The AI boom. Tariff shocks. Two ongoing wars. When new geopolitical issues or disruptions arrive on the scene, it’s an understandable assumption to silo the potential impact within the market or supply chain operations. But Omar Choucair, CFO of financial software company Trintech, makes the argument that it’s finance leaders that need to be on guard for crises like these.
“I think CFOs are even on higher alert than they would’ve been before because the risk has increased a lot. The risk for higher interest rates, risk for potential supply chain [issues], inflation,” he says. “That really puts CFOs in even a more precarious position. So then add on top of all that, the business transformation risk associated with AI. It’s a collision at the intersection of a lot of different forces that CFOs probably have not seen.”
Choucair has more than 25 years of CFO experience, spanning public, private equity-backed and private SaaS businesses. Here is what he’s learned over the years about how to deal with crisis, and what CFOs should be doing right now to create more resilient organizations.
In Times of Crisis
The first thing to remember is simple but can’t be overstated: When external disruption strikes, “the one thing that we can control is our processes and our internal controls.”
For Choucair, the two most important controls are people and technology. “As long as there are really strong lines of communication and my lieutenants know what’s important and what’s not, that’s the number one thing.”
Then, consider where automating processes can help time be on your side. “In a time of crisis, the shorter amount of time that it takes for the finance team to get all the quarterly month end numbers together, that is a huge advantage if you have all that organized and streamlined.”
If the past few years have taught business leaders anything, it’s that there’s no predicting what’s around the corner next, only preparing for what could be. “I think for, for me, it’s always been what’s plan B? There’s always plan A, but most good CFOs always have a plan B in place, and that plan B is critical.”
The AI of it all
Of course, outside of the geopolitical sphere, the other major disruption businesses are facing is the rise of AI. Choucair’s advice: “Lean in as aggressively as CFOs can.”
That being said, what aggressive means depends on the company. Pouring millions into tokens without that tangible ROI is only an option for major enterprises that are not representative of many businesses’ capabilities, even Choucair’s. So that means buying in, but with protections in place.
“We’ve got circuit breakers set up everywhere because in our view, there has to be some return at the end of the rainbow. I think most CFOs are starting to recognize that the token usage can be very problematic. If companies don’t have circuit breakers set up, you could have a full year of your budget utilized in a month, and that could be a problem.”
While not every employee can spend on compute like it’s their job, it is important to add the right talent into the mix to protect the future of the organization. “In the future office of the CFO, I think the skillset is changing,” he says. “It’s changing now, and it’ll probably change even more over the next 12 to 18 to 24 months. It’s very obvious that there’s a significant need for very tech savvy finance accounting.” Choucair does invest in having an AI transformation team, with a dedicated leader and each department head meeting weekly.
New technology, managing crises, it all comes back to the CFO for one simple reason: trust. Choucair has noticed CEOs and CIOs handing responsibility for calculating AI advancement and spend vs. ROI directly to the CFO. “I think this office of the CFO really needs to be the nerve center because it’s all about trust,” says Choucair. “You have to get the trust of your customers, and you have to get the trust from your fellow executives.”
