Reshaping the CFO Role – CFO

Surveys done ahead of and during the pandemic demonstrate the coronavirus disaster may possibly be reshaping the purpose of the CFO, with senior finance executives shifting their aim to crafting technique and building enterprise benefit.

CFO Analysis (element of Argyle Advisory and Analysis Expert services) and Grant Thornton surveyed 631 CFOs and other senior finance executives in February, then followed up with a survey of 174 CFOs and senior finance executives in May perhaps, to gauge the effects of the COVID-19 upheaval.

In addition to the changing aim of CFOs, the surveys disclosed widescale delays for innovation assignments, a renewed appreciation for enterprise technique capabilities, cybersecurity cost will increase, and like for highly developed analytics and artificial intelligence.

Roles and Jobs

The February and May perhaps surveys showed that the purpose of the CFO shifted when the pandemic strike. In the two surveys, the executives ended up requested how significantly of CFOs’ time would be spent in these 4 roles: strategist (crafting company technique) transform agent (building enterprise benefit) producer (standardizing and automating transactional processes) and guardian (standardizing management and compliance processes).

In February, the survey respondents documented that CFOs’ time was divided reasonably similarly throughout the 4 roles. But by May perhaps that balance had shifted in reaction to the COVID-19 disaster: strategist and transform agent roles ended up having much more of CFOs’ time compared with the producer and guardian roles.

Inspite of the evident shift to much more ahead-looking tasks, the coronavirus pressured a large greater part of CFOs to set off or transform their plans for innovation assignments. 8 out of 10 surveyed finance executives had delayed or reshaped innovation assignments in May perhaps. Sixty-two {ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} of the respondents documented that the COVID-19 disaster had delayed their transformational assignments although 19{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} said the disaster had reshaped their assignments and they ended up pursuing a different method. The remaining 19{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} documented that the disaster had accelerated transformation assignments.

Delaying and reshaping innovation assignments does not necessarily mean they are extinguished. Much more than 90{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} of 335 finance professionals polled during a Grant Thornton webinar in June said they prepared to continue to innovate, even during the COVID-19 downturn.

Automation Stays the Training course

State-of-the-art analytics and artificial intelligence ended up favored groups of automation engineering in the two the February and May perhaps surveys.

A greater part of the executives in the May perhaps survey documented that their plans for employing automation technologies had not been delayed by the pandemic. Much more executives slated highly developed analytics for accelerated implementation (29{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}) than they did any other group of engineering. Artificial intelligence was a close 2nd at 23{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}.

The February survey had requested executives when they predicted to implement a record of specified automation technologies. Most respondents (fifty five{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}) had previously executed highly developed analytics. Optical character recognition was the 2nd-most-previously-executed automation engineering, at forty{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}. Artificial intelligence had the highest share of prepared implementations in 12 months (33{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}), followed by robotic approach automation (thirty{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}).

In a December 2019 economic downturn preparedness survey by Grant Thornton, 70{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} of respondents documented plans to raise their electronic investments in innovation/engineering, electronic transformation, and/or cybersecurity, even amid expanding indicators of a slowdown. In the February CFO survey, about 70{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} of the senior finance executives documented they had either executed crucial rising technologies or they would be employing them in two many years.

When requested in May perhaps about how costs would transform about the next year due to the fact of COVID-19, cybersecurity had the highest share of executives projecting will increase (forty four{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}) followed by IT/electronic transformation (forty{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}), instruction and improvement (22{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}), operations (21{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}), and marketing and advertising (19{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}). Not astonishingly, the groups with the most affordable projections for cost will increase ended up journey (4{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}), actual estate (six{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}), recruiting (7{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}), and workforce (7{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}). Ninety {ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} of the executives projected their journey costs would reduce.

Appreciate for Business Approach

Fitting with the locating of CFOs viewing them selves in much more strategic roles during the pandemic, the finance executives surveyed held enterprise technique capabilities in large regard.

They noticed enterprise technique as an significant skillset the two ahead of and right after the onset of the pandemic. Operations administration capabilities ended up nearly as valued as enterprise technique capabilities in the pandemic disaster surroundings. When finance executives ended up requested which significant skill they had leveraged due to the fact of the coronavirus disaster, the most-cited remedy was enterprise technique, selected by 34{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} of the executives, followed by operations administration (29{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}). Info analytics and innovation/entrepreneurship ended up tied as the 3rd-most-cited prime capabilities drawn on during the pandemic, at 10{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}.

The February survey requested a connected question — what ended up the most significant skillsets respondents would like to establish in their finance functionality? Info analytics and enterprise technique ended up the most-cited responses, by 23{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} and 22{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad} of the respondents, respectively, followed by application improvement (17{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}) and purchaser practical experience administration (eleven{ae9868201ea352e02dded42c9f03788806ac4deebecf3e725332939dc9b357ad}).

Other Impacts

There is no doubt that enterprise technique improvement was not the only added duty for CFOs arising from the pandemic-induced economic downturn.

Between the brief-expression priorities and lasting impacts of the pandemic, the executives in the May perhaps survey individually shown:
• reduced capex
• the likely to acquire a lot less-perfectly-capitalized businesses
• reduced hard cash movement impacting personal debt covenants
• resource prioritization in the confront of constrained supply chains and
• prolonged-expression implications of an ever more cellular workforce on office environment space, recruiting, and journey.

Most of those impacts will continue to have a large impact on what CFOs devote their time on in the coming months. Respondents said they ended up viewing CFOs branching out into new spots of organizational management, this kind of as top output and processes, taking care of layoffs and shuttering operations, working with enterprise units to set up numerous production resources, taking care of remote workforces, partnering with the neighborhood, and interacting with buyers.

Inside the conventional scope of finance, new spots of aim for some finance chiefs bundled acquisitions and divestitures, moves to protect hard cash and means, coronavirus fiscal-effect products, investment threat, forecasting and budgeting, payments and hard cash movement administration, threat mitigation, liquidity administration, earnings improvement, and charge reduction. Paycheck Defense Method documentation and assessment also appeared on the record.

Between the new spots of aim in engineering management, finance executives shown shifting all features to paperless, employing do the job-from-residence technologies, and overseeing IT and safety.
And one government shown a-not-unfamiliar CFO purpose:
therapist.

Keith Button is a freelance writer based in Valley Cottage, N.Y.

Business Approach, COVID-19, innovation, Issue 2020-09 CFO, Engineering