Module 2:
Win your sponsors

The fastest way to lose a CFO is to open with tax mechanics. The fastest way to win one is to lead with risk. VJ, who led Shell's tax transformation, put it plainly: "When it comes to tax, risk always leads, rather than benefit." Frame the conversation around exposure, cost and cash flow, and you're speaking the language the C-suite already thinks in.

Diana Hansen, Sr. Director Global Tax at Trident Seafood, did exactly this. She built her case around audit pain and the reality of a three-person team carrying a two-billion-dollar company across many jurisdictions. At roughly fifty thousand dollars a year, she told us, the decision became "a pretty big no-brainer." The numbers did the persuading.

Brigitte Baumgartner of The Tax Graph puts it bluntly: "You only get the attention of the CFO if you put a number with a price tag on it." Cost savings are easy to show. Control is harder, because you'll hear "we've done it this way for a hundred years and never had an audit." Her reframe: that isn't proof you're safe. It just means you've been lucky.

Framing opens the door. Trust keeps it open. Aaron Meneghin, Tax Director at Valentino, was blunt about it: "How important is a good relationship with the CFO? A lot. Really a lot." His method is unglamorous and effective: a weekly one-to-one, even just thirty minutes, to keep the two of them aligned.

That trust is also personal. Kristof Cuppens, a leadership coach who works with professionals and senior executives, warns against walking in trying to prove yourself. "Don't prove anything," he says. The leaders who carry the room are the ones who don't need anything from it. Credibility comes from steadiness, not from pushing.

Once you have leadership behind you, use it. When Diana rolled out her new platform, she had the CFO join the call on video "so everybody can see that we're serious." That single signal did more for adoption than any memo.

It also reflects how accountability really works. VJ describes it as sitting with three roles: the CFO, the board and the head of tax. "Leadership sponsorship," he says, "was also quite critical." Jesús Ricart, Head of Indirect Tax at Al Tayer, adds a lever the C-suite feels keenly: reputation. "Sometimes it's not the fine," he told us. "It's a reputational matter, how the tax authority perceives that you take proper tax management." When the cost of inaction is the company's standing, leadership pays attention.

• Lead with risk, cost and reputation, not tax mechanics.
• Win trust with cadence and consistency, not a single pitch.
• Make leadership sponsorship visible to everyone below.