close share links Budgeting, scenario planning, hiring, providing guidance — even in steady times, these responsibilities dominate the thinking of chief financial officers. During a global pandemic, it became even harder to manage amid the uncertainty, yet companies could and did persist. Work smart with our Thinking Forward newsletter Insights from MIT experts, delivered every Tuesday morning. Email Address “The last nine months have been unprecedented in the lives of companies,” said Ankur Agrawal, a partner with McKinsey and Company, during the MIT Sloan CFO Virtual Summit, held in late November. “Whether it's a small business or a large corporation, whether it is a single company enterprise or a global corporation, the challenges have been many, and the CFOs have found themselves at the center of managing both for the short term and managing the crises day to day," Agrawal said.