Leadership KPMG

The CFO’s New Gig


Sponsored by KPMG

Today’s CFO is a change agent - powering the business through advanced analytics.

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With what seems like a steady surge of disruptive technology, it’s only logical that everything else will have to shift along the way. That’s true of the CFO’s role within today’s enterprises.

Amid the changes that are being driven by new technologies, the CFO’s new role is a hybrid function encompassing strategy, finance and analytics—three things that must come together for a CFO to be successful.

What’s driving this? Here are some “knowns”: Robotic process automation is going to replace human beings to perform certain financial functions, such as manual entry for ledger and system reconciliation. As a result, one big issue CFOs will need to tackle is a potentially sizable labor reduction—which comes with the additional tasks of reorganizing their department, reallocating resources to new tasks and relocating some, recruiting new talent, and basically maximizing the company’s investment in people.

That’s a heavy load. But as you can see, the CFO’s new role is clearly much more than a dismal staff-reduction exercise; it’s a role change that presents new possibilities and opportunities. Are you up to it?

There are a number of abilities that are going to be especially critical to this new CFO role as we add AI and automation to the team:

  • Qualities that machines do not have—such as creativity, emotional intelligence and more intuitive, freestyle right-brain thinking
  • The ability to lead a change in organizational structure that will evolve from the traditional pyramid structure into a more agile team aligned to their updated functions
  • An understanding of new levels of collaboration within the CXO suite to include the CSO, COO and CTO—playing a bigger role in business planning and strategic capital investments

It’s a powerful combination of traditional financial skills sets, new techniques and “change agent” qualities that will further solidify and enhance the CFO’s value to the organization.

The weight of this inevitable change may feel a bit overwhelming at first. Well, complex challenges call for sophisticated solutions. Today, a seemingly unlimited access to data is changing the game. This is where AI, big data and machine learning will come to the rescue.

For example, KPMG and alliance partner Microsoft have developed numerous acclaimed business innovations through our joint Global Digital Solution Hub, which is highly focused on moving financial operations to the next level of digital transformation using cloud technology. Together we're helping our clients grow revenue; optimize resource allocation and use, and align the back office to strengthen business engagement, interaction, and operational velocity.

Solutions like these are moving our clients forward in this digital world and enabling them to achieve better business outcomes: They are gaining new insights; making smarter decisions faster; adapting more rapidly to change; and managing risk, compliance and security.

So as a CFO or member of a finance organization, what do you need to do to ensure you won’t be left behind amid all this change?

First, get your arms around the vast amount of data you will need to need to collect and analyze. It doesn’t help that most finance organization infrastructures are decades old and can’t support the kind of analytics we’re talking about today. CFOs must start building in a culture of data, address their infrastructure challenges leveraging the cloud, and move to a platform that will enable automation—setting the stage for their success.

Second, CFOs need to create an environment that is compelling to colleagues—one where people feel challenged, valued, and have the resources they need to perform their new functions.

And the third action is for CFOs to truly grasp just how quickly these changes are coming around. It used to take about 10 years for a technology refresh to occur. Now the cycles are daily, with refreshes happening every week, every month. So it’s not only the direction that CFOs take their organizations, but also the speed that’s critical.

Did I mention that CFOs really don’t have a choice in this role evolution that is underway? It is worth repeating.

From my conversations with CFOs and clients, organizations today are well aware of the disruption; they see adapting as a must-do priority. But we’re talking about numerous moving parts here—new technologies, organizational changes, business processes. They’re all codependent; you can’t do one without the other. So clearly, the foundational steps are significant, and the market will demand them not in years but in months.

The upshot is that exciting shifts are taking place in the CFO’s role. It’s a tremendous opportunity for these executives to make a big difference in their finance group and the larger enterprise. And play the vital change-agent role, building understanding of the shift and generating enthusiasm and positivity about embarking on this journey.

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