Advertisement The setbacks experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have been unlike any seen before. The impact seen on the financials of industries and organisations across the globe has been unprecedented – with many not surviving to this point. Globally, CFOs and finance teams have been hard at work to lead their organisations through the immediate crisis, ensuring the safety and protection of employees, suppliers and key stakeholders. They have also been collaborating across functions, assessing liquidity and conserving cash and reaching out early and often to investors to reset performance expectations.For those who have managed to transcend the global lockdowns into recovery phase, a new reality has very quickly come to the fore. One that, particularly for the CFO, requires a new, agile way of thinking. Drawing lessons from these unsettled months, the CFO must now permanently build speed and flexibility into functions that encompass forecasting, planning and resource-allocation processes and incorporate new tools and rapid decision-making protocols into the finance team’s day-to-day work.