Deloitte - Finance in Transition – The Current CFO Agenda

Following the high profile corporate failures in the earlier part of this decade, boardroom focus rightly switched to concerns surrounding corporate governance. As finance resources were increased to manage the ensuing raft of regulatory and complex reporting requirements, focus was diverted away from business partnering activities such as planning, performance management and analytical support. At the same time cut backs to accommodate the newer regulatory driven activities has left finance support to strategic activities further underweighted.

Our view is that in many organisations this imbalance remains, and that finance functions are insufficiently focused on supporting management in strategy execution. To be truly effective the CFO must balance the three roles that together combine to define the remit of the modern day CFO:

• Steward - controlling, overseeing and administering business functions to meet compliance obligations and guide the business in its understanding and management of risk
• Operator - controlling the recording and reporting of financial and non-financial data and reducing costs within finance and the business
• Strategist - supporting the business in strategy development and execution, supporting management to launch value creating initiatives and to track their performance

RE-ALIGNING FINANCE FUNCTIONS

Many leading organisations are now re-aligning their finance functions to redress this balance. The benefits of getting the balance right will vary according to organisation and environmental factors. Typically we would expect:

• Improved company performance from consistent strategy execution and cross-functional collaboration
• Finance-style discipline in decision making throughout the company which is based on business driven information quality
• Cost-efficient performance of transactional and informational tasks of the finance function

HOW DOES DELOITTE DELIVER?

Deloitte have developed a proprietary framework to help our clients transform their finance functions to better support growth and value creation.

Using our proprietary CFO Value Map™ tool, we can work with the CFO and finance team to identify the value drivers that finance should be focused on. Performance metrics for key activities can then be defined and established within a holistic measurement framework to provide a powerful management tool.

Having identified priorities, our Finance Transformation Framework diagnostic tool can be used to assess existing finance capabilities to achieve the desired end state. The tool can be used to pinpoint any shortfalls in existing capabilities.

A comprehensive transformation programme can then be crafted to implement and embed the new capabilities. To support the client through this journey, we have a range of component solutions that can be tailored to meet specific client needs. These solutions draw upon the full range of Deloitte tools and methodologies to accelerate the process of embedding change.

ABOUT DELOITTE

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu member firms employ 120,000 professionals in 140 countries worldwide and offer clients industry knowledge as well as deep and broadly based professional services.

Our European Finance Transformation team, comprising over 1,200 professionals, can draw from our specialist capabilities in consulting, audit, tax and corporate finance to support the CFO in striking the right balance between managing compliance and risk, driving performance and delivering shareholder value.