How CFOs can turn any decision dilemma into growth

As the speed of business increases, so does complexity. Yesterday’s organization isn’t built for the pace of change today, and leaders know it.

Take, for example, our CxO Pulse survey of 3,200 C-suite executives—held from December 2021 to January 2022. It found that 90% of C-suite executives surveyed believe their organization is undergoing an accelerated digital transformation. And those that are successful at it are using technology, data and artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the enterprise. They’re optimizing operations and fueling growth.

But who is often driving these sweeping reinventions? The CFO.

Total enterprise reinvention: the path to greater value

Effective enterprise reinvention requires making decisions on interconnected topics and issues in parallel and at speed. This complexity can unlock greater value for stakeholders. But it also can create greater risk. It puts CFOs under more pressure than ever before to make the right call.

68% of CFO Decision-Making Survey respondents say their organizations are focused on three or more transformation initiatives in parallel.

CFOs today have a unique vantage point. Their responsibility for financial discipline, coupled with modern analytics, gives them cross-enterprise visibility. It allows them to connect the dots in ways their C-suite partners can’t. As a result, CFOs now hold much more decision-making power than previous generations did.

They also face an extraordinary number of decisions to make on compressed timelines. Each one carries cascading consequences in our constantly shifting world.

This puts CFOs at the center of a “paradox of choice” challenge. The volume of options and their interconnected nature often hinders more than it helps. It slows decisions down rather than accelerating them. The challenge to effective leadership is extraordinary.

67% of surveyed CFOs feel paralyzed at times by the number of decisions and volume of choices they need to make.

This new paper explores how CFOs can execute better decisions, realize organizational and professional success and achieve a new performance frontier in an era of continuous transformation and Total Enterprise Reinvention.

Our CFO Success Paradigm Survey confirms, and our client work supports, that the combination and alignment of three variables—CFO leadership style, the company’s strategic imperative and its culture—determine how successful CFOs can execute their decisions and realize organizational and personal success.

Cracking the code to better decision-making and organizational success starts with understanding your success paradigm. When properly calibrated, these three variables work together like tumblers in a locking mechanism to help CFOs take the right actions, at the right time and achieve their goals.

Of the three variables that dictate CFOs’ success, leadership style wields the greatest influence. It is a stronger predictor of organizational success than a company’s strategic imperative and culture. Our research reveals four leadership styles that determine how CFOs execute change, take action and gain buy-in.

• Financial Engineers are analytical
• Problem Solvers are tactical
• Collaboration Creators are inspiring
• Change Agents are strategic