The new high-tech CFO

Owning the transformation agenda

CFOs in High-Tech are the most likely, across industries we surveyed, to believe that Finance should set the agenda for new technologies across the enterprise. Nine out of 10 are exploring disruptive technologies, determining the “big bets” that might benefit the business.

Through new data science technologies, visualization tools and algorithms, CFOs and their teams can now quickly, easily and economically crunch data to provide insights and predictive capabilities. Part of the CFO’s changing role is to use these analytics to improve performance reporting across the C-Suite. This close-to-real-time reporting supports strategic decision making across the enterprise, giving the CFO power and influence beyond anything we’ve seen historically.

Changing mandate, changing talent

Almost nine out of 10 High-Tech CFOs agree that traditional Finance positions in their organization will soon be replaced by more strategically focused roles. Traditional functions such as reconciliation, audit and payment processing will be simplified and automated.

“Pods” will become the norm in Finance organizations, tasked with working across the business to solve complex problems. These cross-functional teams will be made up of finance, data science, visualization and deep business experts who understand the business’s value drivers. Their data-based insights will drive outcomes and actions across the business.

CFO priorities

In this environment, we believe High-Tech CFOs should consider three priorities:

1. Be an Innovator and Disruptor – As high-tech CFOs take on new responsibilities around digital transformation there is the potential, at worst, for tension with the CIO, CTO and other “pure tech” leaders. It is incumbent upon CFOs to harness data and analytics for enterprise-wide transformation.
2. Consider radical moves in the battle for new talent – Recruiting data science and other new skills is not going to get easier. It may be worth thinking of more innovative approaches. High-tech CFOs are wise to be thinking about creating enterprise-wide resource pools, for example. Many are also engaging accelerators, incubators and other collaborations with the broader tech ecosystem to secure new capabilities.
3. Educate employees about your automation strategy and how they fit into it – Over half of sector CFOs say automation is held back because the existing workforce is resistant to change. Allaying fears about automation and highlighting the benefits of it to employees in terms of job enrichment, new skill development and deeper business expertise will be a key imperative in the years ahead.