Modern Day CFOs are changing the Business Environment with This New Approach
In today’s technology and data driven world, more and more companies are making decisions based on the analysis of mountains of data. The reason is simple – They can see real top-line revenue and bottom-line profits coming out of Data Analytics and Data Analytics is transforming businesses in a truly revolutionizing way.
It is nothing new for the CFOs to take a data-driven approach to make decisions within their department. They have always been dependent on data to allocate and justify expenditures, and their usage. They also tend to have a history of setting strategy alongside their chief executive, according to an analysis of S&P 500 companies by recruiter Korn/Ferry International. Due to these dynamics, many of the most successful CFOs are heavily involved in business operations.
Thus, when Complex Data Sets and Data Analytics are becoming such an integral part of the business world, the chief of finances appears to be the best placed professional in any company to undertake the role of a leader and usher in an era of data-derived decision making in the organization.
With the latest data analytics capabilities, CFOs are able to do their core workload more efficiently and they are able to eliminate the gaps between strategy and operations. This necessitates the CFO to take a more centralized role in the organization. Not only are the modern CFOs responsible for finances, but now they have a more cross-functional role of engaging with sales, marketing, and operations teams to get better results.
In order to empower the use of data in business decisions, modern CFOs need to develop a new approach in Data Analytics which we call Enterprise Intelligence. Enterprise Intelligence is a business solution that brings together internal and external data, technology and human assets to grow top-line revenue and bottom-line profits, and to create data driven businesses of 21st century. The proven business results of this solution are:
- Single source of truth that delivers clean data and business KPI’s
- Holistic view of the business that reflects opportunities and dependencies
- Higher confidence in strategic and tactical decisions
- Proactive business management capabilities
- Improved business efficiency, product delivery and cost management
Understanding a company’s operations used to take a longer time. CFOs in S&P who outperformed their industry peers spent a little over nine years in the position, on average, compared with an average of 5.6 years at the 1,000 companies Korn/Ferry tracks. With the latest data analytics capabilities, the modern CFO’s are able to understand market and business dynamics much faster than their peers.
“The price of entry is still the core responsibility of the CFO,” says Bryan Proctor, head of Korn/Ferry’s financial-officer practice, referring to financial skills. “Those that are exceptional are the ones able to transcend and tell a compelling story to inspire and captivate the minds and hearts of employees and investors.”