How CFOs can navigate disruption and drive innovation and growth

According to EY’s CFO Flash Survey, Financial Services CFOs are faced with three main priorities.

In brief:

• EY conducted a survey to capture the views of CFOs in the Belgian Financial Services sector on emerging trends regarding Finance of the Future.
• The results show an increased focus on data analytics and innovation, workforce and culture, and sustainable finance. 

The increasing scale and pace of disruption, the prolonged market instability and rising regulatory requirements are heavily impacting the CFOs’ agenda.

This raises a question on which role Finance plays in this endeavor: is it pure reporting on achievements and pursuing compliance or taking an advising and strategic role? The answer is definitely both. Traditionally stable, the Finance function is now at a crossroads: continue operating as it always has, or choose the direction of innovation, agility and renewed mindset and skills.
 

Accelerate on data analytics and automation

The CFO as the guardian of figures, is in the front line to deal with the regulatory agenda. At the same time, shareholders and business stakeholders are requesting more insights, which CFOs can only deliver if they are well connected to the business and able to analyze the data. It is no longer enough to collect information and report on it. The data needs to tell a compelling story. “What if” is a question CFOs must be able to answer in real-time. Therefore it is not surprising that 69% of the Belgian CFOs in Financial Services are planning to invest in advanced data analytics and dashboarding solutions over the coming three years to address this need.

In addition, process automation and optimization are critical levers to allow finance teams to focus on strategic tasks and analysis to drive the growth and innovation agenda in Financial Services. Hence, process standardization and a coordinated data strategy are key prerequisites.

90% of the Belgian CFOs in the Financial Services sector are convinced that installing a trusted data source is foundational to support management and the business in better decision making. However, data quality and availability remain critical inhibitors in this journey.

Implement an innovative and inclusive culture in combination with a multi-skilled workforce

While traditional technical accounting and controlling skills have been sufficient in the past, this will no longer be the case in the future. CFOs must act now to anticipate the change by upskilling, reskilling, and recruiting talent but also supporting in shaping a new mindset. Indeed, according to EY’s CFO Flash Survey “Talent & skills” is ranking as the third most important inhibitor for CFOs to achieve their priorities.

Putting humans at the center is the key to success. This means that the Finance function has to become more attractive to a wider variety of profiles, which results in an urgent need to reimagine the employee experience.

Finance leaders are therefore required to address three key questions:

• What are the must-have capabilities and how can we develop or attract them?
• How will we evolve to foster collaboration, agility and integrate innovation?
• How do we manage talent and what is the right mix of resourcing strategies to achieve talent liquidity? (i.e. the ability to access talent and deploy it flexibly around the organization as business needs dictate)

Conclusion

The world is changing and so is the role of the CFO. Beyond number crunching and reporting on past financial performance, there is now more than ever the necessity to act as a strategic advisor. This is how CFOs will be able to pave the way toward business growth and innovation, while also being the agent of change to make Sustainable Finance a reality.

Rising to the challenge will not be easy. The road ahead is long, with many hurdles and changes in direction along the way. To navigate this uncertainty, it definitely helps to have a clear plan and it seems like the CFO is more than ever central in drawing it.