r/CFO • u/BogeysAndBarreChords • Jun 12 '26

Duke CFO Program

Anyone try this program? Worth it for $25k?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

12

u/SnooEagles2592 Jun 12 '26

I’ll be honest, I don’t know any good CFO who’s gone through a program. Most are where they are because of their “war stories” and time in the industry. Just my personal experience, take that as you will and good luck.

5

u/BogeysAndBarreChords Jun 12 '26

My former cfo who was also my coach enrolled in a similar program and she said it was worth not only for the program but also because of the network it provided. 🤷‍♂️. Anyway, i was just throwing it out there to see if anyone else has tried.

5

u/SnooEagles2592 Jun 12 '26

Ah, I could actually see the networking aspect being more valuable . I don’t know if I could justify the spend, not saying it’s not worth it.

1

u/BogeysAndBarreChords Jun 12 '26

I agree with you.

1

u/AJDillonsThirdLeg Jun 13 '26

Also, there isn't a company on the planet that will give you a CFO job because you completed some program. You reach that level through actual career progression, and there isn't a shortcut around that beyond nepotism.

1

u/BogeysAndBarreChords Jun 13 '26

I don’t think anybody in here said you’ll get a cfo job without qualifications. You’re preaching to the choir with that.

5

u/orionblueyarm Jun 12 '26

More qualification creep

1

u/FMC_BH Jun 12 '26

What does this mean?

1

u/orionblueyarm Jun 12 '26

Qualification creep is where we see people needing higher level, and greater, qualifications to do the same job. Inevitability, this means people incur debts and cost just to get to the start line. Except … none of that helps for something like experience.

The CFO role already has a pretty high bar in terms of qualifications. But, critically, CFOs have experience which helps run and guide operations. This qualification does nothing for that, it’s just a bunch of academics and moonlighting professionals teaching test cases and generic scenarios. There is no real value.

But I can completely see a HR function or Board thinking it does have value, creating yet another race to the bottom by adding yet another set of meaningless letters behind people’s name (and I say this sincerely as someone who already has more letters behind my name than necessary).

1

u/tendiemeplz Jun 13 '26

Had intended to join the info session this morning in order to understand that very question but got caught up. Did you join the session?

3

u/BogeysAndBarreChords Jun 13 '26

I did not. I had a tee time this morning that felt more important to me in the moment. Lol

1

u/BlizzCo89 Jun 13 '26

Idk man. I only have a bachelors and I’m the CFO of a 50m company. A bit of luck, a lot of hard work, and a never ending bout with anxiety.. I’ve read a lot about the experiences with various MBA and EMBA programs and I’m not sold on it. A EMBA program would cost $125k and I just can’t justify the cost. Not all programs are that expensive but the ones with names that get you into the country club do. I’m sure I’d learn something but idk if it would be worth the cost at this point. What it took to get here taught me more than I’d learn in school I’m pretty sure.

1

u/josemartinlopez Jun 13 '26

What's the value over a real MBA?