
COVID-19: How CFOs can thrive in a post-crisis world
July 14, 2020
July 14, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated severe disruption—and finance is no exception. CFOs have suddenly found their organizations in a firefighting mode: preserving cash, assessing risks and trying to rapidly redo all financial plans and forecasts for the month, quarter and year. The crisis should serve as a catalyst to reinvent the operating model of the finance organization. Trends, that have been sitting in an incubation mode, have emerged as real working models out of necessity—and they are here to stay. These trends include massive workforce virtualization, technology enablement and forward-looking, scenario-based services.
Today, CFOs face three major challenges:
Even as the COVID-19 crisis settles, CFOs need to prepare their finance operating model to meet future volatility.
Today’s unpredictable climate calls for an “anytime, anywhere” finance function, value optimization capabilities and a finance command center. Let’s take a look at what this involves:
An anytime, anywhere finance function uses an intelligent finance operating model to tap into the power of functional technologies, data, artificial intelligence (AI) and talent to standardize work routines and bring actionable insights.
Under an optimized valuation model, finance teams meet in real-time to assess business challenges or uncover hidden value. The agile model uses data and analytics to enable finance to make high-impact recommendations to the business.
A finance command center brings together finance’s (and others’) best minds in a virtual environment. Together, they can triage and orchestrate changes to maintain operational resilience, monitor company performance and help to preserve cash flow.
By employing intelligent operations, organizations can be more resilient. Employees are able to work efficiently, effectively and flexibly—collaborating remotely and accessing essential data using virtual tools.
What does intelligent finance look like?An intelligent finance operating model helps the finance function transition from the transactional to the strategic. It does this by making the most of human and machine partnerships and using machine learning to strengthen forecasting and increase data accuracy. And by forging stronger business partnerships and sourcing the best capabilities. An intelligent finance operating model also draws on real-time, diverse data that helps the finance team to gain more timely insights and accelerate decision-making.
An intelligent finance operating model helps the finance function transition from the transactional to the strategic.
Radical change and uncertainty call for a clear-eyed, well-crafted response. With the right talent, preparation and insights, CFOs can successfully navigate their company through a crisis—and emerge stronger. The CFOs who recognize there is no “getting back to normal” and have already put anytime, anywhere and value optimization capabilities in place can better manage turbulent times. Setting up a finance command center is an important step to emerge from uncertainty with increased revenue, expanded margins, a stronger balance sheet and greater confidence.