Twenty years ago, a team of designers quietly solved a persistent challenge: how to make better decisions when the problem itself isn’t clear. They called their solution the Double Diamond model. Since then, it has become a cornerstone of design thinking, but it rarely makes the agenda in boardrooms, strategy offsites, or MBA programs. That’s…
Building the right finance skills for teams is one of the more consequential decisions a finance leader makes, and one of the least systematically approached. Most organizations have a reasonable sense of how their best performers are doing. What they tend to lack is a clear view of the team’s overall capability: whether the mix…
A regional sales director, we’ll call him Marcus, had a problem: his team was missing quota for the third quarter in a row. He pulled the data, identified the weakest performers, and launched an intensive coaching program. Six months later, quota attainment was still flat, and two of his best reps had quietly started looking…
Today’s business environment doesn’t slow down for anyone. Leaders face shifting markets, emerging technologies, and growing organizational complexity, all while delivering results. When problems arise, the instinct is to fix them fast and move on. That instinct is understandable, but it’s not always the best move. That “fix it fast” approach is known as reactive…
Here’s a scenario that plays out in organizations every day. The finance team notices that expenses keep increasing or that a process keeps breaking down. Leadership calls a meeting, someone proposes a solution, and the team aligns. But months later, the original problem is still there. The solution wasn’t wrong, exactly. It just addressed the…
Forecasting is supposed to be the corporate crystal ball. In reality, it’s the nervous system of the organization, and it’s almost always wrong. In this episode of Corporate Finance Explained, we break down why even the most sophisticated companies, with PhDs, AI, and expensive ERP systems, still miss their forecasts and how those misses can…
Finance team certifications are among the most underused tools available to finance managers, not because organizations are unaware of them. Most finance leaders know the credentials. The ones who get the most from them have figured out something most others have not. Certification works differently when you treat it as an organizational standard rather than…
Finance managers who care about their team’s development tend to make this decision carefully. They compare corporate finance training programs, review instructor credentials, check pricing against budget, and select something that looks credible. Completion rates are 80% or better. Six months later, the work looks approximately the same. Senior team members are still spending as…
The best practices for scaling a finance team look different from what most finance leaders expect when they first start asking the question. The assumption going in is usually that scaling means hiring: more analysts to handle more volume, more managers to handle more complexity, and more headcount to keep pace with business growth. The…
In this episode of CFI’s Member Spotlight, we sit down with Alex Murray, a UK-based financial analyst whose path into finance started far outside the typical “cookie-cutter” route. This conversation traces how Alex moved from studying History (with a deep interest in the Renaissance and the evolution of double-entry bookkeeping) to building a career in…
