What your CEO means by growth and profitability
When a CEO says the company needs both growth and profitability, I find out what is actually meant, pick one target, and drive the KPI underneath it.
Who it is for
CEOs, owners and boards facing a decision where the numbers matter and nobody on the team has the time or distance to work it through.
What I do
- A diagnosis from the data. When growth and profitability are named at the same time, I look at what the numbers say the company can actually do.
- One target, held hard. I force a hyper-focus on one target, so the company stops pulling in two directions.
- The KPI underneath. I define and drive the right KPI for that target: acquisition cost, payback on it, retention or monetization.
- Growth funded from inside. One mechanism: find operating costs that can be reallocated into growth spend, so growth is paid for from inside the business.
How it works
I am one person, so I work with a small number of companies at a time and give each real attention. I stay until the decision is carried through, then step back.
Questions I often get
What does sparring with a CEO or a board involve?
Working through a specific decision with the numbers on the table: the options, what each one needs, what the figures can support and what to say to the board.
How is this different from an interim CFO?
An interim CFO fills a role. I work on specific decisions and builds, stay until they are carried through, and then step back.
My title at Billetto was CFO and COO. The responsibility stretched further: I ran marketing for periods and covered the CTO seat when needed. That is why I connect the dots across the whole executive team and take the work down to daily KPIs, instead of advising from one function.