Editor’s note: In today’s A Day in the Life, Suresh Sundararajan (pictured), chief executive officer and co-founder at Mindsprint, shares with FutureCFO audiences how he starts his day with a healthy concoction drink right after waking up, and what he finds deeply rewarding when working with the Finance function.
FutureCFO: What does a typical day look like for you?
Suresh Sundararajan (SS): A typical day starts with a healthy concoction drink right after waking up, followed by an outdoor walk or a jog, or sometimes weight training at home.
I then spend about 25 minutes on breathing exercises, listen to a few talks, and make a quick call to my daughter or son.
Before the workday begins, I skim through emails and catch up on business news headlines. My work usually starts around 9:30 a.m. and is largely driven by meetings, both face-to-face and virtual, with internal teams and external stakeholders. Meetings are structured to be 20, 40, or 60 minutes long, except for business reviews, which tend to run longer.
I make it a point to have scheduled breaks between meetings, and twice a week I block two hours for what I call my ‘thinking zone’, time reserved for deeper focus and reflection.
I work from the office every day; work-from-home doesn’t really work for me.
I usually wrap up my workday around 7 p.m., wind down by listening to a few podcasts, and end the day around 10 p.m. with a short gratitude prayer.
FutureCFO: What excites you the most when you work with the Finance Function?
SS: As someone with a finance background, I’ve always seen the finance function as much more than just numbers. It’s where strategy, control, and insight come together.
What excites me most when working with CFOs is their unique position to lead meaningful change, especially in today’s AI-driven landscape.
CFOs understand the business end-to-end, they own the data, and they’re deeply familiar with risk. This puts them in a prime spot to lead the adoption of Agentic AI—not just within finance, but across the enterprise.
When finance takes the lead, it sets the tone. It shows that intelligent systems aren’t here to replace people, but to elevate how work gets done, to shift the focus from routine tasks to strategic impact.
Suresh Sundararajan, CEO and Co-Founder, Mindsprint
In our Intelligent Enterprise Operations (IEO) practice, finance is one of our largest and most mature focus areas. We’ve gone far beyond transactional support. Our work involves helping finance teams move up the value chain—from processing transactions to delivering decision-grade insights.
We’ve partnered with CFOs to simplify processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and refocus their teams on what really matters.
What sets us apart is not just our tech, but the depth of our finance domain expertise. That’s allowed us to design deployable solutions for core processes like Accounts Payable, forecasting, controllership, and compliance - powered by Agentic AI.
These aren’t generic tools- they reflect years of understanding how finance really works, and where the biggest opportunities for transformation lie.
Ultimately, it's about helping finance teams rewire their DNA for a new era - and that’s something I find deeply rewarding.
FutureCFO: Can you share an experience which was key to your professional growth?
SS: One of the most defining lessons in my journey was the importance of resilience and comfort with ambiguity.
I’ve often found that the most transformative opportunities emerge when the path isn’t clear—when you're asked to lead through change, build something from scratch, or step into unfamiliar territory.
Embracing that uncertainty, staying grounded, and focusing on outcomes rather than perfect conditions has helped me grow in my role over the years.
Growth doesn't wait for ideal circumstances—it rewards those who show up ready, adaptable, and willing to learn.
FutureCFO: Is there anything outside work—such as a travel experience, a book, participation in a sport event or any volunteering experience—that serves as an important inspiration to your work or life?
SS: I gain inspiration from a lot of different sources. There are too many books and people to name, but I personally feel that inspiration can come from the smallest of places or encounters.
I believe learning is lifelong and it happens all the time, that is if we are receptive to learning from things, situations, people and our surroundings.
We are exposed to so much information on any given topic. The challenge is to continuously reflect, deliberate, and form a point of view, transforming the information into knowledge and, eventually, wisdom.
In today’s shrinking attention spans and constant distractions, that journey is becoming increasingly difficult.
I was recently at the launch of AWS’s new Innovation Hub in Singapore - their first in APAC - and it sparked a lot of reflection. Events like these, where you’re exposed to new ideas and fresh perspectives, always leave me with a mix of impatience, excitement, and discomfort.
That discomfort, in particular, is important. It reminded me how privileged I—and the entire team at Mindsprint - are to be in a space that’s evolving at incredible speed.
But with that privilege comes the very real risk of becoming obsolete. Unlike slower-moving industries, we’re operating right at the center of change and disruption.
You can view that as a risk—or as an opportunity. I choose to see it as the latter: a chance to keep learning, to stay sharp, and to use that knowledge to better serve our customers.
For me, that sense of discomfort is actually a trigger for deeper learning. It pushes me to stay curious and continuously explore what’s happening in our space—because in this industry, standing still is not an option.
