Balance Exploration And Governance In The CFO Seat ⚖️

Pair Curiosity With Control To Lead In 2026

Author

Vanessa Carter
September 23, 2025

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Hey there, CFOs! 💼

Reporting from the Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference in London, Coupa leaders João Paulo da Silva and Geoff Kelly argue that modern finance wins when curiosity meets control. By combining spend visibility, talent, and AI, finance leaders can move beyond cost-cutting to become true catalysts.

We highlight why 46 percent of CFOs report a lack of decision-ready data, how Coupa’s $8 trillion in anonymized spend and 10 million buyers and suppliers enable benchmarking, lessons from Barclays and Suez, and the growing partnership between CFOs and CIOs.

📰 Upcoming in this issue

  • 🧭 Curiosity With Control: Coupa’s CFO Playbook

  • 🧭 Risk and Strategy Now Move as One, Says EY

  • 🧩 Fintech Messaging Is Broken, Here’s How To Fix It

🧭 Curiosity With Control: Coupa’s CFO Playbook

Coupa demonstrates that finance leaders succeed by leveraging AI and new suppliers while maintaining robust guardrails on spend, data, and risk. It is an offense with brakes.

Key Takeaways:

  • 🔍 Test, Then Tame: Pilot AI tools and new vendors quickly while setting approval limits, data policies, and rollback plans from day one.

  • 📊 Spend Intelligence: Use real-time visibility to detect maverick spend, consolidate categories, and negotiate better terms without stifling innovation.

  • 🔒 Governance First: Embed controls in workflows, capturing audit trails, supplier risk checks, and outcomes so curiosity never compromises compliance.

  • 🤝 Partner Mindset: Finance co-creates with procurement and IT, linking experiments to measurable value and shutting off low-yield efforts quickly.

🧭 Risk and Strategy Now Move as One, Says EY

EY advises that CFOs should treat risk as a growth lever rather than a brake. Integrated risk disciplines sharpen strategy and accelerate decision-making.

Key Takeaways:

  • 📈 Risk as Value: Utilize risk as a lens for investment, prioritizing initiatives with asymmetric upside while protecting core earnings.

  • 🧮 Define Appetite: Codify risk thresholds to ensure capital allocation, pricing, and hedging align with strategy in real-time.

  • 🧠 Data-Driven Nerve Center: Unite finance, risk, and operations around shared data, scenarios, and early-warning indicators to act faster.

  • 🧑‍⚖️ Board Partnership: Provide directors with clear risk narratives, metrics, and playbooks to enable oversight that accelerates execution.

🧩 Fintech Messaging Is Broken, Here’s How To Fix It

Fabrik Brands highlights how inconsistent copy erodes trust and conversion. The article offers a path to unify voice, value propositions, and proof.

Key Takeaways:

  • 🧭 One Narrative: Align teams around a single value proposition and key proof points, ensuring every channel reinforces the same message.

  • ✍️ Codify Voice: Establish tone, terminology, and style rules with examples to reduce jargon and eliminate conflicting claims.

  • 🧪 Test Then Standardize: A/B test headlines and offers, then incorporate winning versions into templates and playbooks.

  • 🔁 Tighten Handoffs: Use shared briefs, approval workflows, and asset libraries to keep sales, product, and marketing in sync.

Why It Matters

Pairing curiosity with control saves time and money. Asking better questions and leveraging real-time intelligence enables faster decision-making while minimizing rework. Treating spend management as a strategic tool reduces supplier risk and protects margins, particularly when a single failure could disrupt R&D efforts.

Clear data foundations and strong CFO–CIO alignment minimize reputational exposure from unstable AI outputs and fragmented systems. Finance teams that redeploy talent toward higher-value initiatives will outpace competitors who focus only on trimming costs.

Wishing you continued success,

Vanessa Carter
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights

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