The evolving role of the CFO

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As soon as guardians of budgets and steadiness sheets, CFOs at the moment are architects of technique and transformation. The Tremendous CFO, a world CFO survey, finds that ‘tremendous CFOs’ are rising to fight challenges. Finance leaders have moved from reporting efficiency to designing it. Enter the Chief Worth Officer (CVO), reflecting finance’s role in whole worth creation. Worth is now not outlined by revenue however by the Built-in Reporting Framework’s six capitals.

The CFO role has remodeled over the final twenty years, transferring past conventional accounting and management capabilities. Traditionally, CFOs centered on monetary stewardship, together with monetary reporting and recording transactions. A reactive role has remodeled right into a strategic companion to the CEO, appearing as a ‘co-pilot,’ figuring out future alternatives. This double act is important in managing fashionable financial unpredictability: the CEO focuses on market alternatives whereas the CFO steers the organisation via monetary stress-testing and state of affairs planning.

The CFO role is strategic management that delivers long-term worth to stakeholders. Companies face extra calls for from boards, traders and regulators. “Over the previous 10 years, the role of CFO has modified from one of monetary administration and compliance to a strategic management tasked with driving change,” says Dan Benson, managing director at govt search agency Morgan Philips Group. This strategic management shift has expanded the CFO’s mandate to incorporate higher inner collaboration and exterior focus.

Deana Murfitt, COO and Government Coach at Breakfast Individuals, concurs: “The fashionable CFO is market-facing, having moved away from the confines of the conventional finance operate. CFOs at the moment are true enterprise leaders: analysing market developments, pitching to Enterprise Capital (VC) and representing the company voice.”
An unforgiving enterprise panorama fuels this transformation: provide shocks, inflation spikes, and investor scrutiny. CFOs have swapped the again workplace of spreadsheets for the unpredictability of boardroom technique. Whereas adjustments occurred earlier than Covid-19, the pandemic accelerated the CFO role. CFOs turned catalysts for change throughout their companies. AI, information analytics, expertise and non-financial metrics have formed this.

Fashionable finance leaders are architects of worth creation, not simply guardians of value

Benson notes that CFOs at the moment are at the centre of development initiatives. “Amid a altering and difficult enterprise panorama, CFOs are more and more centered on driving development, main on M&A and elevating capital or by driving organisational change to make sure companies evolve at the tempo required to compete,” he says. One CFO who has witnessed the altering role is Rafał Zborowski, founder and managing companion of advisory agency, Braincapital.pl.

He explains, “My profession began with a powerful deal with monetary management and efficiency administration in massive organisations like Polkomtel (a cellular operator in Poland), the place the precedence was value optimisation and operational effectivity.” Zborowski has seen this first-hand. “Over time, the CFO role has shifted dramatically, and so has mine. At Empik’s Studying Methods Group, I used to be not solely accountable for finance but additionally for all different supportive capabilities like IT, HR and authorized, which allowed me to steer main transformation programmes, together with ERP implementation and course of automation,” he says.

Threat, resilience and ESG
The Tremendous CFO examine by Egon Zehnder finds 82 p.c of finance leaders report a broadening of tasks, together with direct possession of ESG alongside M&A and company technique. These figures spotlight the shift from operational management to worth creation. Earlier generations of CFOs managed efficiency; immediately’s CFOs engineer it.

As CFOs lengthen their attain, their danger remit has expanded too. They now oversee operational, monetary, reputational, and environmental dangers. “CFOs immediately are worth protectors and worth creators, shaping the future by aligning capital, danger administration, and strategic ambition,” says Zborowski.

This accountability intensified post-pandemic, when CFOs led the response to unprecedented volatility. In an article for FM Journal, Zborowski described re-engineering the enterprise mannequin of a world schooling group inside days of lockdowns. These classes have turn into customary follow. From liquidity stress-testing to state of affairs planning for geopolitical shocks, CFOs now anticipate disruption fairly than reacting to it. ESG has expanded the scope: over half of respondents combine environmental and social danger into monetary decision-making.

The digital crucial
Finance blurs as automation and analytics reshape decision-making. AI automates reporting, aids forecasting and improves danger analytics. “Right now, the CFO is now not reporting the numbers however utilizing digital instruments and insights to information innovation and long-term worth creation utilizing all out there instruments, together with AI,” explains Zborowski. Protiviti’s World Finance Tendencies 2025 examine finds 72 p.c of finance groups now use AI, greater than double the fee a 12 months earlier.

As soon as reserved for CTOs, CFOs are taking possession of digital transformation tasks. The finance operate supplies the self-discipline, governance, and information rigour to make digital funding ship measurable outcomes. Benson observes that this shift can be altering how firm worth is perceived. “The digital revolution of the previous 10 years is a major driver on this change, with funding in tech-related companies dramatically up. For a CFO, this implies the worth of an organization is linked with their tech stack and functionality, that means many strategic CFOs are the drivers of digital transformation inside an organisation.

“The CFO’s role will not be solely to safe financing and monitor efficiency, however to problem present enterprise processes and create the environment for transformation,” Zborowski provides. AI’s influence goes past automation. CFOs use fashions together with hyper-accurate forecasting, autonomous compliance utilizing NLP to trace international laws and real-time danger analytics, auditing transactions for anomalies. As soon as non-compulsory for finance leaders, digital literacy is a core part of monetary literacy. Profitable CFOs will likely be those that can harness AI and digital transformation for perception.

From CFO to CEO
60 p.c of CFOs aspire to be CEOs and 35 p.c already co-lead with the CEO, per the Egon Zehnder report. Right now’s CFO acts as a de facto deputy CEO, balancing capital allocation with management. Benson explains, “Whereas in the previous the CFO might have been an ‘final vacation spot’ role, it’s more and more seen as a stepping stone to CEO and, latterly, NED alternatives.”

The CFO problem is integrating systemic dangers into monetary fashions:
• Cyber danger: Now not an IT drawback; a monetary legal responsibility. CFOs should stress-test the steadiness sheet towards the value of breaches, together with regulatory fines, authorized liabilities and model injury.
• Geopolitical and provide chain danger: CFOs map monetary property and provide prices towards political instability.
• ESG integration and carbon pricing: CFOs information funding towards inexperienced expertise by implementing an inner carbon worth on capital expenditure. Measuring new prices depends on expertise.

The CFO place provides a 360-degree view of the enterprise. Zborowski’s collected expertise, which incorporates complete data of monetary management, IT techniques, HR, and authorized, enabled the final pivot to CEO. “Later, as CEO of a non-public equity-backed firm, I utilized these expertise to revamp the enterprise mannequin and drive development,” the CFO-turned-CEO explains.

But not each CFO aspires to be CEO. Attributable to the calls for of their jobs, 64 p.c of European CFOs and 50 p.c of North American CFOs are contemplating early retirement, in response to Egon Zehnder. The bigger the firm, the greater the probability {that a} CFO considers early retirement.

To make that leap, technical excellence alone is now not sufficient. Whereas 60 p.c of CFOs aspire to the prime put up, 46 p.c cite networking and visibility as the greatest obstacles, adopted by data gaps. Present and future CFOs should develop expertise via studying and organisational publicity.

BDO/ACCA advises on expertise wanted for the pipeline: the subsequent era should develop expertise past the core finance operate, together with involvement in strategic change programmes like IT supply or M&A integration. This prepares them for a C-suite partnership. Finally, organisations should assist this improvement. Boards are looking for variety of thought.

Benson believes that boards now prioritise agility, resilience, and communication. “Past technique definition and driving change, CFOs should reveal office agility and lead via difficult occasions with resilience, flexibility and readability.” The skillset is now not confined to monetary evaluation; it’s about govt management. Firstly change administration: to steer large-scale digital transformation tasks, managing stakeholder influence. Secondly, communication: the ability to be a ‘monetary storyteller,’ translating information into clear narratives for stakeholders, together with traders, regulators and media. Thirdly, digital fluency: not solely utilizing expertise, however understanding AI and cloud computing.

The street forward
Few titles will face higher strain or alternative than the CFO. Technological progress, regulatory scrutiny, and a unstable international economic system demand sharper insights. “The CFO role will proceed to broaden as we face a world of higher uncertainty and sooner change,” says Zborowski. “Challenges akin to ESG integration, cybersecurity and geopolitical volatility will more and more outline their agendas. Advances in AI and digital transformation current an unlimited alternative to reinforce decision-making and reinvent enterprise fashions.” That steadiness between warning and innovation will decide which finance leaders succeed. As AI and automation tackle transactional duties, the CFO’s comparative benefit will lie in human judgement; connecting information with imaginative and prescient and efficiency with function.

Zborowski concludes with a transparent view of the alternative forward: “Having labored as each CFO and CEO, the alternative lies in stepping totally into the role of transformation chief. These CFOs who can mix strategic imaginative and prescient and execute advanced change will likely be the ones who drive sustainable long-term development and place their corporations to thrive.”

The finance operate has come a good distance from counting the numbers. The CFO of the future is not going to simply measure worth; they are going to outline it.