A joint ACCA and PwC study “Finance Functions: Seizing the Opportunities” provides a number of recommendations for finance professionals to maintain their strategic role in companies.
Here are the main ones.
1. Redefine the focus of finance to include broader performance metrics for natural and human capital.
2. Invest in technologies that can be used to create and support an enterprise-wide data model.
3. Use predictive analytics to make more holistic business decisions.
4. Enhance business partnering and analytics skills. In this way, you will be able to fulfill this new role across the organization, strengthening collaboration both across the organization and with external parties.
5. Drive for better efficiency, productivity and standardization across processes and common platforms.
6. Through these actions, establish finance as the central point within the organization to achieve sustainable growth and enhance its reputation.
Helen Brand, chief executive of ACCA: “Finance functions have responded well to the challenges of the pandemic. There is an opportunity to build even more relevant function based on data, insights and collaboration. If finance teams continue to focus purely on financial measures, there is a risk that organizations will revert to their pre-pandemic practices.”