Capital Spoilage and Leakage: A CFO’s Guide to Finding What’s Lost | Mostly Classics

[Original air date: June 5, 2025]

How can finance leaders identify where their capital is silently going to waste and where it can be better used to drive growth? In this episode, CJ interviews Russell Lester, the CFO of Tropic, where capital allocation is both the product and the mission. Russell introduces the concept of “spoilage”, deployed capital that fails to deliver its intended value. He also talks about “levers”, positive actions that force multiply your efforts, and “leakages”, headwinds or detractors that sap momentum. Russell believes it is the job of the CFO (or “Chief Alignment Officer”) to proactively go looking for these levers and leakages. He then explains how he uses his “center of the table” framework to redeploy the freed-up capital to fuel growth. Russell also covers how to address misalignment, what helicopter skills are and why you need them, what a data safari is and why you should take one daily, and why every CFO needs a spend management tool.

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LINKS:

Russell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-lester-aa98463/

Tropic: https://www.tropicapp.io/

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

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RELATED EPISODES:

Wasted Capital and Where to Find It The CFOs Guide to Spoilage Levers Leakages

https://youtu.be/xOby7CcdljI

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Mostly Classics: Russell Lester on Capital and Alignment

00:00:48 Sponsors — Tipalti | Aleph | Fidelity Private Shares

00:04:07 Russell Lester Joins the Show

00:06:45 Capital Spoilage and Wasted Spend

00:08:34 Why Spoilage Goes Unnoticed Inside Companies

00:10:16 Creating Accountability for ROI

00:11:08 Spoilage Beyond Tools and Software

00:13:04 Strategy Drift and the Sunk Cost Trap

00:14:14 Sponsors — Sage Intacct | Mercury | RightRev

00:17:44 Levers and Leakages: A Framework for Momentum

00:19:27 Identifying Levers Across the Funnel

00:21:48 Efficiency Levers Inside the P&L

00:23:31 Common Spend Leakages in Practice

00:24:21 The Center of the Table Framework

00:26:47 Budget Ownership vs Corporate Stewardship

00:28:49 The CFO as Chief Alignment Officer

00:31:31 Trust, Tact, and Executive Leadership

00:33:35 Helicopter Skills for Finance Leaders

00:35:41 Curiosity as a CFO Superpower

00:36:02 Data Safaris and Asking Better Questions

00:38:16 Breaking Down Net Dollar Retention

00:40:32 Navigating Data Overload

00:42:16 Building a Single Source of Truth

00:43:03 Intelligent Spend Management in Action

00:44:44 Capital Allocation as the CFO’s Core Job

00:46:04 How Spend Management Drives Growth

00:49:14 Why Companies Delay Spend Tools

00:50:49 A Career Mistake with Investors

00:52:49 Auto-Renewals: Revenue vs Leakage

00:54:07 Advice to a Younger CFO

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #CFOLeadership #CapitalAllocation #FinancialStrategy #SpendManagement