As the drumbeat of digital transformation grows louder, CFOs are stepping up to serve as designers of the future finance function. While digital technology has just begun to exert its impact on performance, forward-looking CFOs can already envision the potential payoff in implementing automation, embedding sophisticated analytics, and exploring new technologies such as blockchain and machine learning—a payoff that extends far beyond just cost savings.

Those same technologies promise to fundamentally change the role of the CFO, as well. Supported by ever-richer data sets and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools, finance leaders of the future will have to nurture new capabilities—in themselves and in others—to navigate the function through a fast-paced, technology-driven environment where strategy and growth consistently remain moving targets. In fact, in Deloitte’s third-quarter 2018 CFO Signals™ survey, almost two-thirds of CFOs (63%) said that the time allocation of the finance workforce in three years will likely shift toward analysis, prediction, and decision support.

Accepting the need to adapt is the easy part of the challenge, however. Executing on that awareness requires CFOs to take on difficult tasks, such as aligning their functions with the company’s overall strategy and acquiring the talent that will enable them to fulfill their ambitions.

In this issue of CFO Insights, we’ll discuss what research reveals about the finance function of 2025, the strides finance leaders can take to add maximum value in an emerging digital world, and why CFOs should be energized by the journey ahead.

This publication was released by our US firm.

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