For years, the chief financial officer was primarily expected to report results, manage cash flow, and ensure the business remained financially compliant. Those responsibilities still matter, but they no longer define where finance creates the greatest value. As companies have become more complex and growth decisions increasingly affect everything from capital allocation to regulatory exposure, finance has moved much closer to the center of strategy.
Tatiana Borodavkina has spent nearly two decades leading finance organizations across fintech, AI, AdTech, gaming, and other digital businesses, and she has watched that transition unfold firsthand.
“I’d say the modern CFO is a business partner,” she says. “Early in my career, CFOs were mostly responsible for cash flow and liquidity, along with implementing internal control procedures. Most strategic decisions were made at the CEO or COO level and simply handed down to finance for execution.”
Today, finance enters those conversations much earlier.
“The CFO sits alongside product, marketing, and operations in shaping business decisions, with the right to both an opinion and a ‘no’ if an initiative could hurt the company in the long run.”
For Borodavkina, that change is less about expanding finance’s authority than improving the quality of business decisions. Pricing, expansion, hiring, and investment all carry financial consequences that are easier to manage when finance is involved before a plan is finalized rather than after it has already been approved.
At the same time, the role itself has changed because technology has automated much of the work that once occupied finance teams.
“The CFO’s role has outgrown pure number crunching,” she says. “Modern ERP systems have automated a lot of what finance directors used to do by hand, but today’s environment demands forecasting, risk assessment, scenario modeling, and the ability to quickly reorient processes in response to outside shocks.”
That shift has changed what leadership expects from finance. Real-time dashboards already give executives immediate access to financial information, leaving the CFO responsible for interpreting what those numbers mean and helping the business respond while there is still time to influence the outcome.
“In an age of high speed, finance can’t limit itself to closing the period quickly and reporting on last month’s numbers,” Borodavkina says. “Finance’s role has expanded — from quickly answering ‘how much cash do we have’ to interpreting how metrics relate to each other, forecasting how business indicators will move, and making decisions early when something starts trending the wrong way.”
The strongest CEO-CFO relationships have evolved alongside those expectations. Rather than operating as separate functions, Borodavkina believes they work best when strategy is developed collaboratively.
“A good CEO-CFO duo is a lot like a long marriage,” she says. “Two people who’ve worn each other in, learned each other’s weak spots, figured out how to divide responsibility for different areas, and can act as a team when things get hard.”
She argues that effective finance leaders also need a working understanding of the commercial side of the business. Spending time with product, sales, and marketing teams gives finance the context needed to identify opportunities and risks that would never appear in a spreadsheet alone.
“A good CFO is a storyteller,” she says. “They don’t just hand over a table of numbers — they know how to point to opportunities for growth or cost savings, a looming liquidity squeeze, or risks coming from a change in regulation.”
That broader involvement does not mean finance should become the decision-maker for every function.
“The CFO analyzes, models, and flags risks and opportunities, but the final call on product, channels, or hiring stays with the people who own those functions,” she says. “Otherwise accountability gets blurry and decisions slow down.”
Artificial intelligence will continue changing how finance organizations operate, particularly by reducing the time spent on reconciliations, first-pass analysis, and routine reporting. Borodavkina expects that to make judgment and leadership even more valuable.
“AI is already changing the routine work, but the decisions built on that data, and the accountability for them, still belong to a person,” she says.
She believes many executives still misunderstand what a modern CFO can realistically contribute by expecting certainty where only informed judgment is possible.
“CEOs should think of the CFO as a partner who, drawing on knowledge, intuition, and experience, can weigh the strengths and weaknesses of a business decision,” she says. “Not someone who guarantees tomorrow’s weather or the price of bitcoin.”
Her preferred question captures how she believes the relationship should work.
“A healthy relationship is one where the CEO asks the CFO not ‘give me a guarantee,’ but ‘what scenarios are possible, and what do we gain or lose in each one?'”
The modern CFO still safeguards the financial health of the business, but the role increasingly begins before a decision reaches a spreadsheet. The companies that benefit most from finance today are the ones that treat it as part of strategy itself, relying on financial leadership to evaluate opportunities, challenge assumptions, and help build businesses that can grow without sacrificing resilience.
