Global economic uncertainty and volatility, fluctuating energy prices and turbulent currency markets, along with a shift in economic power are among the many challenges which Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) will face in the future.

The future landscape for the CFO is presented in a new report The changing role of the CFO published by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants), and gathers together outcomes from discussions with CFOs from roundtables held in Shanghai, New York, Moscow and Zurich in late 2012.

The report highlights the emerging priorities which will have an impact on the future role of the CFO and cites nine future key issues shaping the finance function’s top job, including more regulation, risk management and technological impacts.

Jamie Lyon, Head of Corporate Sector at ACCA, says: “We see more pressure on the CFO role than ever before. Apart from the sheer breadth of the role now, it really is a question of having enough time in the day to prioritise and deal with all the issues that need dealing with. Businesses are really asking a lot from their top finance leaders right now and we don’t see this getting any easier, particularly with the level of volatility and business uncertainty. It places the finance function and finance leaders under great pressure and scrutiny, but it also continues to provide great opportunities for finance to influence the organization. The CFO role of the future will be truly unique, requiring a really special blend of capabilities and skills.”

Raef Lawson, vice president of research at IMA, adds: “This comprehensive, global study highlights the challenges faced by today’s CFOs. The results of this study will help shape our joint research agenda as we provide thought leadership for finance and accounting professionals.”

The nine issues are:

Regulation: There will be no slowing down in regulatory requirements for CFOs as they seek to meet rising expectations but also influence regulatory policy development. Significant pressure continues to be expected on finance resources and CFOs continue to question how they can deal with so much regulation

Globalisation: The impact of globalisation and the further development of global finance functions dispersed more equally across the world will call into play finance leadership skills which can unify finance and present a consistent vision for the finance function across different cultures, working practices, languages and time zones

Technology: Fast developing technology will provide enormous potential for CFOs to reconfigure finance processes and drive business insight through leveraging big data, but will also provide enormous challenges. To continue to secure influence across the organization, CFOs will need to own the insight agenda in the future

Risk Management: CFOs will have to manage a greater breadth of risks facing organizations in a more uncertain and volatile environment. CFOs will face more scrutiny on the effectiveness of risk management approaches and will need to continue to develop more effective integrated approaches to risk management

Transforming finance: Ongoing pressure to transform the finance function will be important. Whilst cost reduction may have fallen slightly down the agenda, the focus for CFOs will shift to continue to drive process efficiency and ensure finance is a valuable strategic partner to the organization

Stakeholder engagement: As the role of the finance function and the remit of the CFO broadens, so too does their stakeholder base, from traditional relationships such as banks and auditors through to the media and more customer-focused relationships. “Speaking the same language” with different stakeholders will be key as CFOs increasingly become the face of the corporate brand

Strategy: An even more important role will arise in two key areas of strategy – validation and execution. There will be more pressure on the finance function to develop more effective processes to gauge the effectiveness of different business strategies, as well as shifting the function to better support forward looking decision making.

Integrated reporting: The advent of broader integrated reporting as stakeholders seek more meaningful reporting and commentary on the true performance of the organization will have an impact. The finance function will play a key role in reporting on the environmental and social dimensions of performance. Increasingly, CFOs will need to help the business understand financial, social and environmental tradeoffs and be involved in major investment decisions with social and environmental impacts.

And

 Talent: a key priority for future finance leaders as they seek to develop and retain the capabilities that will be needed in tomorrow’s finance function. Making these development strategies work across geographic, language and cultural barriers will be a significant challenge but the imperative to develop global finance leaders with the skills needed to run global functions is clear.

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For more information, please contact:

Helen Thompson, ACCA Newsroom

+44 (0)20 7059 5759

+44 (0)7725 498654

helen.thompson@accaglobal.com

Notes to Editors

1.      About the report

The report reflects an ongoing programme of CFO and finance leader engagement through ACCA’s Accountants for Business Global Forum, in which IMA is also taking part. The report can be found here:
http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-technical/finance-transformation/pol-afb-croc.pdf

2.      About ACCA

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants with 154,000 members and 432,000 students in 170 countries worldwide. We aim to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.

We work through a network of over 80 offices and centres and more than 8,400 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development.

www.accaglobal.com

3.      About IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants)

IMA®, the association of accountants and financial professionals in business, is one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession. Globally, IMA supports the profession through research, the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) program, continuing education, networking, and advocacy of the highest ethical business practices. IMA has a global network of more than 65,000 members in 120 countries and 200 local chapter communities. IMA provides localized services through its offices in Montvale, N.J., USA; Zurich, Switzerland; Dubai, UAE; and Beijing, China. For more information about IMA, please visit www.imanet.org