5 Forces of Change Influencing the Modern CFO
For any growing business to be successful the CFO must serve as the right hand of the CEO. CFOs are the steward of the greatest amount of, and most critical, data for strategic planning. CFOs serve as the frontline of decision making as businesses respond to an ever-changing digital landscape and face challenges to their current processes and routines. Technology is critical to assist CFOs in strategic decision making to keep their organizations on track and sustain growth. Below are five forces of change confronting modern CFOs. Strategic minded CFOs should embrace technology as a tool to navigate these changes.
Increased expectations of CFO role
CFOs are no longer expected to be just the “numbers guy”, their priorities are no longer singularly focused on the monthly close. As CFOs take on tasks more associated with business operations, customer needs, and reporting to stakeholders they need data on demand, accurate reporting, and tools to showcase that data.
Rapid change driving decision making
The digital world is a rapidly evolving landscape. The world of technological evolution can either serve as a powerful tool for organizations or a critical obstacle to overcome. Technology allows and necessitates data at your fingertips. CFOs must respond to rapid innovation with rapid reaction. A strategic CFO would embrace data and innovation to catapult their organization into the digital age, getting ahead of technological deficits to outperform competitors and serve customer needs.
Control and compliance
Financial crises over the last decade have resulted in greater regulatory compliance. CFOs must continually educate themselves on new regulations to keep their organization compliant. It isn’t enough for CFOs to just focus on profit anymore. Businesses must serve customers within regulatory controls. In the face of changing and growing regulations CFOs can utilize the power of technology to stay ahead of the game and keep their organization on the right track.
The power of data
CFOs have always been the manager of the data warehouse. Digital solutions and technology can allow CFOs to strategize via insights gained from rapidly changing data at the click of a button. Technology is the best tool for CFOs to translate data for quick and productive decision making.
Driving Results
A CFOs goal is to drive profit and sustainability. Due to economic crises CFOs need to be highly innovative to meet that goal. If outdated and inefficient processes keep your CFO from looking outside the box they don’t have the ability to respond effectively to challenges. Technology can provide a freedom from repetitive tasks to refocus time and energy on planning and crisis management.
The strategic minded, modern CFO should embrace technology to address the changes and challenges listed above. By utilizing automation, data on the cloud, and data visibility through dashboards the modern CFO can streamline their processes, prioritize their efforts, and refocus on strategic planning for sustainability and growth.
MicroAccounting has the technology to assist the modern CFO in addressing these challenges. To learn more about our solutions give us a call at 855-876-3773 or email us at [email protected].
