The following is a guest post from Dado Alonso, an accomplished CFO, NED and seasoned speaker with over 25 years of experience. Opinions are the author’s own.
In today's fast-paced and volatile business landscape, the role of the CFO has undergone significant transformations. CFOs are no longer limited to financial reporting and compliance tasks; CFOs have emerged as strategic partners, actively driving organizational growth and sustainability.
With the increasing uncertainty and complexity, it has become crucial for CFOs to cultivate resilience as a guiding principle. Resilience means adapting to challenges, recognizing opportunities where others see only obstacles, prioritizing results and making decisions one step at a time while being pragmatic. In a reality filled with numerous courses of action and interdependencies, the actions we take in the present truly matter.
CFOs need to stay focused and deliver consistently, even in a changing environment, and become resilient — not just accepting change but also driving and creating it. This new context presents us with an opportunity to make a positive impact and shape the future.
![Dado Alonso](/imgproxy/CPhxRK56uhw8tQB81_Tbb2b7P812GZen04bQCFdA7jM/g:ce/rs:fit:1251:1876/bG9jYWw6Ly8vZGl2ZWltYWdlL0RhZG9fQWxvbnNvLmpwZWc=.webp)
By embracing transformation, CFOs can transition from being mere guardians of stability to visionary architects of change — redefining our identities as changemaker CFOs. This evolution offers a chance to reinvent the CFO role within the business and extend our impact even further, shaping a lasting legacy that fosters positive change on a global scale.
Leveraging the expertise gained in fast-growth environments, CFOs can seamlessly apply this knowledge to three critical areas that hold profound significance in every modern business: sustainability, digital transformation and a future-ready finance workforce.
The changemaker CFO: profit, people and sustainable practices
The changemaker CFO understands the importance of achieving a delicate balance between profit, people and the planet. By incorporating sustainable practices, ethical decision-making and social responsibility into financial strategies, CFOs can drive long-term value creation while positively impacting society and the environment.
CFOs have a tremendous opportunity to be a force for good within the new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This new directive significantly expands reporting requirements on environmental, social, human rights, and governance matters.
Approximately 50,000 companies in the EU will have to apply the new rules for the first time in the 2024 financial year, including large companies, listed SMEs, and non-EU companies with substantial activity in the EU. With CSRD, Europe is at the forefront of developing high standards for authentic, transparent environmental and social initiatives.
While some organizations may not fall under the current scope of the CSRD, there are numerous benefits to be gained by adopting key sustainability practices. By leveraging data, companies can uncover opportunities to enhance and refine their operations. Moreover, transparent reporting fosters trust among stakeholders, including customers, investors and employees.
Within sustainability, CFOs possess a unique ability to drive meaningful change strategically. With expertise in finance, they are well-positioned to guide companies in setting sustainability goals, establishing relevant metrics and implementing robust reporting standards.
Taking the first step is key, whether by defining sustainability goals or hiring dedicated personnel. CFOs should resist perfectionism, embracing mistakes as learning opportunities. The ultimate goal is a genuine commitment to transforming the balance between people, profit, and the planet, laying a solid foundation for a more sustainable future. This is an opportunity for us to leave a legacy.
Leveraging data in digital transformation
As digital transformation continues to reshape the business landscape, CFOs recognize the need to adapt and become innovation allies to the CEO. Embracing technology and automation to enhance financial efficiency is the initial step, followed by leveraging data for proactive more insightful finance results.
CFOs occupy a central position at the intersection of data within the company and possess a unique advantage in identifying growth opportunities. Collaboration with the data officer to establish a suitable data governance framework is critical to confidently support decision-making through ROI assessment, predictive analysis or actionable insights.
By becoming the data officer ally and upgrading finance digital skills we can leverage data by leading and facilitating business changes to improve results. While data-knowledge skills are required to drive digital transformation, soft skills are also critical to succeed in this journey.
As proactive business enablers, CFOs play a pivotal role in charting non-regrettable moves toward achieving the organization's goals. Being open-minded, operating comfortably in the 80/20 context, accepting 20% uncertainty and getting comfortable with feeling uncomfortable are key ingredients to pave a successful digitalization.
Building a future-ready workforce
In the realm of successful digital transformation, every employee must embrace technology, transcending the confines of the IT department alone. The new, must-have digital finance skills include emerging technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), AI, machine learning (ML), and blockchain. Future-ready finance professionals need to have strong data and advanced analytics capabilities.
To acquire these essential digital finance skills, it is imperative to demonstrate openness to continuous learning. As finance leaders, we possess the ability to drive change. By investing in the finance workforce, and developing and refining our skills, we can significantly impact one of the biggest post-pandemic challenges – the Great Resignation.
The World Economic Forum reported that 77% of workers say they would learn new skills or completely retrain to improve their future employability but only 33% feel they have been given opportunities to develop digital skills. Meanwhile, the PWC CEO annual survey found that 93% who introduced upskilling programs see “increased productivity, improvement in talent acquisition and retention and a more resilient workforce”.
In other words, companies are finding that the key to attracting and retaining great employees is simply to invest in them. It is not only our responsibility towards the future of the finance profession but also an opportunity to improve retention and engagement.
Leading the way
CFOs in fast-growth environments have developed resilience over the past decades by adapting to constant change. The path to resilience lies in embracing the challenges of uncertainty and transforming them into opportunities for growth and innovation.
As the CFO role evolves from a traditional financial steward to a strategic changemaker, we understand the importance of effective leadership and the need to inspire confidence and resilience. Reinventing ourselves as CFO changemakers is our opportunity to lead the way.