The CFO role was evolving before the pandemic hit and now, more than ever, the finance chief serves as an essential business partner who helps CEOs and boards navigate uncertainty and steers the organization toward financial stability and operational success. These priorities were reflected in the results of
The era of strictly being a cost-cutting CFO is behind us, even amid economic uncertainty. Instead, modern CFOs today focus on finding innovative ways to improve revenue, which requires insight into financial performance. In the current economic context, most CFOs anticipate a mild recession, and they expect their organization to be able to plan for a downturn and prepare for recovery at the same time. The current level of uncertainty may complicate the mission, but organizational resilience can help to see it through.
Organizational resilience is the key
Organizational resilience is the key to success because the most agile companies will be best positioned to pivot, as economic indicators change and new opportunities emerge. To maximize agility, CFOs access tools that allow them to track revenue, expenses, cash flow and other key financial metrics in real time. The data yields insights which, in turn, CFOs use to achieve greater efficiency and formulate growth strategies.
As the CFO role has evolved and responsibilities have expanded, those finance leaders who have handled the changes successfully have built in organizational resilience by investing in advanced technology to meet new challenges, embracing a mindset that allows teams to take calculated risks — as long as they learn from mistakes, and make a commitment to share data that enables dynamic decision-making.
Here's a closer look at how this approach can help CFOs focus on more than just cost to improve organizational resilience and create greater agility across the business.
Modern technology helps CFOs meet new challenges
CFOs who invest in cutting-edge analytics can gain more insight into their company's financial position, which will allow them to identify opportunities to cut costs and increase profits. CFOs identified those initiatives as their top goals in the latest CFO Signals report. Cloud computing and AI solutions can help CFOs pinpoint where cost reductions and investments will have the most impact, leading to greater productivity and competitiveness.
Cloud-based technology and AI-driven automation can also give CFOs the tools they need to improve financial performance and promote growth, despite economic headwinds. Adaptable, modular systems with APIs that enable "plug and play" functionality can promote agile planning and automate core processes to reduce costs. To maximize agility, CFOs should ensure applications are integrated so that the organization can access a single source of data truth.
Risk tolerance opens new learning opportunities
In the film "Apollo 13," the NASA flight director who is advising a team that is devising solutions to save an imperiled astronaut crew says, "Failure is not an option." In that context, failure wasn't an option. In other scenarios, failure is not only an option, it can also be the source of innovation and learning — and organizational resilience.
Take the April 2023 explosion of the Space X Starship rocket, for example. The system blew up four minutes into the flight, but as experts told
CFOs who support calculated risk-taking like this can help teams succeed by testing new concepts, learning from mistakes and refining their approach. In most cases, failure won't be as spectacular as an exploding rocket, but businesses of any type can cultivate organizational resilience by adopting a higher tolerance for calculated risk-taking that leads to innovation.
Data sharing powers confidence
It's a paradox — uncertainty by definition undermines confidence, but business leaders need to act decisively in order to seize emerging growth opportunities and plan effectively for the future. CFOs are in a unique position to be able to help their organization's leaders gain confidence by sharing data. After all, no one has a more holistic view of the business than the CFO.
Modern CFOs who serve as the CEO's business partner already share information at the top of the org chart. But when CFOs have the tools they need to share relevant, real-time data with business unit leaders, they can empower people across the organization to make more dynamic and informed decisions. Being "in the know" gives leaders the confidence they need to act decisively, at every level.
The CFO role continues to evolve, and one quality which successful CFOs have in common is their ability to increase organizational resilience. Achieving this requires investing in the right technology but, even more than that, it requires a mindset that embraces innovation through constant testing and learning, together with a culture that promotes agile, adaptable leadership at every level. CFOs who help their company achieve that can operate from a position of strength in uncertain times.
