Chief financial officers (CFOs) have become more influential over the last three years, and now have the potential to drive change across the whole organisation rather than just the financial function.
This is one of the findings from research co-sponsored by Oracle and Accenture co-sponsored a global research study with Longitude Research and have published their findings in the report The CFO as Catalysts for Change.
Longitude Research surveyed 930 CFOs from organisations around the world of varying sizes and industries, and conducted a series of in-depth, one-to-one interviews with CFOs from leading organisations based in every major geographic region.
The study found that, while the overall level of the CFOs’ strategic influence has increased over the last three years (71% of respondents), only a minority play a leading role in strategy formulation (34% of respondents) or strategy execution (24% of respondents), and some obstacles still prevent CFOs from reaching their strategic potential.
The CFO role is becoming more strategic and influential: The study revealed that CFOs’ overall level of strategic influence has increased over the past three years (71% of respondents), with 65% of respondents citing an increase in responsibility over setting and determining strategy, and 47% indicate that their role in business transformation efforts increased.
A variety of challenges are hindering CFOs’ ability to reach their strategic potential: Although the CFO role’s strategic influence has increased, only one third (34%) of those surveyed play a leading role in strategy formulation and an even smaller proportion play a leading role in strategy execution (24% of respondents). The challenging economic environment was identified as the biggest barrier (37% of respondents), followed by a shortage of time (35% of respondents) and the lack of integration between the finance function and other parts of the business (31% of respondents).
Some CFOs worry that further cost cutting could endanger growth: While the top priorities for CFOs during the past three years have been profitability, cost management, cash flow and working capital, CFOs recognise that cost levers may become less effective in the future.
CFOs recognise that technology is a critical tool to help them fulfil their role: CFOs ranked technology knowledge second only to industry knowledge when asked where they could improve their skills and capabilities to execute on their cost and growth agendas. Eighty-four% of CFOs responding also noted that cooperation with their CIOs increased during the past three years, another indicator that technology is a key imperative for the finance suite.
CFOs place increased importance on disruptive technologies as growth enablers: The findings from the joint study underscored the increased importance CFOs place on becoming more involved in understanding and leveraging disruptive technologies, such as big data, cloud computing, mobile and social media as growth enablers. Seventy-nine% of respondents viewed access to information as a key driver of organisational agility, while 57% of respondents viewed investments in big data and analytics as a key source of competitive advantage.
CFOs see a need to shift away from IT maintenance and integration issues and focus on technology as an innovation enabler: When asked about which aspects of their company’s technology causes them the greatest concern, survey respondents pointed to the cost of maintenance, the cost of integration and the lack of integration between systems as their top three concerns, followed by data quality and integration. According to the study, this continued focus on passive IT concerns underscores the need for CFOs to shift their focus toward more technology-led innovation and growth projects to help them realise their strategic, operational and professional objectives.
“The CFO has always played a critical role in successful businesses, but what we have seen over the last few years is that the role has expanded beyond traditional finance disciplines to increasingly include a broader business strategy and transformation initiatives,” says John O’Rourke, VP of product marketing at Oracle. “As this study shows, CFOs realise that while their role has evolved, there is still scope to expand their influence within the business and further utilise their unique skill set. Technology can play an important part in helping CFOs realise this potential and we hope the insights delivered in this report can help facilitate that process.”
“As CFOs see their zone of influence and responsibility expand, can also be under increasing pressure to fuel their corporate growth engines, as was reconfirmed in this study,” says Donniel Schulman, MD: Finance & Enterprise Performance at Accenture.
“As the CFO agenda broadens, finance officers are leveraging back office processes, controls and analytics to provide insight and priorities for transformation. This can allow them to successfully step up and fulfil their role as agents of change.”
This is one of the findings from research co-sponsored by Oracle and Accenture co-sponsored a global research study with Longitude Research and have published their findings in the report The CFO as Catalysts for Change.
Longitude Research surveyed 930 CFOs from organisations around the world of varying sizes and industries, and conducted a series of in-depth, one-to-one interviews with CFOs from leading organisations based in every major geographic region.
The study found that, while the overall level of the CFOs’ strategic influence has increased over the last three years (71% of respondents), only a minority play a leading role in strategy formulation (34% of respondents) or strategy execution (24% of respondents), and some obstacles still prevent CFOs from reaching their strategic potential.
The CFO role is becoming more strategic and influential: The study revealed that CFOs’ overall level of strategic influence has increased over the past three years (71% of respondents), with 65% of respondents citing an increase in responsibility over setting and determining strategy, and 47% indicate that their role in business transformation efforts increased.
A variety of challenges are hindering CFOs’ ability to reach their strategic potential: Although the CFO role’s strategic influence has increased, only one third (34%) of those surveyed play a leading role in strategy formulation and an even smaller proportion play a leading role in strategy execution (24% of respondents). The challenging economic environment was identified as the biggest barrier (37% of respondents), followed by a shortage of time (35% of respondents) and the lack of integration between the finance function and other parts of the business (31% of respondents).
Some CFOs worry that further cost cutting could endanger growth: While the top priorities for CFOs during the past three years have been profitability, cost management, cash flow and working capital, CFOs recognise that cost levers may become less effective in the future.
CFOs recognise that technology is a critical tool to help them fulfil their role: CFOs ranked technology knowledge second only to industry knowledge when asked where they could improve their skills and capabilities to execute on their cost and growth agendas. Eighty-four% of CFOs responding also noted that cooperation with their CIOs increased during the past three years, another indicator that technology is a key imperative for the finance suite.
CFOs place increased importance on disruptive technologies as growth enablers: The findings from the joint study underscored the increased importance CFOs place on becoming more involved in understanding and leveraging disruptive technologies, such as big data, cloud computing, mobile and social media as growth enablers. Seventy-nine% of respondents viewed access to information as a key driver of organisational agility, while 57% of respondents viewed investments in big data and analytics as a key source of competitive advantage.
CFOs see a need to shift away from IT maintenance and integration issues and focus on technology as an innovation enabler: When asked about which aspects of their company’s technology causes them the greatest concern, survey respondents pointed to the cost of maintenance, the cost of integration and the lack of integration between systems as their top three concerns, followed by data quality and integration. According to the study, this continued focus on passive IT concerns underscores the need for CFOs to shift their focus toward more technology-led innovation and growth projects to help them realise their strategic, operational and professional objectives.
“The CFO has always played a critical role in successful businesses, but what we have seen over the last few years is that the role has expanded beyond traditional finance disciplines to increasingly include a broader business strategy and transformation initiatives,” says John O’Rourke, VP of product marketing at Oracle. “As this study shows, CFOs realise that while their role has evolved, there is still scope to expand their influence within the business and further utilise their unique skill set. Technology can play an important part in helping CFOs realise this potential and we hope the insights delivered in this report can help facilitate that process.”
“As CFOs see their zone of influence and responsibility expand, can also be under increasing pressure to fuel their corporate growth engines, as was reconfirmed in this study,” says Donniel Schulman, MD: Finance & Enterprise Performance at Accenture.
“As the CFO agenda broadens, finance officers are leveraging back office processes, controls and analytics to provide insight and priorities for transformation. This can allow them to successfully step up and fulfil their role as agents of change.”