Why CEOs Are Starting to See Their CFOs as a Threat

BCG data reveals mounting pressure, stress, and succession tension in the C‑suite.

BY KIT EATON @KITEATON

Illustration: Inc; Photo: Getty Images

All may not be well in the C-suite. A new survey from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) looking into what’s keeping CEOs awake at night found that company leaders are feeling very vulnerable, and they’re pointing the finger at their own chief financial officers. CFOs, they worry, are a threat to their top leadership spot. And they might not be wholly wrong, with CFO to CEO transitions topping 10 percent last year, up 3 percentage points from 2024.

BCG’s new CEO Insomnia Index found that all sorts of “traditional” performance demands are still the most immediate source of CEO stress—tasks like “meeting growth targets and managing costs”—with about 60 percent of the 500 CEOs surveyed expecting problems in the coming months. But the survey also found “internal pressures” from within a company’s leadership structure are actually intensifying. Alongside increasing pressure from board members, 26 percent of the........

© Inc.com