The new mandate for CFOs

For decades, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was viewed largely as a steward of the numbers, responsible for protecting the bottom line, ensuring compliance, and reporting past performance. But that definition no longer holds. 

Today's CFO has stepped out of the back office and into the boardroom as a strategic leader, responsible for driving transformation, resilience, and long-term value creation.

We are witnessing a definitive shift in the expectations placed on finance leaders. It's no longer just about the accuracy of the books. It's about asking the bigger questions: Where is the business headed? How do we drive efficiencies? What's our competitive edge in an increasingly complex landscape?

This transformation is being accelerated by a wave of digital innovation. Technologies like automation, artificial intelligence, and real-time data integration are no longer optional – they're foundational. Yet despite these advancements, finance teams still face barriers rooted in outdated systems and fragmented processes. Alarmingly, research [1] reveals that nearly 40% of global CFOs do not completely trust the accuracy of their organisation's financial data – that's a risk no organisation can afford.

By unifying data and automating manual workflows, from reconciliations to the financial close, technology enables finance professionals to focus on value-adding work: scenario planning, forecasting, and guiding the business forward. Organisations like Treasury Wine Estates are already seeing the benefits, using digital tools to streamline global operations and make smarter, faster decisions. This is what the future of finance looks like – lean, agile, and insight-driven.

But transformation is never easy. In many cases, the biggest obstacle isn't technology or budget, it's prioritisation. Too often, we see businesses stuck in the loop of legacy thinking, reluctant to disrupt what's "worked" in the past. Compounding this is the fact that many finance leaders are years removed from the day-to-day grind of closing the books, making it harder to fully appreciate the inefficiencies of manual processes.

Successful transformation, however, requires more than software. It demands a mindset shift. It's about reimagining processes from the ground up, not simply digitising the old ways. As one of our customers at BlueScope Steel rightly put it, you can't just "lift and shift." You must rethink.

That's why the CFO's role has become so pivotal. As ESG pressures rise, regulatory complexity grows, and markets become more volatile, CFOs must lead with vision. They need to balance near-term delivery with long-term innovation, helping their organisations become more transparent, responsive, and resilient.

The days of ten-year transformation roadmaps are long gone. We're now in an era of rapid, iterative change. CFOs who embrace this pace, who ground their decisions in real-time, accurate data, will emerge not just as finance heads, but as architects of their organisation's future.

So, I ask: Is your finance function fit for the future? The opportunity is clear. And the time to act is now.