The path to the chief financial officer seat is getting wider as the role’s responsibilities transform.
Given the growing accountant shortage, this is a good thing, but it doesn’t mean the journey to helming the finance office is getting any easier.
The day-to-day responsibilities of finance leaders are undergoing a pivotal shift away from more traditional fiduciary and accounting responsibilities toward those augmented by operational and capital allocation talents and expertise, as well as the ability to effectively liaise between departments.
The emergent alignment of end-to-end accounting processes with generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is expanding the ways CFOs can have an impact, allowing finance departments to do more with less and positioning the CFO as a strategic partner and advisor to the management team.
The role of the CFO as a strategic leader responsible for roadmap planning, risk management, innovation and more business-critical initiatives has only become more pronounced as economic uncertainty has businesses increasingly looking inward and finetuning their operations.
When it comes to meeting their evolving obligations, today’s CFO rarely finds themself alone.
Read also: Generative AI Moves Finance Teams From Bean Counter to Business Partner
An emergent generation of future-fit AI tools is ushering in a new era for CFOs, freeing up employees from less rewarding work and augmenting their human-level analytical strengths in ways that can ladder up to key business goals and drive greater process efficacy.
“When you get into the CFO role and start to spend more time with the operational requirements, internal financial requirements, and liquidity management responsibilities — you realize there are so many aspects to the CFO position that aren’t apparent from the outside,” Tim O’Leary, CFO of Priority Technology Holdings, told PYMNTS in May.
And he would know. A CFO transplant, O’Leary spent two decades as a banker before transitioning into the chief finance position in September.
As PYMNTS has been tracking, a rising generation of CFOs is tailoring its spending to meet the new “new normal” of economic uncertainty and ongoing digital adoption by seeking to modernize business processes and reduce operating costs.
That’s because due to devastating bank failures, rising interest rates, lower availability of credit, record inflation and recessionary woes, easy-to-implement digital wins across processes like accounts payable (AP) and procurement can help firms build and scale in today’s environment.
Darrell Walsh, CFO at The Clearing House, explained to PYMNTS in May that his focus has become: How do we automate certain things, make processes better, and where do we get efficiencies and effectiveness in the company?
“Historically, the finance function and the CFO, in particular, was just about reporting results, but now the move forward is more of a strategic advisory role,” Walsh added. “How do we add value to the management team and company in total?”
In a landscape where efficiencies matter and process optimization can further drive competitive differentiation, the expanding CFO role is attracting individuals from diverse backgrounds, experience levels and skill sets outside of traditional accounting. They can uniquely leverage these qualities to improve internal growth engines.
Today’s CFOs can tap modern solutions to accelerate sustainable growth in even the most challenging times by being clear about strategic priorities and business assumptions and socializing them with the rest of management.
“Part of the role of a CFO is to drive that organizational alignment and help business leaders within your organization tie their upstream activities to downstream financial results, so everyone understands how what they are doing impacts the organization in a measurable, definable way,” Nathaniel Katz, CFO at eCommerce software provider Rokt, told PYMNTS in January.
Generative AI tools can help finance teams make real-time decisions and allow for cross-departmental agility between decision-makers by surfacing relevant yet disparate financial information.
However, CFOs must be cautious while embracing new technologies and ensure that any AI strategy aligns with existing business strategies.
CFOs must have a clear line of sight into the organization’s risk profile and understand the potential for risk to negatively impact business strategy and derail the company’s success.
With the right skills, experience and mindset, the stage is set for a rising class of CFOs to become an even more valuable asset to their organizations.
For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More