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It was back in 2002, Stephen Grist says, when he first punched through a surface of rigid assumptions to grasp the innovative levers that would propel him into the ranks of strategic CFOs.

At the time, Grist was the CFO of Viatel, a technology company whose management and sales teams were eagerly seeking to reestablish the company\\u2019s footing along a growth path after having recently emerged from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

With its bankruptcy in the rearview mirror, the company emerged with an unbridled appetite for growth\\u2014but one that was perhaps lacking in long-term vision.

Says Grist: \\u201cThe existing business managers were so focused on \\u2018Take that hill!\\u2019 and \\u2018This is our business, and this is the path that we\\u2019re going down!\\u2019 They just were not capable of identifying the disruptive risks.\\u201d

Having already logged a string of seven-day weeks to hasten Viatel\\u2019s exit from bankruptcy, Grist might have found it easy to applaud the sales team\\u2019s mounting tactical wins and provide diligent governance. Instead, he engaged the company\\u2019s general counsel, and together they approached a number of bankers in order to \\u201cadd on\\u201d some small Internet businesses that could quickly diversify the types of services that Viatel offered to its small to midsize customers.

According to Grist, Viatel at the time was struggling with the \\u201cThe Innovator\\u2019s Dilemma\\u201d\\u2014a phrase referring to disruptive competitors first coined and used as the title of a popular text by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen.

\\u201cYou\\u2019re so caught up in your vision of the company that you\\u2019re not really capable of identifying where those disruptive risks are affecting the company as they come in from different, different directions,\\u201d says Grist, who looks back at 2002 as a turning point for both Viatel and his CFO career.

Moving forward, Grist has entered new CFO roles as a disruptive risk expert tasked with questioning assumptions.

\\u201cEvery time I\\u2019ve come into a company, it\\u2019s been like, \\u2018Okay, it\\u2019s time to do the long-term business plan\\u2019\\u2014but you\\u2019ve got a different view of the world, so you can ask all those questions,\\u201d says Grist, who since Viatel has served in a string CFO roles for both founder-led and VC-backed companies.

Says Grist: \\u201cAs the CFO, you bring your experience to bear and you identify risks as you build the next year\\u2019s budget or the long-term model from really being in a position to question assumptions.\\u201d - Jack Sweeney