Kids Company’s financial failure stands as one of the most high-profile charity collapses in the UK. In this Corporate Autopsy, we uncover how weak financial governance, not lack of passion, caused the downfall of a charity once hailed for helping vulnerable young people. The Corporate Autopsy, Vol. IV: Kids Company Our fourth Corporate Autopsy turns…
Operational financial health is the backbone of every empire, or business. In 1917, the Tsarist regime ignored it, chasing external power while internal systems collapsed. The Historian’s Ledger, Vol. IV: The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty, 1917 We’ve dissected failures of innovation and governance. Today, we address a collapse rooted in a fatal flaw of…
How do you survive the cash dip when your business model shifts overnight?The Corporate Autopsy, Vol. III: Adobe Last week, we discussed the folly of managing creative assets like they were fixed costs. This week, we examine the ultimate act of strategic financial courage: cannibalising a billion-pound revenue stream for the sake of long-term survival….
The Historian’s Ledger, Vol. III: The Allied Logistics of D-Day, 1944 Strategic cashflow management isn’t just a modern financial concept—it’s a principle that decided the fate of nations. The Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 proves that financial precision can make or break even the most ambitious operations. After weeks spent contemplating failure—the strategic…
The Corporate Autopsy, Vol. II: Saatchi & Saatchi Following our forensic examination of Nike’s asset-light model, we turn to a spectacular British success story—and subsequent crash—that perfectly dissects the greatest financial challenge in the media and creative sectors: monetising and measuring intangible assets. We are performing the autopsy on one and only Saatchi & Saatchi….
The Historian’s Ledger, Vol. II: The South Sea Bubble, 1720 A Fractional CFO is more than a financial advisor, they are your modern-day governance firewall. If last week’s lesson from Constantinople was about the fatal cost of ignoring innovation, this week addresses something more corrosive: the catastrophic cost of dishonesty and greed in the boardroom….
The Corporate Autopsy, Vol. I: Nike If our Monday series, The Historian’s Ledger, explores the fundamental truths of finance from the past, our new Wednesday series, The Corporate Autopsy, conducts a forensic examination of modern corporate triumphs and failures. Outsourcing operations can transform a company’s financial trajectory, and no brand illustrates this better than Nike….
(The Historian’s Ledger, Vol. I: The Siege of Constantinople, 1453) We are constantly bombarded with conversations about the Future CFO, finance transformation, the future of AI, and the future economy. It’s exhausting. Frankly, this obsession with what’s coming next often makes us lose sight of the timeless, fundamental truths. My solution? Stop staring anxiously at…
The greatest risk in finance today isn’t avoiding AI; it’s blindly trusting it. The conversation around Artificial Intelligence in finance has finally matured. It is no longer a question of if it will change the CFO function, but how. For scaling businesses in the £1M–£10M revenue bracket—particularly in the volatile tech, media, and creative sectors—AI…
This week, I’ve had two separate inquiries for Fractional CFO support in Saudi Arabia. This piqued my interest, leading me to delve into Saudi Vision 2030. It raises some interesting questions: What exactly is Saudi Vision 2030? Is this leading to a surge in business activity? And, more specifically, could this translate to a growing…