In today’s volatile economic climate, CFOs must act swiftly. This structured 100-day plan guides financial leaders through resetting baselines, stabilising spending, reprioritising investments, and enabling faster decision-making. Time-based phases equip organisations to respond confidently to inflation, demand shifts, and refinancing risks while preserving flexibility and enhancing decision-making.
Reading time: 5 minutes
Persistent volatility requires organisations to deal with challenges ranging from inflation and wage pressures to refinancing risk, and softening demand requires CFOs to reset expectations. They must preserve flexibility and make faster, better-informed decisions. This plan offers a structured, time-based response to economic uncertainty.
The first priority is to reset financial expectations.
This means rebuilding forecasts based on current input costs, updated demand signals, and the real cost of capital. It is essential to stress-test scenarios across plausible downside cases. Particularly where refinancing risks, FX exposure, or liquidity pressure may be material. This period is also about setting clear risk boundaries: aligning leadership on where flexibility exists, and where it does not.
Once a clear financial baseline is in place, the focus shifts to identifying where meaningful cost flexibility exists. However, these cost savings mustn’t compromise core delivery.
This requires a structured review of the cost base so you can distinguish between areas of deliberate investment and spending that no longer align with current priorities. Finance and procurement should work closely, ensuring spend is both intentional and sustainable. Scenario modelling should support realistic cost containment targets based on credible revenue and margin outcomes.
Investment plans must reflect revised economic conditions.
At this point, you should review in-flight initiatives against updated hurdle rates and commercial relevance. Where returns are uncertain or unlikely to materialise within a reasonable timeframe, deferral or re-scoping may be appropriate. All investments should compete for capital in a more selective environment. Revisit funding plans to ensure sufficient headroom and resilience under conservative scenarios.
With immediate stabilisation underway, focus shifts to building readiness.
Financial planning should move to rolling forecasts and scenario-based decision frameworks. Leading indicators should be formalised as triggers for action. Governance must ensure short-term measures remain aligned to longer-term priorities, with clear ownership and integrated cadence across board reporting, capital planning, and performance management.
If you have any questions or if this is a challenge your business is facing, we’d love to chat!
Henry Bell
Principal Consultant
by 