The role of a CFO has transformed in recent years, going well beyond its conventional function to more of a pivotal role in engaging, communicating and influencing overall value for a business.

Finance professionals today need to be capable of telling their own story, representing themselves as vital decision-makers on specific issues ranging from ESG to how to best leverage Big Data. The role of the finance professional has significantly changed, thanks partly to the automation of many standard tasks and the focus on how the finance role can influence overall business strategy. Finance is far more than just looking at numbers and has a profound impact on key decisions. Gaining support from the business is critical and so is capable of delivering effective stories defining the problem and solutions for improvements are an important element.

Finance teams are often being approached from other sides of the business, such as corporate sustainability to support collaborative teams capable of meeting the ESG demands. In today’s world, we are finally recognising how precious nature is and that our commodities are finite. Focusing on development must be partnered with understanding and measuring what these actions have on protecting our wider and future interest. Finance professionals are well-positioned to manage and provide teams with the information needed on important issues such as ESG.

In today’s data-driven world, many businesses struggle to manage their data and how to use it to make strategic decisions. Increasingly, finance professionals are being asked to collaborate with data scientists and others focusing on extracting insights from big data. There is an emerging trend of finance professionals collaborating with other teams and harnessing their skills in various ways. Finance people can play a pivotal part in the Information Age. They have experience with data and bring with this their advisory knowledge and strategic position to manage these responsibilities.

We are well into the era of big data and in every business and every finance team, people have the opportunity to work with data. Finance professionals have the power to inform, guide and lead their business. Many CFOs will have the responsibility for possibly the majority of data transformations in a business.