One can learn a lot about the corporate world with TV and cinema, such as how important it is to have a succession plan in place — just in case — or how the right amount of confidence can help tackle obstacles. But it can also lead us to make assumptions. One of the most common beliefs about CFOs? They’re all control freaks. And while it might sound depreciative, the truth is, according to Rydoo’s CFO Aidana Zhakupbekova, it should be part of the skill set.  

“To be in this profession, you have to be very diligent and detail-oriented”, Aidana explains. “You have to be in control and on track to know what’s happening.” 

Another common assumption is that finance leaders stare at Excel sheets all day, which might have been true a few decades ago. These days, with finance leaders becoming more involved in business strategy, their scope of responsibilities has also changed.  

“Cost control is important, but you also have to make sure that whatever you’re spending is actually giving you the results, and I think that’s where I spend most of my time”, the CFO says. 

If you’ve always wondered how to become a CFO, if finance leaders can go a full day without meetings or if they have full control over the company’s money, you’ve come to the right place. These are the questions you’ve always wanted to ask a CFO but were probably afraid to ask. 

It depends. I knew I wanted to become a CFO, so I took the start-up and scale-up route. First, I knew I would enjoy it a lot more, and it also meant faster progression in my career than if I had stayed in corporate.  

To actually become one? You just take on the responsibilities, deliver on them, and continuously expand your scope from what you would normally do.  

In the past, most CFOs were accountants, and I think this is changing now. You see more people from FP&A getting promoted to CFO. My last role before I became one was still in FP&A, although I had a background in accounting. Then I moved to a scale-up as a controller, and now, here we are. 

It depends on what you want to do. You can get there either way, from accounting, from FP&A, and even from investment banking. I’ve seen some scale-ups looking for somebody with that background to join them as CFOs, and even consultants. 

There are plenty of ways to achieve it if that’s your goal. But starting from a finance role such as FP&A or accounting is still the more traditional way to go about it. 

There’s no typical work day.  

As any finance person will tell you, it depends a lot on the timing. If you’re at year-end, month-end, quarter-end, budgeting season, going through an exit, or doing M&A. These are all very different from one another.  

To be honest, I don’t think I have a typical day. A typical month always starts with a month-end or quarter-end close — reporting, analysis, checking things off, making sure everything is correct, preparing the reporting with the different teams, the calls with investors, etc.  

Other than that, it’s about managing your teams. That’s quite a few for me, and even though their priorities overlap to a certain degree, they’re not the same. That alone occupies the majority of my week. I will make sure that all of them are okay, if they need any support and are on track, and if everything is going as planned.  

On a higher level, it’s just checking on the business. Every Monday, I meet with the executive team to check on how the company is doing, if we need to make any changes and if there are urgent topics we need to decide on. From then on, especially if something is urgent, it’s making sure it gets done.  

These are the main things and, of course, there are always a lot of day-to-day tasks, such as liquidity payments, etc. 

Can you? Yes. I would love to. But if we’re being realistic, I probably have one or two days a month without meetings. Most days, there are at least one or two. 

Would I like to have days without meetings? Yes, especially during specific periods. I become a lot less productive if I have a lot of meetings, especially if they’re scattered around the day.  

What I try to do, whenever possible, is to batch them. Usually, I have all the meetings before lunch, so I can keep the afternoon free to tackle some of my tasks for the day. 

Well, “people” is a very broad concept, but I would say that most think I’m staring at Excel files all day or that I’m looking for ways to cut costs, check if everybody has paid all their invoices, if they’re on track, under-budget, etc. To be honest, cost control is a very important part of the work, but that’s not how I’m spending my days. 

Reports are also important, and I live in Excel quite a bit because that’s part of the job (although luckily not as much as it used to be), but that’s not necessarily all I do. It’s not even the priority, especially with a growing business.  

Cost control is important, but you also have to make sure that whatever you’re spending is actually giving you the results, and I think that’s where I spend most of my time: making sure the company is on track with delivering the strategy we set. 

Mostly, I do.

However, for larger investments and spending it’s always a joint decision. The management team gets together to discuss it and, when the situation calls for, we involve the Board of Directors. 

I would say a lot of people in finance are control freaks to a certain degree. To be in this profession, you have to be very diligent and detail-oriented, and you have to be in control and on track to know what’s happening.  

If you don’t have those qualities, chances are you’re not getting the job. Or you’re losing the job at a certain point. 

So yes, to a certain degree, we’re all what you would call control freaks. Is everybody? No. Does that have to be a major personality trait? Also no. But it has to be a part of the skill set. You can’t do it without it.

Quite often, if the situation requires it, depends on the business environment and performance of the company. But, for me, it’s usually either “not now” or “why” instead of “no”.  

I don’t start with a “no”, but if I have to say it, eventually, I will. How often does that happen? Outside of the budgeting cycle, maybe three or four times a month, which is not bad.  

I don’t think that’s more often than I would like; it’s just enough. And it’s not even my opinion, right? As a CFO, you advocate for the company and the business.  

Data quality. Because, unfortunately, a lot of problems start from that. It’s a lot easier to operate a business when you have good data that you can use for decision-making.  

For growing companies, data quality or processes are often not important in the beginning. But then you reach a certain stage of growth when you cannot continue that way, so you have to start auditing and cleaning up that data, which takes time.  

If I had a magic wand to do it overnight instead of cleaning that up over time, I would definitely do that. That would be fun.

Not for Rydoo, but there was a period in my career when the company I was working for came to a complete halt, which was quite challenging. 

It was a start-up whose business was directly related to international mobility. When Covid hit, travelling stopped, so did the business, and the challenge quickly became multi-fold.  

On the one hand, I had to assess the risks for liquidity, obtain additional financing to retain personnel, and jointly decide how to allocate the workforce before the situation stabilised. On top of that, I had to help my team navigate the new reality, transition to remote working and make sure everyone was doing fine and staying motivated.  

Then, immediately after, I had to keep track of all the developments and ensure continuous reassessment and communication with the business and the team.  

There’s a lot you can take out of these situations, and one of the main things I realised, because we were fundraising, is that it usually takes three times as long as you had anticipated. In a situation like this, when everything is happening at once, that can be a problem.  

Thankfully, it all turned out well in the end. But it was a though situation to be in. 

Better planning. You always think about it afterwards; maybe I should have started earlier and done things at the right time or delayed some payments to maintain liquidity.  

In the end, you’ll always think there’s something you could have done differently, but you learn from it. 

Right now, no. If I have a big project in my head that is not tracking as fast as it should be, it’s not that it keeps me up at night, but there’s this buzzing at the back of my head saying: “This is not getting done”, “you should move faster”. 

Sometimes, it’s simpler things, but sometimes, it’s budgeting, fundraising, an exit, M&A, or maybe somebody on your team is not doing as well as they should. It can be a lot of things.  

But yes. If something important is not happening the way it’s supposed to, it bothers me.  

No, not for me. I know many of my peers who are better at it than I am. Unfortunately, I have not yet mastered the art of turning it off. 

I am not a believer in work-life balance, to be honest. There are times when you prioritise one over the other.  

I don’t think it’s realistic to have that 50/50 split at all times. There are moments when you know you won’t have that 50/50 split, but you’re getting stressed because you’re not maintaining that balance, which makes it even worse. I’d rather admit that, for the next quarter, it won’t be a 50/50 balance; it will be 70/30. Admitting that upfront makes it easier than fooling yourself that you will do it. 

But we’re all different, right? That might not work for some people. Personally, focusing on having that balance would be an extra layer of stress on top of the stress of the work itself. I just want to get things done. I’m also very particular about how I want things, and until that’s done, even if I’m not in front of the computer, there’s that buzzing in my head. I’d rather that be over so I can relax.  

I know that is true for some people, not for me. I’m more risk-averse and cautious for the company than myself because it’s not my money. 

With my funds, it’s just me. I can take the risk or not and be fully responsible for the result, but the approach is the same. Your ultimate decision might differ, but the thinking process before spending is similar. Obviously, not to the same extent because those are very different amounts, and while I might have a ten-step process to make a decision for the company, I go through two or three of those for myself.  

Live alone in the finance world of reporting, cash, etc. Sometimes, people get too stuck in their jobs, and if you get to a certain position, you can’t do your job well without understanding the company, especially for CFOs.  

You need to understand all the moving pieces to make decisions or give any advice. Otherwise, it’s just pretty numbers and Excel sheets. 

One thing CFOs shouldn’t do is lose that connection and understand the challenges the business is going through, the path it’s on and the strategy in terms of where it’s going and why.  

If you lose track of the connection to that, I don’t think you can be successful. 

Allocate enough time to take a step back from your day-to-day. Not necessarily to disconnect or stop working, but to take a step back and reassess the strategic top-level situation more often than you do.  

You get stuck in your day-to-day meetings, conversations, reports, and problems. I think we all do that, but the strategic part is more important than the day-to-day, and I don’t feel like any of us are allocating enough time to do it.

It depends on where you are. I have a lot of teams in different departments, and I’m still learning how to properly allocate time for all of them and still have time for the business, the exec team and having some time for my life, making sure I have some fun so I’m not stuck at work with that buzz in the back of my head.  

Another thing I’m still learning is how to train myself to disconnect at a certain point in time. Sometimes, you just have to let it go, and I still need to train that. 

Buckle up. It’s going to be a fun ride. But it’s going to be a challenge too.