Surveys done ahead of and through the pandemic present the coronavirus crisis may well be reshaping the function of the CFO, with senior finance executives shifting their emphasis to crafting method and making enterprise worth.
CFO Investigate (component of Argyle Advisory and Investigate Products and services) and Grant Thornton surveyed 631 CFOs and other senior finance executives in February, then adopted up with a survey of 174 CFOs and senior finance executives in May possibly, to gauge the outcomes of the COVID-19 upheaval.
Other than the modifying emphasis of CFOs, the surveys uncovered widescale delays for innovation projects, a renewed appreciation for enterprise method competencies, cybersecurity price raises, and like for superior analytics and synthetic intelligence.
Roles and Responsibilities
The February and May possibly surveys showed that the function of the CFO shifted when the pandemic strike. In both surveys, the executives had been asked how considerably of CFOs’ time would be expended in these 4 roles: strategist (crafting corporate method) improve agent (making enterprise worth) producer (standardizing and automating transactional procedures) and guardian (standardizing manage and compliance procedures).
In February, the survey respondents noted that CFOs’ time was divided somewhat similarly across the 4 roles. But by May possibly that balance had shifted in reaction to the COVID-19 crisis: strategist and improve agent roles had been taking more of CFOs’ time as opposed with the producer and guardian roles.
Irrespective of the evident shift to more forward-looking jobs, the coronavirus pressured a large vast majority of CFOs to put off or improve their plans for innovation projects. 8 out of ten surveyed finance executives had delayed or reshaped innovation projects in May possibly. Sixty-two per cent of the respondents noted that the COVID-19 crisis had delayed their transformational projects although 19{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} said the crisis had reshaped their projects and they had been pursuing a unique solution. The remaining 19{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} noted that the crisis had accelerated transformation projects.
Delaying and reshaping innovation projects doesn’t signify they are extinguished. Extra than ninety{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} of 335 finance professionals polled through a Grant Thornton webinar in June said they planned to keep on to innovate, even through the COVID-19 downturn.
Automation Stays the System
State-of-the-art analytics and synthetic intelligence had been favored categories of automation technological know-how in both the February and May possibly surveys.
A vast majority of the executives in the May possibly survey noted that their plans for implementing automation systems had not been delayed by the pandemic. Extra executives slated superior analytics for accelerated implementation (29{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}) than they did any other class of technological know-how. Synthetic intelligence was a shut next at 23{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}.
The February survey had asked executives when they expected to implement a list of specified automation systems. Most respondents (fifty five{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}) had already applied superior analytics. Optical character recognition was the next-most-already-applied automation technological know-how, at 40{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}. Synthetic intelligence had the best proportion of planned implementations in just 12 months (33{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}), adopted by robotic process automation (30{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}).
In a December 2019 economic downturn preparedness survey by Grant Thornton, 70{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} of respondents noted plans to enhance their electronic investments in innovation/technological know-how, electronic transformation, and/or cybersecurity, even amid growing signs of a slowdown. In the February CFO survey, about 70{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} of the senior finance executives noted they had either applied crucial emerging systems or they would be implementing them in just two several years.
When asked in May possibly about how costs would improve about the upcoming yr mainly because of COVID-19, cybersecurity had the best proportion of executives projecting raises (forty four{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}) adopted by IT/electronic transformation (40{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}), coaching and growth (22{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}), functions (21{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}), and internet marketing (19{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}). Not astonishingly, the categories with the most affordable projections for price raises had been travel (four{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}), real estate (6{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}), recruiting (7{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}), and workforce (7{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}). Ninety per cent of the executives projected their travel costs would lower.
Like for Organization Tactic
Fitting with the getting of CFOs seeing by themselves in more strategic roles through the pandemic, the finance executives surveyed held enterprise method competencies in large regard.
They observed enterprise method as an crucial skillset both ahead of and soon after the onset of the pandemic. Operations administration competencies had been nearly as valued as enterprise method competencies in the pandemic crisis setting. When finance executives had been asked which crucial talent they had leveraged mainly because of the coronavirus crisis, the most-cited answer was enterprise method, picked out by 34{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} of the executives, adopted by functions administration (29{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}). Info analytics and innovation/entrepreneurship had been tied as the 3rd-most-cited best competencies drawn on through the pandemic, at ten{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}.
The February survey asked a relevant issue — what had been the most crucial skillsets respondents would like to produce in just their finance perform? Info analytics and enterprise method had been the most-cited responses, by 23{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} and 22{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627} of the respondents, respectively, adopted by application growth (17{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}) and customer expertise administration (11{79e59ee6e2f5cf570628ed7ac4055bef3419265de010b59461d891d43fac5627}).
Other Impacts
There is no doubt that enterprise method growth was not the only additional accountability for CFOs arising from the pandemic-induced economic downturn.
Amongst the small-expression priorities and lasting impacts of the pandemic, the executives in the May possibly survey separately mentioned:
• lessened capex
• the probable to acquire a lot less-well-capitalized companies
• lessened hard cash movement impacting debt covenants
• useful resource prioritization in the confront of constrained source chains and
• prolonged-expression implications of an ever more cell workforce on office house, recruiting, and travel.
Most of those people impacts will keep on to have a large affect on what CFOs spend their time on in the coming months. Respondents said they had been seeing CFOs branching out into new areas of organizational management, this sort of as main generation and procedures, taking care of layoffs and shuttering functions, functioning with enterprise models to build many producing resources, taking care of distant workforces, partnering with the community, and interacting with investors.
In just the regular scope of finance, new areas of emphasis for some finance chiefs provided acquisitions and divestitures, moves to maintain hard cash and methods, coronavirus fiscal-influence models, expense threat, forecasting and budgeting, payments and hard cash movement administration, threat mitigation, liquidity administration, earnings growth, and charge reduction. Paycheck Protection Plan documentation and analysis also appeared on the list.
Amongst the new areas of emphasis in just technological know-how management, finance executives mentioned going all features to paperless, implementing get the job done-from-property systems, and overseeing IT and security.
And a single government mentioned a-not-unfamiliar CFO function:
therapist.
Keith Button is a freelance writer based in Valley Cottage, N.Y.
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