Company insight
forecasting models that usher in “a truly intelligent finance organisation”. Data, Ahuja says, is playing a key part in all of those. But, she warns, it’s also proving challenging for the CFO. She believes monetisation of data should be a priority, but not in the traditional sense. “For example, when we talk about solutions such as touchless reporting factories, no contact smart close, integrations, distributed controllership, and digital twins for key financial processes – these are all solutions that contribute to decision-making within the traditional finance arena,” she says. “But even more so, these tools are helping functional finance such as commercial, supply chain
It’s a view supported by the 2020
survey, which found half of respondents believed their organisation was falling short when it came to executing technological change management. With such a high proportion of the more than 500 individuals surveyed sharing that opinion, it’s clear digital leadership is increasingly important to the global CFO workforce and their businesses. Concerning, though, is that when asked what they felt their current strongest skills were, technology, data and change management ranked in the bottom half of the top ten. This, however, is likely to change. Soft skills – which sits top currently – slipped to tenth in the list when executives were asked
“In my mind, finance analytics has become the final outcome for all technology-related investments across functions, and I think it’s impacting the CFO’s job greatly in that sense.”
and operational finance, all benefiting greatly by the introduction of technology.” Ahuja suggests the creation of deep learning models and how profitability moves within these areas is absolutely critical. Even so, it’s proving to be “the bane” of technology in finance analytics. “In my mind, finance analytics has become the final outcome for all technology-related investments across functions, and I think it’s impacting the CFO’s job greatly in that sense,” she says.
what areas of development were important. Process optimisation, which includes data and technology, ranked fourth. Governance, modelling and analytics weren’t far behind.
Future-proofing their role “When we talk about the future of finance,” says Ahuja, “one of the key things on the CFO’s mind is reskilling.” She says CFOs of the past would rely on their teams to provide the support they needed and to supply the information required to inform
decision-making. Today, however, that has changed and it’s technology that does it, with those roles now largely obsolete. “Digitisation has taken over all of that. So critical analytics skilling has become imperative to the CFO’s life.” More generally, Ahuja says reskilling the entire workforce and upgrading technological skills has become number one priority for businesses and their CFO. “I think changing the human factor backwards and forwards is going to be key for the CFO, and the CFO has to be a technological person themselves,” she warns. But that has not happened quickly enough for some – Ahuja included. Even so, she argues that CFOs themselves
aren’t directly to blame. It’s partly the result of the very nature of a CFO – the “we know better than the next person” attitude – but also the result of the history of enterprise- wide digital transformation, originally sitting with IT teams. “But now, what has happened is the CFO has realised if they fail to put digitisation in place, they are not set up to do such a great job within the business.” The characterisation of the CFO might be difficult for some to accept, but if Ahuja is right, time will be their enemy. It’s easy to see technologies and digital evolution as the next frontier, and arguably it is. Businesses need to be well placed to transition if they are to profit from that. There is, however, no substitute for experience, instinct and even that ‘hunch’ that all CFOs have from time to time. Data, analytics and technologies can facilitate decision-making – but ultimately people have to make decisions.
Ahuja says that for years, the challenges facing CFO had been reserved for the IT domain. But, if they can rise up to that challenge it will be to the benefit of them – and the profit of their organisation. “The CFO is facing what the CIO was ten years ago. They have to make technological guys out of themselves,” she says. “But if they can find a middle path and determine how technology is going to help them attack complex decision making then,” she adds, “you can make the organisation even more intelligent than what it was”. It is that knowledge that the world of finance must hear, clearly and quickly. ●
As Ahuja explains, the number one priority for businesses and CFOs at the moment is reskilling the workforce and upgrading technological skills.
Finance Director Europe /
www.ns-businesshub.com
www.tcs.com 19
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