Under Pressure, CFOs Have Become a Driving Force for Success

The office of the CFO is no longer what it was. Senior finance executives were once expected to be number crunchers, responsible for balancing the books and reporting on performance. Now, in response to today’s business environment and macroeconomic uncertainty, corporate leaders—from CEOs to line-of-business managers—are looking to the finance department to steer their companies’ strategic direction, managing everything from assessing risk to driving growth.

This shift comes in an era of unprecedented digitalization, rising geopolitical risk and regulatory uncertainty. To help CFOs navigate this landscape and steer their businesses towards growth, OneStream, a leading enterprise finance platform, recently embarked on a research initiative to better understand the CFO’s evolving role and to map out the potential world of business in 2035. With a global survey of 2,000 leaders of both large enterprises and mid-market businesses, scholars and investors, the study reaffirmed that CFOs are taking center stage.

Businesses want CFOs to take on a more strategic function, the study found—and the role will become even more important in 10 years than it is today. As these expectations grow, senior finance teams must think beyond their traditional responsibilities and consider the skills and technology needed to enhance collaboration across their organizations. Embracing digital transformation and AI will be key for finance executives to succeed, even as the bar for their business acumen rises.

Investors prioritize a competent CFO over a CEO

CFOs are now expected to be “masters of everything,” with skills beyond financial acumen, OneStream’s study found.

“The role of the CFO is evolving from a financial gatekeeper to a strategic leader, responsible for market insights and ensuring that every core business function integrates into the financial plan and results,” says Tom Shea, CEO of OneStream. “CFOs are now expected to produce timely, actionable insights and accelerate forecasting cycles to navigate rapidly changing macroeconomic conditions.”

The finance function is becoming so important that investors are willing to pay more for a strong CFO. According to hundreds of investors surveyed by OneStream, the CFO’s competence is the second-most important factor when considering investing in an organization—outranking even the competency of the CEO.

Organizations whose CFOs are seen as strategic growth drivers are able to command a premium, the study found, receiving an average of 2.6% more investment from initial investors. For the world’s largest investors, that number jumps to 3.6%.

Finance executives are feeling the heat, and three in four CFOs reported that expectations have grown for their roles in the last five years. To continue making an impact, they feel obligated to grow their already wide-ranging skill sets beyond the traditional scope of finance.

Silos, outdated technology and a talent crunch pose major challenges

Under such pressure, what’s preventing every CFO from becoming the most strategic person in the room? OneStream’s survey found that three major obstacles stand in the way, and that a unified view of corporate data and technological solutions—especially AI—can deliver the most value to overburdened finance executives.

First, rigid silos keep CFOs from performing their jobs effectively. Tasked with driving cross-functional collaboration and planning, finance teams need a holistic view across the business, incorporating data from various departments. Siloed teams not only make this process inefficient—limiting the finance department’s agility and decision-making—but also put additional pressure on CFOs to become expert communicators.

Many CFOs report that they’re strapped by a myriad of disconnected legacy business applications that fragment data and require time-consuming manual processes to gather insights and develop accurate reporting and planning. Constricted by outdated accounting software that requires external accounting using spreadsheets and an amalgamation of third-party tools, finance executives often find themselves occupied by rote accounting work rather than strategic initiatives.

Finance teams are further challenged by a talent crunch. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants reports a significant decrease in the number of accounting graduates in recent years, and that the majority of today’s CPAs will retire within the next 15 years. With fewer graduates entering the field, CFOs are faced with the challenge of staffing their departments from a shrinking pool of potential workers.

Unified data and AI will help finance leaders shift from reactive to proactive planning

All of these challenges come at a time when technology is making enormous strides—and the majority of corporate executives surveyed by OneStream say they believe that organizations that fail to invest in tech and infrastructure will not survive the next five years.

For the office of the CFO, that means integrating unified data systems and adopting AI. A unified finance platform enables financial and operational data to coexist in a single application, providing CFOs with a comprehensive view of their corporate financial information, reducing errors and ensuring consistency across teams.

Embedding AI into a unified data system makes it even more powerful. With automated data collection, cleansing and analysis, AI tools help process an organization’s financial data to derive rich insights, without requiring the CFO to learn how to code. Crucially, AI automates the time-consuming forecasting process, giving businesses a speedier and more accurate window into their future performance.

“CFOs are moving away from fragmented AI tools and embracing AI embedded within their finance data and core systems,” Shea says. “It’s designed to address critical challenges such as forecasting accuracy, anomaly detection and deeper financial analysis.”

Despite the challenges CFOs face while taking center stage—from data overload to talent shortages and an AI skills gap—the hurdles are surmountable. With a modernized tech stack to unify data, financial executives are poised to gain more valuable insights and make better decisions—allowing them to step into the strategic role they’re expected to own.