TLC on Maintaining Stability in an Evolving Industry
A survey by Grant Thornton has specifically shone a spotlight on how the role of CFO has evolved over the past few years and what this means for business in the future.
The modern enterprise of the future will require a hybrid CFO, revealed our survey, 2018 CFO Insights on New Technologies. The CFO’s role continues to expand. So, future CFOs will need to understand both regulatory and financial complexities, as well as technology, including cloud-enabled ERP and data analytics. How can CFOs acquire this hybrid expertise, from financial, regulatory expertise and operations, to technology, strategy and data analytics?
This shift in the CFO’s role is primarily caused by the advent of the digital transformation in the enterprise, which is key to competitive differentiation. The journey has started and is ongoing for the majority of companies, across all industries. We define digital transformation as the current state that leverages cutting edge technologies to radically transform and disrupt traditional business models and processes, value propositions, interactions with value chain participants and customer relationships. (Grant Thornton)
“So far, investment strategies for digital transformation have been influenced by the desire to improve operational performance and reduce costs. Future investment strategies will zoom in on more strategic opportunities, such as improving customer experience, competitive differentiation, or new products/innovation,” said Srikant Sastry, Grant Thornton’s national managing principal for Advisory. “And this is the stage that will feature more and more opportunities for CFOs to contribute to overall firm strategy.”
John Ambrose, TLC’s EVP of Professional Services, sees this trend accelerating.
“In fact, we all know intuitively change has always been a constant. It is just recently with the global pandemic that the pace of change impacting all types of organizations has become more dramatic. The ability for leaders to access and use information to make complex business decisions is critical regardless of size or industry if the goal is to prosper rather than simply survive.”