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At the centre of everything: How CFOs lead through connection, curiosity and data
Finance cannot be perceived as a back-office function, says Swissport’s Nordics & Baltics CFO Sasa Tulikoura. CFOs must strengthen three priorities: inspiring curiosity in teams, connecting across the business, and building momentum for data transformation.
For Sasa Tulikoura, finance is no longer a support function. Rather, it’s central to how businesses think, act and grow. Her view is simple: “Finance is the business itself.”
This mindset reflects the evolution of the CFO role. Finance leaders are already central to shaping strategy, allocating capital, and navigating economic uncertainty. The challenge now, Tulikoura argues, is to position the whole finance function centrally within the business. She wants to instil in every team member the same sense of collaboration and curiosity that defines a modern finance leader. To achieve that goal, she believes CFOs should focus on three areas.
1 – Build meaning and intellectual curiosity
“People are the most important thing within the business,” Tulikoura says. “If you have an amazing team, you can do so much and create so much more value.”
She advocates a focus less on financial incentives and more on building meaning. “For some, the money is the key,” she says, “but, more often, it’s about how people feel in real life. In other words, how they experience their work, how they’re led, how they grow.”
When it comes to hiring, Tulikoura prizes curiosity and a sense of direction over pure technical ability. “Of course, you have to understand finance as the base minimum,” she says. “But what I’m looking for is common sense, proactivity, self-leadership, curiosity, self-development. Those are critical.”
As she explains, curiosity stands out as a recurring theme. “If I think about my team, what I want from them is that they are proactive. They think, they analyse, they are supportive, they ask questions. They want to understand the business.”
For Tulikoura, transformation starts with belief. “I’ve learned that transformation isn’t about changing systems first,” she says. “It’s about helping people believe again that they can shape the future.”
That belief is built over time, based on the “little wins” and steady, open communication. “My formula is communication and transparency,” she says. “That’s what keeps people motivated in the long run.”
Today, that means working across functions, shaping outcomes and building influence through relationships.
2 – Creating value through hands-on connection
Tulikoura rejects the notion of finance as a function that simply reports on value, rather than creating it. “Finance is not reporting,” she says. “It’s crucial to be part of the business by creating those connections and partnerships.”
As an example of this in action, Tulikoura recalls collaborating closely with the chief commercial officer in negotiating a key commercial deal to closure.
This hands-on approach highlights the growing expectation that CFOs be not only financial stewards, but also collaborative partners. Today, that means working across functions, shaping outcomes and building influence through relationships.
“Data is the core of the finance function’s influence.”
3 – Using early data wins as a base for building momentum
For Tulikoura, effective data transformation needn’t take the form of a sweeping overhaul. Rather, she sees it as being about steadily building energy and confidence. Momentum matters as much as metrics.
Data is the core of the finance function’s influence. Credibility, she says, comes from ensuring decisions are grounded in solid numbers. “KPIs are built from a wide range of non-financial data, meaning we need to understand the wider operations and the business.”
That means pushing for accuracy, completeness and relevance across all data streams. “We have to make sure not only that the financial data but also the non-financial data is up-to-date and correct. Otherwise, you are going to get caught out.”
The real challenge, Tulikoura argues, is sustaining motivation across a long data transformation effort. She emphasizes the importance of celebrating early results. “If we have these little wins, everybody’s going to be more motivated by it and have more energy to continue,” she says.
Finance is at the centre of everything. We have to know everything that happens in the business, so we can help create value and stop poorly conceived decisions. It works both ways.- Sasa Tulikoura
The curious, connected CFO
Tulikoura represents a generation of CFOs whose impact depends as much on leadership tone as on financial acumen. She argues that curiosity is a leadership tool as well as a positive personality trait. It helps finance teams challenge assumptions, connect with colleagues across functions, and turn insight into action.
For Tulikoura, a key aspect of leadership is cultivating a culture of shared accountability. “Finance is at the centre of everything. We have to know everything that happens in the business, so we can help create value and stop poorly conceived decisions. It works both ways.”
It’s a message that reflects the modern finance ethos: connected, credible, and curious. As Tulikoura puts it: “We’re not the back office. We’re the business.”
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