Run the Numbers

chevron_right

The Era of “I Need a COO and a CFO” Is Over: Jim Cook on the Next Evolution of the CFO

whatshot 45 snips

Feb 27, 2025

Guest

Jim Cook

Jim Cook, co-founder of Netflix and former CFO of Mozilla, discusses the evolving landscape of CFO roles. He emphasizes the shift from traditional scorekeeping to strategic influence, urging finance leaders to prioritize transparency and authenticity. Cook shares insights on the potential elimination of separate COO and CFO roles, warning against the pitfalls of 'fake it till you make it.' He highlights how modern CFOs must embrace AI technology, collaboration, and effective storytelling to adapt and succeed in their pivotal roles.

59:52

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

menu_book

Books

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

volunteer_activism

ADVICE

Transparency and Trust

Build trust with other executives by being transparent.
Transparency is key to influence and impact as a CFO.

insights

INSIGHT

The Power of Not Knowing

Admitting what you don't know is a form of transparency and learning.
This approach fosters trust and collaboration within a team.

volunteer_activism

ADVICE

Building Trust Faster

Some people trust quickly, others take time; be authentic to build trust faster.
Open up about who you are and let people decide how fast they trust you.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Milestones and Transitions

05:19 • 3min

chevron_right

The Transformative Role of CFOs

08:35 • 5min

chevron_right

Navigating Leadership: Embracing Vulnerability and Team Collaboration

13:34 • 5min

chevron_right

Evolving Trust and Authenticity in CFO Leadership

18:57 • 23min

chevron_right

Transforming the CFO Role with AI

42:06 • 15min

chevron_right

Navigating the Evolving Role of the CFO

57:04 • 3min

chevron_right

Trillion Dollar Coach

The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell

Alan Eagle

Jonathan Rosenberg

Eric Schmidt

This book captures the leadership style and teachings of Bill Campbell, who played a crucial role in the growth of companies like Google, Apple, and Intuit. Written by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle, the book is based on interviews with over eighty people who knew and loved Bill Campbell. It outlines his principles on building trusting relationships, fostering personal growth, inspiring courage, and resolving tensions in fast-moving environments. The book serves as a blueprint for business leaders and managers to create higher-performing and faster-moving cultures, teams, and companies.

Jim Cook, Netflix co-founder, former CFO of Mozilla, early employee at Inuit, executive coach, and author of Substack Cook’s Playbooks, returns to the podcast for the third time. In this episode, he breaks down the evolution of the role of CFOs from traditional scorekeepers to more strategic and operator roles, before looking ahead at what’s to come. This episode is packed full of helpful advice about transparency, building trust, authenticity in your executive role, and why “fake it till you make it” is actually bad advice. Looking at the future of the CFO role, Jim explains why he believes there will be no need for both COO and CFO roles in an organization, the biggest mistake a CFO can make at this time, and how CFOs should be adapting in order to succeed in this next era.

—

SPONSORS:

Planful is a financial performance management platform designed to streamline financial tasks for businesses. It helps with budgeting, closing the books, and financial reporting, all on a cloud-based platform. By improving the efficiency and accuracy of these processes, Planful allows businesses to make better financial decisions. Find out more at www.planful.com/metrics.

Brex offers the world's smartest corporate card on a full-stack global platform that is everything CFOs need to manage their finances on an elite level. Plus they offer modern banking and treasury as well as intuitive expenses and accounting automation, bill pay, and travel. Brex makes it easy to control spend before it happens, automate annoying tasks, and optimize your finances. Find out how Brex can help you make every dollar count at brex.com/metrics.

Vanta's trust management platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation. Over 9000 businesses use it to automate compliance needs across over 35 frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk. For a limited time, get $1,000 off of Vanta at vanta.com/metrics.

Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. It doesn’t just show you where the problems are—it helps you solve them. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities, like duplicative spend, to automating those painful procurement workflows, to giving you the best market data that turns every vendor negotiation in your favor. Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

RightRev automates the revenue recognition process from end to end, gives you real-time insights, and ensures ASC 606 / IFRS 15 compliance—all while closing books faster. Whether it's multi-element arrangements, subscription renewals, or complex usage-based contracts, RightRev takes care of it all. That means fewer spreadsheets, fewer errors, and more time for your team to focus on growth. For modern revenue recognition simplified, visit rightrev.com and schedule a demo.

—

@cjgustafson222 (CJ)

LINKS:

Cook’s Playbooks

www.benchboard.com

Jim Cook on LinkedIn

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(01:37) Sponsor – Planful | Brex | Vanta

(05:49) CJ’s Career Growth Since First Interviewing Jim

(08:35) Making Finance Transparent