In the course of a review, it became apparent that the relationship between the CEO and the CFO was so poor that it was causing concern to the board. There was no obvious basis for a personality clash between the two. Both were high performers, and the board was concerned about the likelihood of losing one of them.
We explored the root causes of their differences and found that a significant factor was the way in which development proposals were worked up without sufficient consideration of the availability of financing, which led to the CFO being seen as “Mr No”. We suggested a practical solution to the process. A year later, the CEO and CFO separately reported that the relationship was transformed, and they worked together satisfactorily until the CEO’s planned retirement.