Anshul Agarwal on Finance, Strategy, and the Power of Compounding Curiosity

When I listened to Anshul Agarwal talk about his morning routine, I expected discipline. What I didn't expect was how seamlessly he'd connect tennis footwork, coffee conversations, and CFO strategy into a single coherent philosophy.

Anshul is Chief Financial Officer and Board member of Akkodis in India, a global digital engineering company and part of the larger Adecco Group from Switzerland. He's a chartered accountant by training, but his versatility runs deeper than credentials. Over thirteen years in Bangalore, he's evolved from tracking balance sheets to architecting business strategy, proving that modern finance is about foresight, not hindsight.

"The CFO's role has moved from running the scoreboard to running the playbook. We are no longer sitting on the sidelines. We are in the huddle deciding plays."

We recorded this episode in Bangalore, where Anshul has traded his hometown lemon tea for strong South Indian coffee. What emerged was a masterclass in how curiosity, consistency, and strategic thinking compound over time.

The Ritual of Preparation

Anshul's day starts before dawn. The first forty-five minutes are sacred: warm water, stretching, then thirty to forty-five minutes on the tennis court. But here's the twist, he spends equal time stretching afterward. His reasoning? Playing injury-free over the long term matters more than short-term intensity.

It's a metaphor that runs through everything he does. Preparation becomes habit. Habit becomes hobby. Hobby becomes passion. By the time he opens his laptop, the strings are tuned and the music is ready.

Coffee as Strategy Session

Akkodis has a small coffee shop on the ground floor of their office. Anshul and his teammates drop in four out of five times they're on-site. It's become their informal war room, where the smell of beans becomes the smell of possibility.

One memorable conversation there shaped their entire Zoho implementation. From inception to roadmap, from stakeholder alignment to consultant partnerships, the two-and-a-half-year journey began over coffee. Anshul's insight? Technology implementations fail seventy to ninety percent of the time because people aren't aligned from the start.

The lesson stuck: treat everyone like a partner. That happens at a coffee table, not in a boardroom.

Finance as Enabler, Not Gatekeeper

Anshul's view of finance breaks from tradition. If business is the body, finance is the nervous system — sensing, transmitting, enabling. The role has shifted from reporting what happened to predicting what's next. CFOs are now both navigator and compass, making sure the ship moves faster and stays on course.

At Akkodis, this means finance speaks the language of business. Real estate decisions are about collaboration per square foot. Budgeting for hybrid work is about understanding why people need space and designing for connection.

The Predictive Power of AI

When we talked about AI, Anshul was clear-eyed. Automation and analytics are turbochargers for the finance engine, but the key is knowing when to press the accelerator. Push too hard without discipline, and you crash.

AI has made finance more predictive than reactive. The expectation now is that CFOs should know where they're headed before the books close. Anshul's team uses real-time data and forecasting tools to provide the business with dynamic visibility. But technology only works when the people implementing it are aligned — a callback to that Zoho coffee conversation.

Hybrid Work and the Mindset Shift

Anshul sees hybrid work as table stakes, not optional. But he's pragmatic: clarity matters more than flexibility. Organizations succeed with fully remote or fully on-site models, but only when expectations are clearly defined. Hybrid needs rhythm, rituals, and alignment.

The office has transformed from a place where work starts and stops into a platform for connection and creativity. People come for coffee and conversations, collaboration and focused work. The mandate to return? That's fading. The draw to return? That's what matters.

When asked what should never come back from the past, Anshul didn't hesitate: bureaucracy. In a world of startups and constant reinvention, red tape slows decisions and kills momentum. Change is the only constant, and finance teams need to keep pace.

Roger Federer and Thinking Two Steps Ahead

Anshul's favorite tennis player is Roger Federer, and it's not just about elegance on the court. It's about thinking two steps ahead of competitors. That's how he views the CFO role too. Finance needs to anticipate, not just react.

He also admires Federer's business acumen — the investment in On running shoes that helped the brand compete head-to-head with Nike in the US market. It's a reminder that if you don't reinvent yourself constantly, the game shifts out from under you.

Compounding Curiosity

When asked for advice to young finance professionals, Anshul offered something unexpected: learn to speak the language of business, not just balance sheets. Connect with the work. Understand what drives it. And always stay curious.

"Curiosity compounds better than interest rates," he said. One percent better every day beats everything in the long run.

Final Thoughts

Anshul Agarwal doesn't talk in platitudes. He talks in preparation, precision, and point-after-point consistency. For him, finance is about creating value, not just accounting for it. When you align purpose with profit, the numbers start telling a human story.

This episode reminded me that strategy doesn't start in a boardroom. It starts with a warm-up, a cup of coffee, and the courage to think two steps ahead.