Yudu - Finance Monthly January 2014

American Express

perCFO

visibility of live business information will be key for CFOs to have an overview on what changes are possible and indeed necessary for the company to succeed.

Advocates for Growth As agents for change, CFOs are being increasingly relied upon to help facilitate growth. Many are enabling growth to encourage innovation, for example by suggesting new ways in which to use company assets in order to provide new avenues for growth and development. Taking a leadership role in advocating growth-seeking breakthroughs, whether that is new products, services or distribution channels, is also a way in which many CFOs are helping to enable growth.

Reflecting the evolving role of the CFO, the key abilities that senior finance professionals need to develop are also changing. Important skills that they will need to build upon over the next two years include risk management, strategic thinking and international business acumen.

Global Outlook In order to aid business growth, financial decision makers are looking to overseas markets, with interest in the developed world, and developing markets such as India, China, Brazil and South Africa. In terms of the scope of this international work, many CFOs are expecting to increase sales and distribution activity. As a result, CFOs will be expected to alert management to new markets, which is the greatest contribution the CFO could

make to enabling growth over the next two years. This increasingly global outlook has also led to significant investment in business travel to drive growth, as such many CFOs can expect to increase spend on business travel in order to build customer relationships. Businesses are clearly tapping into the huge potential of overseas markets to drive growth. It will therefore be increasingly important for finance professionals to work with expert partners with a global footprint in order to facilitate growth worldwide.

Cash Flow Kings

Many CFOs will likely spend down some proportion of their cash reserves this year for paying down debt. As such, it is likely that CFOs will make modest spending and investment to support top line growth while improving profitability.

The core role of the CFO therefore remains focused on keeping a steady hand on the tiller to ensure cash reserves are carefully managed whilst fuelling businesses’ appetite for growth. Tools such as expense management systems will be key for CFOs in 2014. Automating business expenses give an overview of company spending and enable cash flow to be easily monitored.

Delivering Value As well as carefully monitoring cash flow in the business, CFOs are also looking at ways to help their customers to keep costs down. As we continue to operate in a ‘value economy’,

extending a business’ competitive edge will depend on improving value for customers and extracting value from the supply chain.

With this in mind, CFOs will have more input than ever in improving their company’s ability to deliver value to customers over the next year. This will make the need for effective financial management tools even more important for CFOs. Keeping a close eye on costs will put CFOs in a stronger position to negotiate the best deals with suppliers and pass those savings onto customers.

As we continue into 2014 it appears that CFOs are exerting more influence and authority at the boardroom table than ever before. Although the CFO has always been a company lynchpin, their growing role in driving business change, managing risk, fuelling company growth and delivering customer value has significantly expanded their remit. With effective financial management tools and flexible global partners, these new responsibilities can be easily managed and the 2014 CFO will be able to focus on making a real difference to company success.

Brendan Walsh is Senior Vice President of American Express Global Corporate Payments Europe and Chairman of American Express Services Europe Ltd.