Playing A Pivotal Role As An Orchestrator, Think Tank And Advisor

Maximizing Long-Term Corporate Growth And Shareholder Value

More and more companies have geared themselves up for growth post-recession, CEOs are more eager than ever to hire CFOs who are not only “strategic”, but “strategic business partners”.  A change in the attitude about the value of the CFO has been a long time coming.  Whether an organization faces an economic boom or protracted downturn, the role of a CFO has been  morphing. CFOs are overturning dated perception of finance as “business prevention units” and repositioning the function as an enabling partner to the business.

As a strategy partner, CFO needs to marshal information and not get overwhelmed by it. Since, the function of a CFO now includes enhancing shareholders value and facilitate business acquisitions/capital spending, partnering with other functions within the organization has become like a daily capsule for CFOs. Consideration needs to be given to innovative methodology models and IT solutions that transform business processes.

As changing business dynamics and customer-centric services drive the need for real time and integrated data, CFOs are recognizing the importance of upgrading their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to support such enhanced reporting and analytics for informed business decisions.

"A change in the attitude about the value of the CFO has been a long time coming"

Despite a lot of effort, risk is not under control, audits tend to be reactive only, and organizations lack the agility to respond to changing regulations.  The vision of true enterprise risk management creates a consistent, timely and uniform view of risk and controls as well as agility in cross-function response to regulatory changes.  CFO is expected to anticipate and mitigate critical risks by equipping skilled talent with leading-edge technology and a unified risk management approach to deliver outcomes that are aligned with the executive agenda.

As a key strategic advisor to the business, CFO needs to adopt a pragmatic and proactive
approach to partner with business.  With Business Intelligence, CFO can not only support the business in identifying opportunities for growth, but also control potential leakages in the system, while keeping processes efficient and agile enough to meet business objectives. 

CFOs in India are battling economic as well as industry related concerns, apart from facing individual organizational challenges.  Despite the uncertainty in their internal and external environment, CFOs are optimistic about future growth.  The turmoil in the global and domestic economy, however, has made CFOs take an inward focus despite the fact that they would prefer to play a more outward looking and strategic role.

To meet these challenges, CFOs are required to play a pivotal role as an orchestrator, act as think tanks, work as strategic business partners and advisors to the organization.