GENCFO Impact Re-Run: What Finance Leaders Get Wrong About Automation
“If you automate a broken process, you just get bad outcomes faster.”
In this special episode, Chris and Mike replay a standout session from GENCFO Impact, facilitated by Mike Rose, bringing together senior finance and transformation leaders to unpack what automation really means inside large, complex organisations.
Moving beyond buzzwords, the discussion explores why automation efforts often stall, how leaders confuse tools with outcomes, and why successful automation is far more about mindset, process discipline, and decision-making than technology alone. The panel tackles the reality of implementation at scale—legacy systems, cultural resistance, governance, and the limits of “AI-first” thinking.
Rather than asking whether to automate, the conversation focuses on why, where, and how—highlighting practical lessons from organisations that have already been through multiple waves of transformation. The result is a grounded, experience-led look at how finance teams can stop experimenting endlessly and start embedding automation that actually sticks.
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Author
“Chris Argent isn’t here to play by finance’s old rulebook - he’s here to rewrite it.” From challenging outdated corporate thinking to rallying finance leaders around a more connected, adaptable future, the founder of GENCFO is leading a quiet revolution in how CFOs and finance leadership work, think, and influence. Chris Argent, founder of GENCFO, is a finance leader redefining the role beyond business partnering. A self-described “reluctant accountant,” he’s built a global community for progressive accounting and finance leaders who value connection over competition and action over tradition. Chris believes the greatest risk to the profession is clinging to outdated norms, and that mindset and adaptability outpace any technological change. His work champions leaders who turn new ideas into real-world change, blending people-centred strategies with new ways of working and technology. In conversations, he challenges, provokes, and inspires - proving that the future of finance belongs to those ready to lead it together.