand is actually a really good thing.’
In the episode, ‘Owning the Squeeze: How Modern Finance Leaders Create Value in a Disruptive Era’, Madeline provides insights from her leadership experiences, which include driving large-scale transformations.
To meet the economic demands of the present and future, finance leaders must evolve from reporting data to generating business outcomes. And the first step of the evolution might simply be adjusting your mindset.
‘We can either see this moment as the “main squeeze” or flip the mindset and recognize it as an incredible opportunity. Everyone wants a piece of the CFO, and that demand gives us the platform to influence, to lead, and to shape the future of the business’, says Madeline.
Own the squeeze by investing in yourself
Self-investment is now a strategic imperative — to develop others, we need to first develop ourselves — but senior leaders sometimes stop investing in their professional development.
Early in our careers, development opportunities are abundant, but as leaders advance, growth becomes more specialised and self‑directed.
Says Madeline, ‘Too often we talk about driving value for the company, but I wonder if we also ask ourselves the same question: Do we invest enough time in driving our own self-development? … I challenge all finance and accounting professionals to be in that driver’s seat and really think about what your development journey looks like.’
How will you invest in yourself?
As you shape your journey, Madeline offers this advice:
Be intentional in how you prioritise your time.
Carve out 10%–30% of your time for growth and continuing professional development.
The value of peer‑to‑peer learning
As the role of the CFO evolves, familiar challenges remain, including the need to align company goals with market demands, balance cost reduction with strategic investments, and maintain financial transparency and compliance.
Peer learning environments, such as the AICPA’s Future of Finance Summit, are an opportunity for CFOs to discuss issues, share ideas, and offer solutions. At the 2026 summit, taking place August 5–7 in Washington, DC, Madeline will speak specifically about measuring value creation as one step to owning the squeeze.
Collaborating with and learning from your professional community are important aspects of investing in yourself. It can be lonely as we move into senior positions, so it’s important to build support with others experiencing similar challenges.
A practical approach to elevate your teams
At the same time that artificial intelligence is quite disruptive, it also presents an opportunity. Of course, tech alone will not create efficiencies and drive value — talent and people remain central.
Value creation requires shifting from reporting numbers to shaping decisions, and AI can accelerate that shift.
‘A system, a machine, is going to do what you tell the machine to do. We cannot undervalue or underestimate the importance of having the right people, the right talent’, Madeline said.
Steering teams through digital transformation and implementing AI is no easy feat. CFOs must first understand the depth and breadth of AI to lead the integration of AI or automation tools into finance functions.
AI tools enable faster time-to-value in several operational tasks — composing emails, creating and executing Excel formulas, consuming and synthesizing annual financial reports, and much more. And some finance teams are experimenting with agentic AI and encoded AI solutions in tools, such as Claude and ChatGPT, without engaging IT developers. Dubbed ‘citizen development’, these experiments could accelerate transformational initiatives.
Hear more from Madeline in the podcast episode, ‘Owning the Squeeze: How Modern Finance Leaders Create Value in a Disruptive Era’.
Additional resources:
The changing role and mandate of finance (download)
Reshaping Finance (episode library)
CGMA® Success Stories podcast: ‘From Influencer to Insights’ (episode)
CIMA’s Apprenticeships (England only) (overview)
U.S. Apprenticeship Program for Finance Business Partners (overview of U.S. apprenticeship programme)