The CFO'S Perspective

The deal had closed. The handshakes, the wire transfer, the quiet exhale after months of negotiation -- all of it was behind them.

What remained was a consequential earn-out: two years of revenue performance that would determine a significant final payment. The founders were no longer directly involved and the financial reporting now ran through the buyer’s systems. Building a credible case from that position was going to take a substantial effort.

That’s when Kirk Van Alstyne called CFO Selections.

At CFO Selections, we spend our days inside the financial realities of growing businesses… close enough to see what keeps owners up at night, what they're building toward, and what gets in the way. This series brings those conversations forward: the questions CEOs are wrestling with right now and the decisions that carry real weight. We write from the CFO's seat, but that viewpoint is created with the person sitting across from us.

Daniel Kahneman’s famous book wasn’t about speed. It was about which mode of thinking is running the show: reactive and instinctive, or deliberate and strategic. Business owners, whatever their industry, are running hard: next quarter, next crisis, next decision. The conditions that allow for deliberate, strategic thinking don’t create themselves. That’s the CFO’s real job: building the environment where strategy can take root, innovation can follow, and growth becomes possible. Gary Christianson and Larry Breitbarth do this for companies with very different needs. The way they get there might look different, but what they’re building looks the same.