The OCFO co-founder joins Noelle Mykolenko to discuss growing an international finance business without losing the relationships and values behind its success.
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, September 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Louw Barnardt, co-founder and CEO of global financial consultancy Outsourced CFO (OCFO), has been featured on Masters in Trust: Building What Matters Most, a podcast produced by Trusted Advisor Associates.
Hosted by Trusted Advisor Associates CEO, Noelle Mykolenko, the podcast examines the role of trust in leadership, client relationships and organisational performance. During the interview, Barnardt shared how OCFO developed from a bootstrapped Cape Town startup into an international finance business while preserving the relationships that supported its growth.
Trusted Advisor Associates is a US-based consultancy and training organisation specialising in trust-based business relationships. The organisation was founded by Charles H. Green, co-author of The Trusted Advisor, an established reference for consultants, advisers and professional-services firms.
Barnardt told Mykolenko that technical expertise and professional qualifications help establish credibility, but long-term trust depends on reliability, personal connection and consistently delivering on commitments.
“Trust is this intangible thing that is such a part of business and life,” said Barnardt. “Credibility matters, but trust is also built by showing up, doing what you said you would do and connecting with people on a human level. If you care about who an entrepreneur is, why they started the business and what they are trying to build, you begin to understand their world.”
Barnardt launched OCFO with two friends and fellow accounting professionals after they identified a gap between the financial expertise growing businesses needed and the support traditionally available to entrepreneurs. The company has since worked with more than 1,500 organisations internationally.
According to Barnardt, one of the central challenges was giving employees enough freedom to make decisions while ensuring that those decisions remained aligned with the organisation’s standards. OCFO addressed this by translating its core values into practical behaviours used in recruitment, client service, feedback and performance discussions.
The framework also helps the company assess problems when an engagement does not meet expectations. Rather than immediately assuming that an employee is responsible, the business considers the quality of the work, the agreed scope, the client’s expectations, communication and whether the assigned team has the appropriate level of experience.
Barnardt shared an example of an incorrectly scoped engagement that ultimately moved to another provider. Although OCFO relinquished the revenue, the client retained its fractional CFO services, demonstrating how transparency and mutual respect can preserve a relationship when an engagement does not succeed.
The conversation also covers the changes founders must make as a business grows. Barnardt is no longer involved in routine client delivery, with departmental heads, team leaders and finance professionals responsible for execution. His role now focuses more heavily on leadership, supporting the executive team and reinforcing the organisation’s values.
The episode presents a practical account of scaling a professional-services business into a global organisation, including the challenges of delegation, cultural consistency, client expectations and maintaining strong relationships as organisational structures become more complex.
Watch the full Masters in Trust Interview on YouTube.
Updates and insights from the company are available on the Outsourced CFO on LinkedIn page.
Louw Barnardt is available for speaking engagements and media interviews on entrepreneurship, scaling businesses, financial leadership and building strong client relationships.
About Outsourced CFO
Outsourced CFO (OCFO) is a global financial consultancy that helps ambitious businesses build world-class finance functions and scale with confidence. Since its founding in South Africa in 2013, OCFO has supported more than 1,500 organisations across 35 countries through CFO advisory, cloud accounting, capital raising and finance talent solutions. With a team of 150 professionals and offices in Cape Town, Sandton, London and New York, OCFO combines deep financial expertise, technology and practical commercial insight to help founders and leadership teams strengthen financial control, improve decision-making and build more valuable, resilient businesses. For more information, visit www.ocfo.com.
TONY SEIFART
JamJar Digital
email us here
From 3 Founders to 120 Pros and the Trust That Made It Possible with Louw Barnardt
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