Crunch time for CFOs: The CFO as a value driver
As growth, cost, cash, and capital decisions intensify, Finance can take the wheel
Today’s CFO sits at the crossroads of the organization, not only accounting for the investments it makes but steering them as well. Other functions have their own responsibilities for growth, but it’s the CFO who brings the risk-balanced, capital-shaped perspective that's often needed to push through uncertainty, avoid paralysis, and find ways forward in the moment.
You know your role as a Finance leader is changing fast. But how exactly? An exponential CFO is expected to manage more than dollars and cents. You’re likely tasked with managing shareholder activism, cyber threats, geopolitics, culture, and purpose. Even the name of your job may be due for an upgrade. How about Chief Figure-It-All-Out Officer?
If one part of the CFO’s growing role stands out from the rest, it’s enterprise value creation. Before, you measured it. Now, it’s up to you to drive it.
Where does the CFO look to drive value? Based on Deloitte’s quarterly CFO Signals survey, there are three top priorities that leaders can steer today:
Once you accept that value creation is part of the CFO portfolio, the hard part is just beginning. It was never easy, but in today’s “VUCA” environment (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), you face headwinds your predecessors never imagined.
Technology is accelerating rapidly, and adoption of innovations such as cloud computing and AI can disrupt business models.
Demographic shifts are driving new dynamics not only in the workforce, but among your customers.
Environmental instability and regulation are changing the ways stakeholders measure and even define enterprise value.
Geopolitical forces like rising nationalism and trade barriers make doing business in a global economy more complex.
Capital markets have left the zero-rate era behind, which makes strategic investment decisions tougher.
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Take charge of the big picture
CFOs today can face these headwinds and take on growth, cost, and capital challenges all at once, charting a path to sustainable enterprise value through a continuous process that informs and adjusts itself based on ongoing results. That means connecting with and managing multiple stakeholders effectively—and continually asking the right questions about needs, perceptions, and the behaviors the organization needs to adopt.
- What role will you play in actively shaping the enterprise strategy?
How will you map objectives of your value creation plan to the enterprise strategy? - What is your framework to identify and prioritize actions?
- What are your benchmarks to assess current (and future) initiatives?
- How will you prepare and align talent?
- Where will you need to evolve your value creation capabilities?
- How will you define and reassess value now, and in the future?
It’s Crunch Time.
The CFO is supposed to lead this effort, not do it alone. That’s why alignment and team-building are just as important to value creation as any strategy or measurable investment plan.
To drive enterprise value, the finance leader should be a hub—of synergy, of strategy, and of action. One financial services CFO recently observed, “The exam doesn’t stop. You are always going to have fires to take care of.” People look to the CFO for both vision and execution. That’s why, if the job were invented today from scratch, “Chief Figure-It-All-Out Officer” wouldn’t be a bad title at all.
