CFO Playbook, Fund What Works, Trim the Rest 💼

Cut Waste, Protect Growth With Clear ROI

Author

Vanessa Carter
November 12, 2025

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Hey there,

Ever feel like budget season is just waiting to catch you off guard?

This edition explores how to defend your marketing budget with real data, what today’s strategic CFOs genuinely value, and how shifts such as ASCs are transforming the healthcare finance landscape.

Stick with it to learn a few strategies that help you retain more budget and build greater trust.

📰 Upcoming in this issue

  • 💰 Your CFO Is Coming for Your Budget: How to Stop Them

  • 🧭 Sourcing Today’s Strategic CFO

  • 🏥 3 CFO Takeaways from the Rise of ASCs

💰 Your CFO Is Coming for Your Budget: How to Stop Them

B&T lays out a playbook to defend marketing spend with numbers, not noise. Learn how to translate campaigns into cash, risk, and runway.

Key Takeaways:

  • 📊 Speak CFO: Tie every program to revenue, margin, and cash metrics, using payback and contribution to justify budget line by line.

  • 🧪 Prove with Tests: Run controlled pilots with baselines, then scale only winners that show lift in the pipeline and cost to acquire.

  • 🧱 Zero-Based Ready: Build a clean stack, cut low-yield channels, and present must-keep spend with clear unit economics and alternatives.

  • 🤝 Shared Scorecard: Align finance and marketing on definitions, cadence, and dashboards, reducing friction and surprise cuts at QBRs.

🧭 Sourcing Today’s Strategic CFO

Private funds now seek CFOs who operate as builders, technologists, and capital partners. The strongest candidates pair data fluency with scale-ready ops.

Key Takeaways:

  • 🧠 Beyond the Numbers: Boards want CFOs who shape strategy, translate data into decisions, and partner across investing, portfolio ops, and go-to-market.

  • 🧱 Scale-Ready Infrastructure: Candidates prove they can standardize systems, tighten controls, and automate closings without slowing deal execution.

  • 🤝 LP and Capital Cred: Experience with fundraising, secondaries, and transparent reporting signals trustworthiness to investors and lenders.

  • 🤖 Tech and Vendor Savvy: Fluency in AI, data governance, and co-sourcing modernizes finance while preserving ownership of critical information.

🏥 3 CFO Takeaways from the Rise of ASCs

Ambulatory surgery centers are reshaping care delivery and hospital finances. CFOs rethink revenue mix, partnerships, and operating models to compete and grow.

Key Takeaways:

  • 📉 Site-of-Care Shift: Higher-acuity procedures are migrating from inpatient to outpatient/ASC settings, pressuring inpatient volumes while opening growth lanes in ambulatory care.

  • 💳 Payer Economics: Reimbursement favors lower-cost sites, so margin depends on case mix, contract design, and leakage control across networks.

  • 🤝 Build-or-Partner Choice: Joint ventures with surgeons, acquisitions, or de novo ASCs require clear ROI, governance, and alignment on quality metrics.

  • ⚙️ Operational Excellence: Block scheduling, supply standardization, and staffing flexibility drive throughput, patient experience, and sustainable unit economics.

Why It Matters

Stronger partnerships with finance turn “nice-to-have” spend into investments tied to revenue, margin, and runway. When you can talk about unit economics, pilots, and payback, you move from pleading for budget to co-owning the growth plan.

Use these ideas to walk into your next review with more confidence and fewer surprises.

Wishing you continued success,

Vanessa Carter
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights

P.S. Interested in sponsoring a future issue? Just reply to this email and I’ll send packages!

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