The framework has the flexibility to take individual elements in isolation, focus on them, or be used as a structure to become more curious. Some organisations and individuals can be very good at some elements but not at others. Some finance leaders can be enormously creative with loads of fresh ideas but poor at putting them into action or at assessing which ones are worth pursuing. The framework can be used as a means of identifying strengths and weaknesses and addressing them.
It can also be used as a structure which, when followed, becomes a virtuous circle that helps fuel further curiosity. Having gone through the framework and built confidence you can go back and use it again to ask other, bigger questions.
Bringing creativity to the core
While creativity is not usually associated with finance leaders, it is possibly the most important of the seven Cs for CFOs. An essential component of creativity is asking great questions and one of the most powerful ones is: “what if we looked at a different way of doing this?”
Many processes within finance are repetitive and mundane. Advances in AI, agentic AI in particular, mean that CFOs should be asking what if there was a way AI could help us do certain things. We have already seen promising examples of AI matching invoices to purchase orders with increasing accuracy and going a step further to approve and process the subsequent payment. These types of advances are not only saving huge amounts of time within the finance function, but moreover drastically increasing STP (straight to payment) metrics.
That’s just one example. The technology can also be used for complex scenario planning, which is particularly important in today’s volatile trade and geopolitical landscape. Traditional finance forecasting tends to be based on a linear approach with assumptions of things going up or down by a certain amount from one year to the next with everything else remaining the same.
A curious CFO can use AI to ask questions like what if things don’t go up or down the way assumed; what if things don’t remain the same; what else might change; how will that affect our bottom line and the overall performance of the organisation? Do we need to model these things? Do we need to make some provisions around these things? What should we do to react and respond to changed circumstances? Do we need to run some experiments using an internal AI model to see how those responses might play out?
Building a culture that withstands uncertainty
When we look at geopolitical tensions and market turbulence around the world at the moment, the ability to ask these questions and get realistic answers to them has never been more important. It reduces very significantly the risk of the organisation falling victim to unforeseen circumstances. It also enhances CFOs’ capacity to answer the questions they are being asked by other stakeholders within the organisation within increasingly tight timeframes.
There’s a possibility that organisations can grow complacent, assuming their operating environment would remain unchanged. However, when circumstances shift, they were unprepared to adapt and therefore cease to exist.
Avoiding that eventuality is about more than just having a curious CFO. It is about individuals across the finance function and the enterprise having a curious mindset and that comes down to culture. While training can help individuals develop that mindset and become better at different aspects of the seven Cs framework, it is very hard work if it is not backed up by the right culture.
A big part of it comes from leader role modelling. The power of leaders to demonstrate expected behaviours is huge. Having a CFO and other leaders who can ask questions, who are comfortable with saying, “actually, I don't know the answer to this. Let's try an experiment. Let's go and figure that out,” is key to embracing curiosity across finance function and the wider organisation.
Conversely, research has shown a very significant correlation between a lack of curiosity in teams and their leaders.
To create a team that is genuinely curious — one that asks questions, experiments, and accepts that failure is part of pushing boundaries — finance leaders must encourage people to speak up. They should promote the expression of diverse viewpoints and invite constructive challenge. Leaders must also cultivate an environment in which constructive dissent is encouraged and in which established norms and traditional ways of working may be appropriately challenged. In that context, the need to create a psychologically safe environment where failing and failing fast when exploring new possibilities is not only acceptable but desirable cannot be emphasised strongly enough.
CFOs must also ensure that people are learning and sharing that learning. That’s where the new thinking that will drive innovation and help finance teams evolve beyond traditional ways of working will come from. And it all begins with curiosity.
