Amidst a backdrop of deepening digital disruption, growing political uncertainty, increasing regulatory complexity, and shifting consumer preferences, one thing is certain — chief financial officers are creating a new agenda for growth.
To effectively lead in this new environment, chief financial officers and finance executives must become “chief growth officers”— the point person who not only controls stability, accountability and risk, but also grows profitability, enterprise wide agility, sustainability, and customer trust. This growth-oriented pivot will be valuable, yet difficult. The chief growth officer must redefine the playbook of finance by embracing disruption, spearheading the development of new business models, and building agility into operations.
This will often mean managing two or more different business models under one roof, freeing up resources to invest in growth initiatives, measuring new key performance indicators, and creating new ecosystems and platforms for rapid value creation.
To help current and future chief financial officers acquire these new capabilities, Accenture Strategy collaborated with the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard and Leadership for a Networked World to convene the 2017 CFO of the Future Summit: Fueling the Growth Agenda.