Our past global research discussed how the commercial CFO had emerged as a strategic partner to the chief executive, often serving as the only leader with full veto power over a major decision. Increasingly, they are playing a similar role across the extended leadership team, as they shift the focus of their counsel from compliance and reporting to strategic planning and performance improvement.
Within the federal government, the story has been more nuanced historically, with some federal CFOs content to operate within their own silo instead of actively collaborating. However, this is changing rapidly, as 96 percent of federal finance leaders (vs. 86 percent commercially) have increased the frequency and scope of their collaboration with C-suite partners outside of finance over the past two years. And 93 percent believe that even when conditions return to normal, leaders across their agency will increasingly look to the CFO for insight and counsel, not just funding.
With this in mind, the 2nd role that federal CFOs should adopt to succeed is that of the strategic advisor, by providing targeted insights and modeling to help other C-suite executives improve the performance of their organizations. Federal CFOs are well-positioned to play this role. They have visibility spanning the entire enterprise and across the full budget lifecycle, access to underlying data and analytics, and a high-level understanding of enterprise risk and operational resilience. By continuing to enhance partnerships with their peers and gaining a deeper understanding of their needs, they can provide actionable insights that drive critical performance improvements.
A couple of ways federal CFOs can further bolster their strategic advisory roles within their agencies’ leadership teams is by playing a more hands-on role in shaping technology agendas and exerting influence across the agency.
