Andrew Collis is Chief Financial Officer at Moneypenny, a seasoned CFO who is passionate about people and technology.
Once the language of startups and of fast-growth tech firms, agility is now an essential competency for every business, whatever its size or sector. And finance is right at the heart of it.
We’re living in an age where uncertainty is the only constant. And while finance has traditionally been viewed as the function of control and caution, today it’s just as much about pace, adaptability and enabling the business to move forward with confidence.
At my company, we’ve seen firsthand how finance can drive business agility, not just by keeping the books in order but by enabling better, faster and more confident decision-making, resulting in an evolution of the chief financial officer (CFO)’s role from financial gatekeeper to strategic enabler.
Why Agility Matters More Than Ever
The pace of change is only accelerating. In recent years, businesses have weathered wave after wave of disruption, from the pandemic and inflation to shifting client expectations and rising environmental, social and governance (ESG) demands. The organizations that coped best weren’t necessarily the biggest or best resourced but those with visibility into their numbers, flexibility in their planning and finance teams embedded in strategic conversations. Agility isn’t about reacting faster; it’s about preparing smarter.
That’s why adopting a traditional annual budget can feel increasingly out of step. By the time they’re approved, the market may have already moved on. Today’s finance teams rely on rolling forecasts and dynamic models that flex with real-world changes. Working with scenarios means challenges are anticipated, not just endured, giving businesses the breathing space and resilience to respond with confidence when pressure hits.
At The Heart Of Agility: Data
But only if you can see it clearly and use it effectively.
Traditional budgeting tends to anchor companies in past assumptions, so when a market opportunity arises or conditions change, businesses relying on static plans can struggle to pivot quickly.
Within our own experience, we’ve shifted toward more fluid forecasting. Take our expansion into the U.S. in 2016. Rather than a single plan, finance modeled multiple growth scenarios, from office costs and recruitment timelines to client onboarding volumes. By stress-testing different outcomes, we could see potential pinch points in advance. This meant the board made investment decisions with clarity and avoided overstretching resources too early. More recently, we’ve applied the same scenario modeling to artificial intelligence (AI) and new technology investments, weighing short-term costs against long-term benefits.
It’s about creating a shared understanding of what’s working, what’s changing and where we need to focus. That could mean spotting shifts in client behavior, adjusting resource allocation quickly or giving department leads the confidence to make timely decisions without second-guessing. For example, we use real-time reporting for client services, too, helping us spot early shifts in call patterns and reallocating resources quickly so we are always delivering the best possible service to our clients.
Embedding Finance Across The Business
Agility thrives on the connection between finance, marketing, operations, working life teams and tech, making financial thinking part of the decisions from the start. As I’ve written before, today’s CFOs are less gatekeepers, more strategic storytellers, helping to shape the narrative of the business through smart, strategic financial decisions.
Our finance team sits in regular cross-departmental reviews with sales and marketing, human resources (HR) and operations. That means projects are approved with a full view of likely return on investment (ROI) and resourcing needs, avoiding delays or rework later. So, by speaking the language of other departments and aligning metrics, finance can help to evaluate risk and reward, shape better outcomes and build trust. When teams know finance understands their goals and challenges, conversations become more agile by being faster, more productive and united around a shared direction.
Empowering People To Make Smart Decisions
Agility relies on people, not just systems. It means giving every team the information, tools and autonomy to act without red tape. It’s a cultural shift as much as a structural one, and it’s about giving people the confidence to take ownership.
Our structure is such that our department leads have their own budgets within clear guidelines. That autonomy means that managers can respond faster to clients’ or their people’s needs without waiting for multiple approvals. This empowerment speeds things up, reduces risk and gives everyone a greater sense of accountability, which in turn improves outcomes.
The Role Of The CFO In Making It Happen
Agility may not have featured in the original CFO job description, but today, it’s firmly part of the brief.
Modern CFOs are not just stewards of control but strategic partners, risk managers and technology advocates—often the very drivers of adaptability. We sit at a unique vantage point: able to connect strategy with performance, risk with reward and short-term pressures with long-term ambitions. And it is this perspective that allows us to help our organizations move quickly and with purpose—not reacting for the sake of speed but responding with precision and foresight.
Agility is about clarity, flexibility and resilience, all things that finance is perfectly placed to lead on. We need to create space for our teams to test, learn and adapt, build systems that support pace without sacrificing accuracy and help our organizations move forward with confidence, not by removing uncertainty, but by building the resilience to navigate it. Ultimately, agility doesn’t mean eliminating uncertainty. It means having the clarity, systems and resilience to thrive in spite of it.
The information provided here is not investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.
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