CFOs need to create sustainable growth

While cost control remains an important element, the balance between driving effective cost management while also enhancing the focus on business growth and operations management is increasingly within the ambit of what the CFO’s team needs to understand and be on top of.

The CFOs will have to deliver on a wide range of fronts like data analytics and digital transformation; supply chain management; and revenue management, said Raef Lawson, vice president-research and policy and professor-in-residence for Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)

While CFOs have traditionally focused on cost control/management in order to help their organisations grow profitability, they now need to focus on the other element such as driving revenues. End-to-end revenue management is an increasing important part of the CFO’s mandate.

Lawson , who leads IMA’s global thought leadership efforts and oversees IMA’s student and academic relations programmes, said: “Today’s CFO is expected to add value well beyond the traditional roles of cost management, controls and acting as the conscience of the organisation. In the Middle East, the role of the CFO is already being redefined, with the next generation of CFOs in the region expected to come from a finance business partner or controller background. CFOs are expected to work in collaboration, by serving as the integration hub for key business processes, as a catalyst for change including business transformation, and as a consultant or trusted business advisor in helping to create sustainable growth.”

A new report by IMA and The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, ‘The CFO of the Future’ report show that the global pandemic is changing the role of the CFO and Covid-19 is accelerating the shifting of the CFO role. In the Middle East, the role of the CFO is already being redefined, with the next generation of CFOs in the region expected to come from a finance business partner or controller background.

— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com