New CFOs face a pivotal transition period—their first 90 days are when they learn the business, align with other leaders, and lay the groundwork for lasting impact.
Bruno J. Navarro
Senior Editorial Strategist, Finance
Workday
The first weeks and months in any new leadership role are critical, setting the tone for how you’ll lead and what the business can accomplish. For CFOs, whose responsibilities now extend beyond financial oversight to enterprise-wide strategy, it’s especially important to begin with intention.
A CFO's first 90 days are filled with important building blocks: understanding the company’s full financial picture, forging strong relationships with other leaders, and shaping an initial roadmap for the future.
Thriving in a new CFO role requires a balance—addressing immediate concerns while taking time to understand the organization’s culture and strategic priorities before making major changes. This guide helps CFOs map out a smart, strategic start to their leadership.
A CFO’s first 90 days require balance—addressing immediate concerns while still taking time to learn.
Guide
CFOs have notoriously short-lived tenures. Research by Boston Consulting Group underscored just how brief it often is: 1 in 10 CFOs leave the role within their first year, and 50% have left by the end of year five. Quick turnover is the underlying reason why many CFOs don’t make a lasting impact on their organizations—they simply don't have enough time.
To put themselves in a position to succeed long-term in their roles, new CFOs “should prioritize careful planning over speed of execution when taking the helm.” A CFO's first 90 days are a unique time to learn about their new organization’s strengths and weaknesses before taking any major action.
The first 90 days also heavily define the narrative around leadership. Stakeholders are watching how CFOs prioritize action and communicate with others. Setting the right tone early can accelerate impact and lay the groundwork for a stronger and more strategic finance function over time.
The first 90 days are an opportunity for you to establish control, clarity, and credibility. You are laying the foundations that will influence every strategic decision that follows. Treat this period as a deliberate assessment phase—one where precision, good communication, and clear prioritization matter more than speed. Here are five of the most crucial focus areas.
Begin with a clear picture of how value moves through the organization. Seeing the links between revenue, costs, and cash timing reveals what drives a company’s financial performance.
Key actions as CFO:
Alignment at the C-suite level determines how effectively you can act. Spend time understanding how leadership defines success and how financial priorities fit within that view. Your influence comes from connecting capital decisions to business outcomes that matter.
Key actions as CFO:
Early momentum earns confidence—but don’t make it a matter of ego. Focus on quick wins with a high impact that strengthen visibility and show that key financial levers are under control.
Key actions as CFO:
Finance gains influence when others see it as an ally in achieving results. Use your first months to understand what different teams value and how financial insights can help them reach their goals.
Key actions as CFO:
Your first 90 days as a CFO should give you a working view of the business. What you do next determines whether finance becomes a stabilizer or a strategic driver. Use what you learn to build consistency, clarify direction, and set expectations for how decisions will be made going forward.
Key actions as CFO:
Smart CFOs treat their first 90 days not as a trial period, but an investment in long-term success.
Smart CFOs treat their first 90 days not as a trial period but an investment in their long-term success with their new company. What you learn and build early about the business, the people, and the numbers forms the base for every strategic move that follows.
By this point, you’ll have a clear view of how the organization operates and how finance can strengthen it. The next step is to use this understanding to shape direction by tightening decision frameworks, collaborating with other leaders, improving visibility, and ensuring that capital and strategy are truly aligned.
Your credibility now rests on consistency. Keep communicating, following through on commitments, and use financial insight to drive better decisions in all areas of the business. Over time, those habits turn early progress into sustainable impact and position finance as a steady force behind the company’s growth and resilience.
More and more, CFOs are required to be strategic figureheads for their organizations. Learn how the FAME framework can help you achieve your business goals, with case studies from two enterprise-level organizations.
Guide
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