New Delhi: Traditionally, a chief financial officer’s role has been largely confined to financial planning and reporting. But a new survey by Grant Thornton Bharat suggests that financial leaders want to take up more ambitious roles and contribute to business strategy.
The India Finance Leaders Barometer survey asked 150 CFOs and finance leaders from across different industries about the priorities, opportunities, and challenges that are shaping the finance function in a rapidly changing business environment.
The findings, published this month, suggest that CFOs want to move beyond traditional operational oversight and financial reporting toward “higher-value” and “forward-looking” work.
On the priority list of what CFOs want to invest their time in today, ‘strategic planning and decision support’ sits at the top, followed by ‘business partnering with leadership and the board’, and ‘technology, automation, and systems initiatives’.
According to the surveyed CFOs, talent leadership and team development are at the bottom of their priority list while ESG and sustainability-related matters too are not of great importance to them.
“The conversation around the CFO’s role has evolved significantly over the last decade. Today, few organisations question whether the CFO should be a strategic advisor, as the expectation is already there. The challenge is that many finance leaders continue to operate within delivery models designed for a far more operational mandate,” said Partner and CFO Advisory Leader, Grant Thornton Bharat.
“As business expectations grow, organisations must rethink how finance is structured, governed and enabled so CFOs can spend more time shaping decisions rather than managing processes,” he added.
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AI and automation
The survey shows that most CFOs are in favour of adopting artificial intelligence, with 75 per cent expecting to devote more time to automation. Over 70 per cent of the respondents also plan to increase their investment in technology.
This shift also reflects in the hiring priorities of the finance leaders.
More than half of the respondents plan to hire workers with AI and automation expertise over the next 12 months. Advanced data analytics and business intelligence is another skill area that CFOs prefer when hiring for their finance teams.
The least preferred skills as per the respondents are risk management, ESG strategy and implementation, and change management skills.