Numerous financial blog articles and LinkedIn posts highlight the benefits of a small business owner hiring a portfolio CFO. However, I do not recall these writers commenting on why financial professionals step away from the W-2 world to serve multiple owners as clients. Sara Daw may be the first author to articulate why CFOs jump into the gig economy through her comprehensive research, which we can read about in Strategy and Leadership as Service.
Interview Highlights
- Sara Daw’s origin story begins in a chemistry lab at Oxford University
- The reason CFOs exit the W-2 arena
- Mark’s shoutout to Stacey Barr and weasel words
- The reason other professions are lagging behind CFOs in the gig economy
- Sara’s reference to the 2022 Jeffcock study and the future of the C-suite
- Psychological owner (PO) explained
- Access vs. ownership
- Liquid vs. solid in the context of ownership
- Why networking is Sara’s favorite of the six virtues
- What it truly means to be ‘always on’
- The future-proof conversation is continual in the mind of the CFO
- Sara’s favorite books
There was more to life than doing corporate finance, there was more to life than numbers. So I [completed] an MBA, and that was a bit of a turning point for me because that’s where I realized business was so much more wider than finance.
Sara Daw
By moving to the Strategy and Leadership as Service framework, the outcomes are better for all stakeholders: more engagement, access to the right skillsets and mindsets at the right time and in the right quantity to match the changing business agenda, more flexibility for senior leaders, and strengthened risk management.
Books Mentioned
- The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy
- Other books by Charles Handy, including The Empty Raincoat
- The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here by Lynda Gratton
Relevant Links
- Sara Daw’s Website and LinkedIn profile
- The CFO Centre Group
- The Liberti Group
- Sara’s Amazon author page
Leave a Reply