CFO Leadership

This year, CFOs have had to adapt quickly to the biggest price spikes we have seen in more than 30 years. The Consumer Price Index rose to more than 6% annual rate and the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4% in September 2022.  These record-breaking numbers are prompting CFOs to raise wages. However, increasing labor costs during an inflationary period is also risky. Yet, in a candidate market, job seekers are less likely to take a salary they struggle to live on.  Responding to labor shortages, many companies have increased compensation. The percentage of small-to-medium-sized businesses that increased their wages last month was the highest in 48 years, with many companies planning to do so in the next three months. 💡Key Takeaways: CFOs facing rising wholesale prices and mounting wage pressures worsened by high inflation can combat these issues by reviewing company assets and liabilities.  Finding an alternative for funding pensions, such as transferring them to annuity providers, can eliminate billions of dollars in pension liabilities for employers in the U.S. Hedge against the falling dollar by considering a currency swap with overseas suppliers. Also, pad your organization's portfolio by investing in TIPS and other lower risk investments.   6 Ways CFOs Can Fight Inflation Source: BBC With labor shortages and the threat of a recession, what can CFOs do to fight against inflation while maintaining a workforce—and affording other operating expenses—to maintain production and boost revenue?  Let's discuss the ways savvy CFOs are leading the fight against inflation for their organizations. 1. Review Accounts Payables and Receivables   CFOs can review the company's payables and receivables from the previous year to free up cash for investments, dividend payments, debt reduction and mergers and acquisitions.  Slow billing, early payments to vendors, weak collection policies, inefficient payment processes and out-of-market conditions can slow down and tie up cash conversion cycles.  Careful analysis of accounts payables and receivables enables you to review each transaction for ways to fight inflation. It usually reveals gaps in processes and undesirable or unnecessary payment or contract conditions with buyers and suppliers. It also allows you to scope out other short-term opportunities to increase working capital.  2. Recover Trapped Cash Working capital might lie dormant between joint venture partners or foreign subsidiaries when there is no operational or tax-efficient way to spend it.  Since partnership dividends are subject to delay, careful balance sheet analysis can help identify partners making late payments or with outstanding balances. This analysis will allow you to set terms for more favorable distributions and payments from these partnerships. By optimizing overall cash management, CFOs can reduce the number of unplanned cash transfers per year and help the organization remain within its budget. Careful balance sheet analysis also gives you more confidence in your numbers when making critical business decisions.     3. Look for Alternatives To Fund Pensions   CFOs with meaningful defined-benefit responsibilities can use one or more of the following options to improve their forecasts: Amendments to existing defined benefit plans Debt-based investing Conversion to defined-contribution plans Adopting cash-balance planning Plan freezing  For instance, a retail giant in the U.S. could eliminate several billions of dollars in pension liabilities for its employees simply by transferring that liability to an entity that provides annuities. Those retiring will not see a benefits reduction and the retailer would avoid market volatility.  4. Purchase What You Can at Today’s Prices   Since inflation erodes purchasing power, CFOs should consider purchasing goods and services they believe will be needed in the future.  If you expect a price increase of 15% or more over the next two to three months, you may want to take a long position. This approach should be for long-lasting inventories, commodities, products and processes.   The CFO must balance the anticipated pricing increases with the financing and additional inventory holding costs. This strategy ignores many companies' longstanding efforts to free up cash by reducing inventory. 5. Hedge Against the Falling USD Consider currency exchanges for combatting the fall of the USD. CFOs whose businesses involve international shipping or rely heavily on earnings from imports might consider using currency swaps or similar financial instruments to limit losses from dollar depreciation. However, economists warn that the treasury manager needs to consider transaction costs and ensure that the secondary currency is also not subject to inflation.  6. Pad Your Organization’s Portfolio Economists say CFOs should consider moving part of their company's investment portfolio into an inflation buffer, such as Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), precious metals or funds that track basket commodities.  Finance executives must also remember that no investment can completely hedge against inflation. Gold does not generate income, and prices for oil and other commodities are often volatile and vulnerable to geopolitical tensions. So, it requires diversification and those who move first in hedging gain greater advantages in the short term.   Hedge Inflation With Better Forecasting CFOs may have limited control over the effects of inflation, labor shortages and rising prices and interest rates. But there are things you can do as a CFO to fight inflation and protect your organization from rising costs, even during volatile market conditions.   When we focus on what we can control, we do more to hedge inflation and even boost profits. Better balance sheet analysis is necessary and Vena’s Excel-based Budgeting and Forecasting Software delivers valuable insights to improve your forecasting accuracy so you can make more informed decisions.  Learn more about hedging inflation. Check out these articles: 5 Things Finance Teams Can Do About Inflation Right Now What Finance Leaders Can Expect in 2023: 5 Predictions 7 Tips on How To Recession-Proof Your Business’s Revenue Planning Process Excel at Forecasting Cut cycle times with our intuitive budgeting and forecasting tools that save time and ensure more accurate analysis. Plan with confidence and simplify your FP&A processes. See Vena in action.

The recent global health crisis taught us that strategic sourcing is critical for organizations looking to build a resilient supply chain to navigate uncertainty and economic downturns.  Economists have been predicting an impending 2023 recession, making now a critical time to work closely with your sourcing team and maximize supplier performances to maintain business continuity.  Let’s discuss how this can help you navigate the uncertainties as we move toward sustainability in an economic downturn.  💡Key Takeaways: As decision makers allocating a company’s resources, strategic sourcing leaders and finance professionals must collaborate to meet resource allocation requests, critical savings targets and growth projections.   Demonstrating trust and credibility with stakeholders is critical for sourcing leaders looking to elevate the role of strategic sourcing in the organization.   Benefits of elevating your strategic sourcing include improved business outcomes, increased savings and efficiency, complete visibility and supplier risk mitigation.  What Is Strategic Sourcing Strategic sourcing is a procurement process in supply chain management that integrates data collection, market research, spend analysis, supplier negotiations and contracts to optimize an organization's supply base. Source: Ejet Sourcing Collaboration Between Finance and Strategic Sourcing As decision makers allocating a company’s resources, strategic sourcing leaders and finance professionals must work together to meet resource allocation requests, critical savings targets and growth projections. Unfortunately, strategic sourcing leaders often get left out of the discussion.  As organizations grapple with new or persisting challenges, they must not underestimate the value their sourcing teams bring to the procurement of resources. Sourcing teams can offer valuable insights into enterprise-wide spending through collaboration with their finance counterpart. Elevating Strategic Sourcing Teams  Sourcing leaders who want to elevate the role of strategic sourcing in the organization must demonstrate trust and credibility with executives and other stakeholders. Strategic sourcing and procurement teams often face the antiquated belief that they are difficult to work with because of their perceived tendency to slow down processes. Savvy sourcing leaders position their team to be seen as an asset to the organization, leaving them free to embark on more strategic initiatives such as:  Leveraging supplier relationships Decreasing or eliminating rogue spending Meeting ESG goals Project prioritization  Sourcing leaders can also work to make their collaborations as convenient as possible within the organization to boost their influence within the company. One way to do this is by conducting weekly meetings where department managers can present ideas or ask questions. When you open these lines of communication, you will offer more value through improved insights. Strategic Sourcing and the Role of Digital Technologies Managing strategic sourcing duties often relies on manual processes via spreadsheets and emails. Even some large business entities still use legacy systems in conjunction with these clunky manual processes to execute these responsibilities.  The possible recession will intensify an organization's need for digital solutions in strategic sourcing. Organizations that do not implement digital processes in strategic sourcing will incur financial losses. These technologies deliver deeper insights for strategic sourcing teams, improve supplier relationships and support efforts to leverage increased cost savings for the business.                                                                                                              Source: Enventure Companies must recognize the importance of investing in tech for strategic sourcing. Equipping sourcing teams with digitized processes will enable them to adapt to market conditions and maintain business continuity.  Benefits of Strategic Sourcing Strategic sourcing teams can use intuitive solutions to better demonstrate their direct impact on the organization's bottom line. Additionally, they can gain increased visibility within the C-suite by delivering the following benefits: Improves Supplier Relationships Sourcing teams can bring deep market insights and expertise in negotiations with suppliers and manage the organization's needs and supplier agreements. With a bird's eye view of relationships with suppliers, strategic sourcing teams can further these connections.  Increases Savings and Efficiency Each dollar saved through strategic sourcing impacts the bottom line directly. Note that savings aren’t just about driving hard bargains. They also come from increased efficiencies through proactive engagements with suppliers and stakeholders.  Automating sourcing initiatives boosts team efficiency by freeing up their time from manual tasks such as financial reporting and data migration, allowing them to focus on more important tasks.  Automation also contributes to operating efficiency by delivering insights that enable sourcing teams to negotiate timely deliveries while retaining inventory at a supplier’s facilities. They can also use these insights to negotiate favorable payment terms with suppliers. Delivers Complete Visibility Strategic sourcing solutions provide a centralized platform for planning, initiating and completing sourcing measures while monitoring suppliers' performances. Maintaining this data in a single repository enables you to track sourcing from start to finish.  Mitigates Supplier Risk Strategic sourcing leaders can contribute enterprise-wide value by delivering real-time insights on supplier risks. You will also be able to ensure compliance with regional and local laws such as data protections policies, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and even human rights legislation. You no longer have to worry about supplier overlaps or misplaced contracts. Instead, you get a seamless and coordinated process that’s completely visible to all parties, increasing cost savings and ensuring compliance with relevant regulators. Boosts Product Speed to Market Organizations with strategic sourcing and procurement leaders have a deeper understanding of the supply, enabling them to find innovative ways to tackle supply chain challenges. This is especially essential in fast-growing companies or organizations facing uncertainty because they must move quickly to manage supply chain needs. Empower Strategic Sourcing Teams With Vena  Organizations that invest in the best technology and strategic planning solutions to empower their strategic sourcing leaders reap the rewards of increased compliance with their suppliers, improved alignment among departments and deeper insights into resource allocation for upcoming projects.  As companies continue to navigate uncertainty in the supply chain and concerns with the recession, they continue to turn to Vena for insights to help them make strategic business decisions. Maintain business continuity with Vena's most accessible strategic planning software.  Looking to learn more about strategic planning solutions for your organization? Here are some articles to read next: Operational or Strategic CFO | A 6-Point Checklist How To Be a Better Strategic Finance Business Partner 4 Time-Saving Tips for Strategic CFOs Excel at Strategic Planning Improve the overall value proposition of your supply chain by using strategic sourcing to navigate uncertainty. Vena delivers the data you need to make strategic business decisions about your suppliers and value chain.

This blog was originally published on March 5, 2021 and revised on February 14, 2023. FP&A&U You’re SUM stuff! It’s accrual world without you!  Can’t stop, won’t stop. 😆 But puns aside, Valentine’s Day is a great reminder to show your finance team some love. A little heartful appreciation for all their hard work, dedication, teamwork and support adds up when it comes to building positive and supportive relationships in the workplace.  So how can you recognize and celebrate your team, help them feel valued and appreciated and brighten up their day not only on Valentine’s Day, but every day? Read on to discover five ways to show your finance team you love them.      1. Know and Understand Them as People Learn to understand that the same people you count on every day to bring their “A” game are also the same people who live their own unique lives. This InHerSight article on the signs of a positive workplace culture says that one of the signs is that “people feel safe talking about their lives outside of work.” Make it a point to get to know the individual players on your team, whether they have kids, spouses or pets. Try to remember important details about their lives and ask them about them sometimes.  As the article says, “If a company prioritizes a sense of belonging and acceptance—and a work-life balance—employees are likely going to feel more comfortable bringing up the jaw-dropping final score of their kid’s soccer game or what their weekend plans are with their partner.” As a finance leader, it’s important to build a relationship with your team. It shows that you don’t just care about their productivity, but that you genuinely care about them as people. Not only will you understand what motivates them, but you’ll also get to know what they need to succeed in their role. “If a company prioritizes a sense of belonging and acceptance—and a work-life balance—employees are likely going to feel more comfortable bringing up the jaw-dropping final score of their kid’s soccer game or what their weekend plans are with their partner.” 2. Try the Little Things  Sometimes it’s not always about the grand gestures because little things can go a long way too.  According to this Quantum Workplace article on the importance of employee recognition, it says, “When employees feel valued, they’re more engaged, motivated, and likely to go the extra mile for their company.” Their research found that when employees believe they will be recognized, they are 2.7x more likely to be highly engaged. “When employees believe they will be recognized, they are 2.7x more likely to be highly engaged.” Measures such as an unexpected appreciation email to a team member, congratulating someone on a personal milestone, helping them enroll in a training course or having your team leverage tools to make their lives easier for budgeting and reporting are ways to keep your team motivated personally and professionally. Showing that you’re invested in your team’s personal growth is a great way to send the message that you care. Whatever it is you do, just make sure it’s genuine and from the heart. 3. Just Say “Thank You” According to this Workhuman survey highlighting the importance of humanity in the workplace, over 60% of respondents said a simple “thank you” would make their hard work feel more appreciated. Although your team is being compensated, money isn’t the same as a “thank you”. A human expression such as this can build a relationship of gratitude within your team so they know their long hours aren’t going unnoticed. Now, how you say it is completely up to you. You could send a handwritten note to your team or have lunch delivered to them to express how grateful you are for their dedication. However you get it done, this small expression of gratitude is a big way to show your team that they are valued. 4. Celebrate The Big Moments  Meeting goals at work is always worth celebrating, but you should always make a point to celebrate the moments in your team’s lives, such as birthdays, anniversaries and personal milestones. According to this article on Risepeople.com, they say, “When it comes to celebrating workplace milestones, there are no real ‘best practices.’ The way you reward and celebrate your team members should depend on the team members themselves and on your company. Not everyone likes rewards in the form of public accolades or gifts, and not everyone is motivated by the same things.”  With that in mind, creating a culture of appreciation means celebrating each of your team members in their own unique way. Making time to acknowledge the special moments in their personal and professional lives shows them that it matters to you too. “Not everyone likes rewards in the form of public accolades or gifts, and not everyone is motivated by the same things.”   5. Reward Them Accordingly Lastly, don’t forget to incentivize work that goes above and beyond. The ability to give your team bonuses or other monetary incentives is a monumental way to show appreciation. According to this Forbes article on monetary incentives in the workplace, “Extra money is always a valuable reward. For some people, money is the ultimate motivator, especially for employees who have financial goals to achieve. Employers can offer cash rewards to employees who strive for top performance, go above and beyond or meet set goals. This instills a sense of purpose and satisfaction from accomplishment and a job well done.” “For some people, money is the ultimate motivator, especially for employees who have financial goals to achieve.” Rewarding extra work with extra pay is the ultimate way to retain your team and keep morale high, especially during unpredictable times. But other monetary incentives, such as profit sharing, tuition reimbursement, referral programs and additional time off, are just as effective. Why You Should Appreciate Your Team  As a finance leader if you show your team that you support, love and appreciate them to the fullest extent, they’ll continue to stay dedicated to your mission. Labor Planning Made Easy Appreciation goes a long way. Use a smarter workforce planning solution and save your finance team all the hassle and headaches. They’ll love you for it.

As companies pursue strategies for digital transformation in finance, CFOs are the key drivers of this digitalization. Digital technologies will transform every sector by 2026 and will continue to impact the future of finance. As a result, CFOs need progressive solutions to ease the transition.  According to a Garner study of over 2,150 professionals, 69% of business leaders say digitalization projects are increasing. As more organizations adopt digitalization measures, we expect these numbers to continue to grow.  This means CFOs will be called upon to work closely with IT departments as companies progress with their digital transformations. With this in mind, here's what CFOs need to know in order to drive digital transformation within their organization. 💡Key Takeaways: There are several key benefits to making the digital transformation. The most prevalent include streamlined processes, better decision making, lower risks, fewer errors and higher ROI. Roughly 93% of finance experts agree that digitalization must result in readily available data that remains centralized in the finance structure and is the default finance function. Upgrading internal systems and avoiding data silos from legacy platforms will help financial firms overcome roadblocks to growth by providing real-time data for analysis. Modernization of a financial firm's FinOp tools enables scalability. This scalability is essential for accounting professionals, like CPAs, due to the seasonal nature of their work. Key Benefits of Making the Digital Transformation To comprehend the true benefits, we must first understand what digital transformation is exactly and its impact on the financial industry.  In the video below, CEO of Third Stage Consulting, Eric Kimberling, explains what digitalization means and discusses the origins of this corporate buzzword.   According to Kimberling, digital transformation merely means the "use of technology to improve business processes." That includes anything from enterprise resource planning software (ERP) and digital experience platforms (DXPs) to cloud-based data storage solutions. These software programs and platforms simplify the day-to-day tasks of employees and  the daily operations of corporations. Here are the leading advantages of digitalization in the financial industry: Streamlined accounting and compliance Better planning and forecasting   Enhanced decision making  Decreased risk and higher returns Lower costs and fewer errors The Complete Planning Advantage Join Rishi Grover to explore the transformation of finance as a strategic business partner through the power of people, process and technology. 4 Ways CFOs Are Driving Digital Transformation in Finance Roughly 93% of finance experts agree that digitalization must result in readily available data that remains centralized in the finance structure and is the default finance function. Unfortunately, past digital transformation in finance has been unsuccessful. Approximately 39% of industry leaders state that prior efforts failed to deliver the expected benefits, and only 36% report tangible advantages to their organization. Source: Gartner To improve the success of digitalization and automation, CFOs must commit to initiatives that will deliver the value necessary to make the transition feasible. Here are four ways CFOs can drive a successful digital transformation within their organization: 1. Upgrading Internally Built Systems CFOs must advocate for digital upgrades throughout the organization. That includes the company's IT tech stack, computer systems and on-prem servers, especially those that use legacy platforms. In-house technologies, such as CRMs, CMSs, accounting solutions and billing platforms, took an initial investment to improve internal processes. Without proper maintenance and regular upgrades, these resources become sources of revenue loss, data silos and human errors.  SaaS solutions and cloud-based storage services offer flexibility and increased security, and these products publish regular updates to their software. This ensures your finance firm's digitalization platforms remain up to date. 2. Avoiding Data Silos Legacy systems are not the only solutions that can create data silos. Organizations that use multiple digitalization programs must ensure that these systems automatically sync data.  For instance, if multiple users input information into your firm's CRM, this data must sync with your CMS, client portal, ERP, etc. That way, duplicate information does not clog the system.  Data silos create mountains of inaccurate data, creating roadblocks. Digitalization will help financial firms overcome these roadblocks to growth by eliminating data silos and providing better planning and forecasting with real-time data for analysis. 3. Optimizing Finance Operations Financial professionals perform a vast array of duties throughout their day. Digitalization enables the automation of tedious financial tasks to optimize operations. These solutions offer new technologies such as: Automated billing software Expense management tools FP&A software AI-powered client portals And more It's essential to understand what financial organizations can automate and how difficult adaptation would be. The chart below from McKinsey breaks down each task based on whether adoption is possible using digitalization technologies. Source: McKinsey & Company McKinsey Global Institution’s automation research discovered that financial firms can automate approximately 42% of its finance activities and mostly automate another 19%. Keep in mind how this automation potential improves performance. 4. Supporting Business Scalability Modernization of a financial firm's FinOp tools enables scalability. This scalability is essential for specific sectors of finance, such as those in accounting (i.e., CPAs). This is due to the seasonal nature of their work.  Furthermore, a digital transformation in finance allows businesses to scale up or down as needed according to budget. CFOs of small to medium businesses can recommend additions to the company's tech stack that will work for them no matter how many employees work for the organization. Tools To Accelerate Digitalization in Finance A digital transformation in finance is not something your company can tackle overnight. Full integration into your organization's tech stack can take a year (or even longer), and wise CFOs understand that digitalization is an ongoing process. Ready to start driving digital transformation? Vena's award-winning Complete Planning platform provides CFOs with the tools required to accelerate digitalization. We offer a solution powered by Excel, simplifying integration and adaptation to bring data from your legacy systems to your centralized database, giving you the power of unified data.

The CFO is one of the highest-ranking executives in a company. Most hierarchy diagrams will place CFOs on equal footing with other chief officers (e.g., CTO, COO, etc.) and have the CFO report directly to the CEO and board of directors. As a CFO, managing the relationships between your CEO and board is key for the successful leadership of the company. To continue your professional growth in the role of CFO, we compiled some key concepts to consider as you manage the relationship between the CEO and the board of directors. Key Takeaways: The dynamics between a company’s CEO and board is unique due to various factors and identifying these dynamics is key to effective relationship management as a CFO. CFOs need to respect the chain of command between them and their CEO while still developing an independent relationship with their board of directors. CFOs need to communicate with transparency and with attention to the financial background of their CEO and board to build trust and effectively share company knowledge. Identify Current Board and CEO Dynamics The first step in effectively managing the relationship between the CEO and board of directors for your company is identifying the current landscape of those relationship dynamics. Knowing where things stand can help you maintain what is currently working and navigate areas for improvement. This applies regardless of how long you have been with the company or serving as CFO. Take a few moments to evaluate the current playing field at your company. Many factors contribute to C-suite and board dynamics that will result in unique relationships from company to company. Some of the factors to look for in this evaluation process include: Number of board members  Size and nature of the company (e.g., private or public, number of shareholders, etc.) The level of stakeholder interest among your board of directors (i.e., how much of the company do they own?) Personal or external relationships between board members and C-suite officials (i.e., where do loyalties lie?) The history (what prior roles have these people provided for the company that might influence their decision-making lens?) It’s important to continually build your understanding of board and CEO dynamics as it will give you necessary context for communicating information or framing recommendations.  Source: Gartner Respect the Chain of Command With Your CEO As the head of your C-suite and company, the CEO can be your greatest cheerleader and ally when it comes to interactions with your board. Likewise, you are an important reflection of the CEO’s performance as the person who communicates the company’s financial position to the board. A co-dependency exists between the both of you for mutual success and maintaining alignment when possible is beneficial. In many cases, alignment means respecting the chain of command between you and your CEO. It’s essential to building trust, credibility and rapport that can reduce friction and help push your company’s mission along. Demonstrating this respect often boils down to communications with your board of directors and allowing your CEO to lead the relationship between the C-suite and your board. Conflicts and disagreements will inevitably arise, but learning to resolve those disputes without board intervention will help you maintain that united front. Are You a CFO in Training To Be a CEO? The CFO is often a natural successor to the CEO, creating an inherent tension between the positions. If you have ambitions about being a CEO in the short or long-term, you will have a decision to make about sharing that drive with your CEO. Being upfront about your career aspirations could ease that tension by reassuring your CEO that time is in the distant future. Ultimately, that choice will depend on your timeline and other dynamics with your CEO. Develop a Relationship With Your Board While Respecting the Chain of Command Respecting the chain of command with your CEO and board doesn’t mean you can’t have a relationship with the board that is independent of the CEO. You will have moments where you must present information to the entire board, and you will have opportunities to build deeper relationships in communications with related subcommittees (e.g., the audit committee). Be mindful of other dynamics when developing relationships in these opportunities will help you grow while still being respectful to your CEO and other C-suite members. Join the Community Connect with your peers in the Plan To Grow™ member forum and bring your shared passion for finance planning and operations. Learn best practices, lend your expertise and get your questions answered. Lead With Transparency for Your CEO and Board of Directors One of your core responsibilities as CFO is communicating key financial and operational data to your CEO and board along with collaborating on related strategy development. Your CEO and board will expect transparency about the state of the business derived from your data points.  Being transparent will be easier in some cases compared to others—particularly when delivering good news versus bad news. The challenge of transparency will be in times of delivering unfavorable or unexpected results. However, this is when transparency is most important for maintaining trust. Managing this part of the job will be about delivering the news with proper context and demonstrating that you have command over the situation. Know Your Audience When Communicating Financial Information as CFO Being transparent about communicating key financial data also requires a firm understanding of your audience (i.e., the CEO and individual members of your board). Part of this understanding comes from knowing the relationship dynamics discussed above. However, knowing your audience as CFO also means meeting the CEO and board members at their level of financial familiarity.  You likely have mastery of finances that comes with its own set of acronyms and jargon. Communicate more effectively by knowing when these terms will be overwhelming to your audience and identifying opportunities to integrate technical financial concepts to help the board learn and grow. Collaborate More With Your CEO and Board With Vena Complete Planning At Vena, our mission is to help transform how business, finance and operations leaders Plan To Grow™ with the Vena Growth Engine—the SaaS platform and methodology that empowers and inspires your plans guides your growth journey. Our wide range of solutions in FP&A, extended planning, regulatory compliance reporting and other business planning functions can help you and your teams improve processes, increase efficiency and enhance communication throughout your organization, providing numerous opportunities for C-suite members and your board of directors to access valuable data and collaborate on company strategy by leveraging insights derived from that data. Vena Complete Planning can benefit all industries—but we offer tailored programming for banking, insurance, higher education, professional sports, healthcare and many other fields. Transform how you share data with your CEO and board and surprise yourself with what you can build together. Excel at More With Vena Check out how Vena’s Complete Planning platform can help you communicate more effectively with your CEO and board of directors.

A successful Chief Financial Officer (CFO) integrates your business's financial team with your services team. A strong financial background alone, however, isn't enough anymore. In today's market, technology is more integrated with financial services than ever before. This has consolidated services that were performed by multiple departments into one role: the CFO. Successful CFO candidates now need experience with fintech, digitalization and online marketing. While this shift in expectations for the CFO role predates the pandemic, the past two years have no doubt accelerated the change in expected CFO competencies. Key Takeaways: The CFO's function traditionally was to manage the budget and protect critical assets. Today, leaders expect CFOs to play a critical role in charting the company's future strategic performance. Successful CFOs provide value by forecasting future performance, planning how to achieve those goals, monitoring business performance and reacting with agility when changes in market conditions arise. Combining tech skills with financial wherewithal allows the CFO to manage risk, implement new technologies and lead the financial team with emerging strategies. The Role of a 21st Century CFO A recent survey found that over half of CFOs reported increased demand from C-level executives after the first two years of the pandemic. Because of their access to comprehensive information, CFOs can obtain key insights from internal stakeholders even in a remote work environment. Source: Toptal Today, the CFO must wear multiple hats. The rapidly accelerating pace of remote work has further caused business leaders to rely on CFOs to perform multiple tasks. These include roles in human resources, operations, sales, marketing and technological infrastructure projects. The three most sought-after CFO duties include: Increasing digitalization by upgrading technological infrastructure  Integrating new technologies into the organization  Developing the organization's products and services CFOs can perform these duties and hit key performance measures by adopting the following strategies or skill sets. 1. Championing Technology The CFO has a unique vantage point from which to envision the company's future. At peak performance, the CFO supports employee acquisition and retention and enables the business to weather unexpected global or market events.   First, the CFO must serve as a champion of new technology. They must herald new technology implementation and process execution. Using new technologies as appropriate makes the business more adaptable—ready to handle the next crisis.  Similarly, your CFO can implement automation. By automating routine processes, your CFO frees the finance team to perform higher-value tasks. This includes achieving business growth objectives and reviewing comprehensive data.  With a forward-looking CFO at the helm of your finance department, expect tech spending to increase. 2. Encouraging Inter-Departmental Collaboration The CFO has access to comprehensive business analytics data and budget performance metrics. They can play a more visible role by reviewing key insights from all performance levels.  Rather than hoard this information, CFOs can encourage transparency and build employee buy-in by sharing that data. For instance, a CFO should prioritize weekly check-ins with both C-level executives and mid-level management. This creates space for a productive dialogue among leadership.  Your CFO should also provide an overview of critical key performance indicators in at least monthly intervals. This gives employees a broader understanding of business objectives and helps them envision their own achieving company goals.  Every team member has a sense of ownership. Similarly, transparency also improves employee loyalty. Your CFO can use these meetings or other data sharing processes to reduce turnover, increase employee engagement and build higher customer satisfaction.  Finally, the entire finance team—beyond just the CFO—should spend time familiarizing themselves with other business departments and key stakeholders within them. This provides a wider understanding of company goals and assists the finance department in focusing on value creation for the organization as a whole. Join the Community Connect with your peers in the Plan To Grow™ member forum and bring your shared passion for finance planning and operations. Learn best practices, lend your expertise and get your questions answered. 3. Driving Digital Transformation The pandemic facilitated the wide-scale adoption of remote work across industries. This created an opportunity for companies to adopt new technology platforms and services geared toward replicating in-office productivity at home.  CFOs should take advantage of this transformation by increasing digitalization.  For instance, successful businesses have already shifted to data-driven decision-making models. Further adoption of automation and machine-learning technologies by CFOs increases productivity by: Standardizing Workflows: Accurate, real-time information collection enables C-level executives to make more informed decisions Facilitating Remote Closing: Using sophisticated accounting technologies allows geographically widespread financial teams to close accounting periods remotely with ease As a company leader, your CFO can demonstrate that technology is empowering. The CFO can also make the business case for technological upgrades, which provide a competitive advantage. Skill Sets of Successful CFOs The most important skill of a successful CFO is the ability to continue learning.       Source: Andrew Rudchuk An always-learning CFO keeps abreast of business and technological trends, provides insights that drive profits and growth and quickly generates high-quality conclusions.  Other top skills include: Technological Literacy: Adapting to new technologies requires the CFO to understand the value and abilities of new technology. They must also prepare for continuing education and technological management Strategic Planning: The repercussions of the global pandemic have caused inflation and prolonged supply chain woes.  The stock market now reflects this volatility. C-level executives need to rely on your CFO to guide procurement and general business decision making with limited resources and rising costs Digital Adaptability: The role of the CFO traditionally included baseline budgeting and financial management issues. But rather than manage information, today's economy requires the CFO to analyze this information for future planning. This includes strategies like flexible budgeting, forecasting business performance and mapping costs As the Role of CFO Continues To Evolve, So Too Should Your Skillset The CFO position was already in flux, but the past two years have accelerated the change. The role of a successful CFO is no longer limited to budgeting and asset management—today’s CFOs must wear multiple hats, including human resources, operations, finance and more. The Future of Planning Technology Learn how the latest advances in Complete Planning technology are empowering the strategic office of finance to transform FP&A, extended planning and beyond.

As a CFO or finance leader of your organization, your work influences each operation, product and service. Your organization's innovation methods (and corresponding budget) are no exception. Knowing where innovation avenues exist in your company and the value they bring can give you the necessary foundation for improving your related accounting, finance and treasury (AFT) decision-making.  Below, we uncover some of the different types of innovation your company can explore and discuss how CPM software solutions can help grow your business planning and resource allocation efforts. Key Takeaways: How to think of innovation as value creation that provides outcomes of either increased revenues or decreased costs. The types of innovation you need to be familiar with and how you can impact these approaches and bring added value. How CPM software can improve your company's innovation development through integrations that unify data for stronger decision-making by providing greater context and identifying correlations between different datasets. Defining Innovation as Value Creation Think about innovation within your company as an opportunity for creating added value. Innovation usually presents itself in at least one of two possible outcomes that could either deepen an existing value pool or create a new one. The first option is through the increased value of your organization's products and services, which translates to greater revenue and returns. The second outcome of innovation comes from improved business strategies and operations that decrease costs to deliver a product or service.  Truly beneficial innovation will often find ways to provide both outcomes (i.e., increased value with decreased cost). In other words, innovation is the continual practice of evaluating and adjusting the value-to-cost ratio of a project or operation. For today's CFO, this practice benefits from the use of CPM tools that offer accurate, up-to-date data for making quick and effective adjustments to value-to-cost ratios. Source: U.S. Census Bureau Different Innovation Avenues for CFOs To Explore Innovation depends on the creativity of your personnel's ideas, which naturally includes an element of risk and uncertainty. Your company's R&D projects and other brainstorming endeavors will always cost money, and your FP&A work, as the CFO, is the necessary bridge for identifying how to spend for continued innovation. However, the two rely on each other's continued success. The company needs your financial analysis to identify areas for innovation. Likewise, you need the company's innovation for financial growth. Expand and reframe your perspective on innovation by learning about each avenue in the descriptions below. 1. Product and Service Innovation Product and service innovation is about finding ways to modify or add to the portfolio of offerings you have that meet the needs and demands of your customer base. You may think of product and service innovation as the following types of activity:  Developing a new item or accessory to address the customer's pain point of a current product  Reconsidering your materials or manufacturing process to match customer expectations (e.g., environmental or societal concerns)  Increasing the potential use of a product through redesign 2. Innovation from “Lightbulb Moments” Your lightbulb moments are innovation breakthroughs that result in a major shift in your business. These are pivots outside the expected course of your business that lead to transformative growth. You may think of breakthroughs as innovation in its rawest form because you take bold ideas not necessarily grounded in the current business to achieve new heights. As a CFO, your skill set is especially useful in making lightbulb moments become a reality through careful attention to logistics and financial detail. Source: Alcor Fund 3. Innovating Through Your Processes and Operations Process innovation is about deepening your existing value pools by improving methods for delivering your product to the market. The focus of this form of innovation is taking the inefficiencies of your company's time, money and other capital resources to decrease costs. We often find these inefficiencies in our production procedures or the operations that are ancillary (but critical) to accessing the market, such as:  Shipping and delivery methods Sales, marketing and client acquisition efforts  Costs of compliance and quality assurance checks  Leveraging technology to reduce overhead  Innovations that come from improvements in your current business operations are often incremental, small adjustments that snowball into sustainable value. Having CPM software that provides opportunities for connecting your financial and operational data can shed light on new opportunities for driving your company's process innovation.  4. Private Innovation You may also think of innovation as being either private or public. Private innovation refers to your company's research and development department that is responsible for creating the trade secrets and other sensitive information that differentiates you from competitors. Your private innovations are about either creating a new and unique market opportunity or positioning yourself as a unique option in an industry ripe for disruption. 5. Public Innovation Public innovation, in comparison, focuses not only on the actual innovations of your company but on how your customer base perceives those innovations. A natural link exists between your branding strategies and the innovations of your product or business operations. It's about the story you tell the market about your business and how its actions establish it as a leader in your chosen field. Prioritize Business Innovation with CPM Software Your company's financial and operational data are essential for creating innovation opportunities. Finances are the singular most important metric for not only identifying opportunities, but for gauging innovation's success. CPM software helps CFOs and finance departments integrate data points across the many silos of a company (e.g., R&D, sales, manufacturing, legal, compliance, customer service, etc.) to establish a single source of truth for instant insights.  CPM software solutions unify financial reporting and analysis that allows decision makers to have the most accurate and holistic information available when planning for growth. Budgets, forecasts and other financial hurdles are not roadblocks to innovation. Rather, CFOs and finance decision makers are the gateways to innovation through the insights of their data. Nurture your company's growth strategies by leveraging the power of CPM software for greater financial reporting and operational insights. Meet With a Vena Expert Today At Vena, our mission is to help you Plan To Grow™. We offer a wide range of solutions in FP&A, extended planning, regulatory compliance reporting and other business planning functions. Our CPM software can benefit all industries, but we do have tailored solutions for fields such as SaaS, banking, insurance, higher education, professional sports, healthcare and many others. Transform your business's financial and operational planning to jumpstart innovations across your company's products and operations. Ready to start your own growth journey? See how Vena Complete Planning can spark your company's innovation.

Updating your colleagues on the latest financial information only matters so far that they understand the numbers. While this comes second nature to financial professionals, your organization's leadership team and entry-level professionals will not have the same background as you. The end goal of any presentation, after all, is to provide data-based conclusions. You can tailor any presentation to any audience. Incorporate the suggestions outlined in this blog to provide actionable next steps, highlight growth, identify potential areas for improvement and illustrate current successes.  By taking a strategic approach to your presentations, you can ensure that non-financial executives understand the data and message behind the numbers. Key Takeaways: People learn in different ways. While a spreadsheet or hard data may appeal to your finance team, learn to communicate visually or graphically as well. Present financial data in charts, slide shows, handouts or any other method you see fit.  Meet your audience where it is. In a mixed setting, you may have different versions of your presentation tailored to those with more or less financial acumen. You can create a handout or appendix to your presentation that meets the needs of each group. Consider developing internal continuing education programs for teaching company employees at all levels how to understand and work with financial information. This establishes trust among your team. Helping Non-Financial Executives Understand the Data As a CFO or financial team leader, you bring value to your organization in various ways.  Of course, you understand the company's financial planning, cash flow issues and asset portfolio—but your executive leadership team and other co-workers depend on your ability to explain this information in a manner they can understand. Source: Enterslice Adopting the following strategies will help make your information more digestible. 1. Know Your Audience An executive leadership team brings on a CFO to manage the company's financial duties. This also includes communicating financial information to non-financial executives so they can comprehend and act on that information.  This comes down to knowing your audience.  Before your presentation, consider who will be present. Is it a senior-level discussion related to business planning?  Will mid or entry-level staff be in attendance?  Which business units or departments need to understand the information you're presenting?  Answer each of these questions while drafting your presentation. Experiment with providing different versions of the presentation as well. For example, in an audience of mixed company, consider one handout for business units with financial knowledge and a different one for those who need to understand the key takeaways, but not the granular details.  You should also meet your audience where they're at in terms of their learning level. Recognize that all executives don't possess the necessary understanding of your team's financial information and data.  Also, account for your teammates' past experiences. Business units that don't typically deal with quantitative data may find the presentation of hard numbers overwhelming. The more you can empathize with your non-financial co-workers, the more you can equip them with the data necessary to meet your financial goals.  Empathizing with your team can help overcome any potential obstacles or tensions. 2. Tell a Story Besides empathizing with your teammates, you can build trust and buy-in by telling a story. Source: Gramener To tell a story, consider the audience. How are they best going to absorb the information you're providing? Different people learn in different ways. By varying your presentation style, you reach more of your audience and hold their interest.  You want to begin by giving a moral—don't just provide fast data as a string of numbers. Instead, explain the big takeaway you want your colleagues to leave with from your presentation. Then, provide an analysis to back up the moral. While complex financial information presented in a one-page summary may help, it doesn't necessarily mean your audience will understand the data. Try organizing your key facts and figures into an infographic or table. No matter the infographic you create, all data visualizations should combine data, design and function. Source: Orbit Media Now add context. For example, if you want to highlight the need for larger sales margins, use a successful colleague as an example. Walk through their key metrics to demonstrate how other colleagues can reach their goals. Join the Community Connect with your peers in the Plan To Grow™ member forum and bring your shared passion for finance planning and operations. Learn best practices, lend your expertise and get your questions answered. 3. Be Concise You and your financial team likely spent days or weeks obsessing over the precise numbers and financial details to prepare for the presentation. This makes it difficult to consolidate information into bite-sized chunks—particularly when every piece of information tells your team a different story.  Just as you must know your audience, you must understand their ability to understand complex figures. You'll need to defend your financial data while summarizing the key points.  Depending on your management style or that of your executive team, be prepared to defend your data. Prevent errors in the presentation and the underlying figures. Make the data directly available for users and leadership. 4. Keep It Relevant Nobody likes an unnecessary meeting.  Your audience needs to know what they did well and how they can improve. For example, immediately explain which targets the company hit and which it missed. Relate your presentation back to the executive leaders or other non-financial team members in the room.  You can keep your audience interested by tailoring takeaways for the whole group and individual business units. Shaping a Compelling Narrative With Your Data Is an Important Skill for Finance Leaders To Master Consolidating your financials and reporting the numbers is one thing, but shaping a powerful narrative to drive informed decision-making across the business is another. Strategic finance leaders don't just deliver the "what," but also the "why" behind every number and every business plan. That's exactly what data storytelling is all about and it's an essential skill every finance leader should master. The ability to convey actionable insights and help key stakeholders from across the business make important decisions based on financial data is a skill that strategic finance professionals at every level can benefit from to enhance their personal, professional and business understanding and growth. Take Your Financial Communication Skills to the Next Level Whether communication comes naturally to you or not, it's a critical skill in the new world of finance. Don't miss the CFO Confidential session—The Art of Impactful Communication, now available free and on demand on Plan To Grow—for tips on how financial professionals can "level up" their communication game.

Data-driven finance is becoming an essential function of CFOs and other business leaders who must leverage the power of technology to enhance company insights and strategy. However, knowing how to use and customize your FP&A solutions and other analytic tools will depend on your company's goals. As a result, figuring out where to start can be the biggest challenge for many. Thankfully we have several pioneers across multiple disciplines from whom we can draw inspiration. Read on to learn how seven business professionals are leading the charge on data-driven finance to help power organizational growth. Key Takeaways: CFOs and finance professionals increasingly see the value in using operational and other business data to provide the necessary context to financial data. Part of data-driven finance is focusing on the metrics that provide the greatest business insights and result in the greatest amount of financial growth. Using FP&A software that leverages automation, data integration and other technology, data-driven finance allows business professionals to proactively make decisions using current data instead of reacting based on data from months (or even years) prior. 1. John McLean: Current Health As the CFO of Current Health, John McLean understands that other metrics available in today's business environment greatly influence a company's financial state. Current Health is a healthcare company with the goal of delivering patient care to people when they are away from the doctor's office. John pays special attention to data on customer satisfaction with respect to their wearable devices because he knows the cost of acquiring business. This means he monitors customer use and adherence to their products. He believes that a strong focus on customer experience and satisfaction takes precedence over sales and growth numbers. 2. David Horan: NextGear Capital In the automotive industry, raw data can be overwhelming to consume and use for decision-making because of the many points of the business—including vehicle purchase, maintenance, repairs, warranty programs and more. David Horan is the VP of Finance for NextGear Capital and focuses on strategic planning. He uses an internal-risk scoring algorithm and data visualization dashboards to streamline data for addressing core needs such as determining price points, accurately predicting business risks and finding opportunities in the wholesale automotive marketplace. 3. Kevin Ingram: FM Global Kevin Ingram is the CFO of FM Global, a commercial property insurance company. Like most companies, profit is a top priority and indicator of success. However, Kevin realizes that the measure of profit requires a nuanced data approach. The company relies on the combined ratio metric to account for overall profitability by factoring insured loss costs and expenses with the company's earned premium. They review this metric monthly and on three to five-year time horizons. Source: PwC FREE Executive Dashboard Template for Excel View all of your Financial, Operational, People and Customer KPIs with this free best-practice Excel template. 4. John Collins: LivePerson After an extensive career as a data scientist, in 2020, John Collins became the Finance Chief of LivePerson, a brand-to-consumer messaging company. The company supports businesses by helping them measure the impact of their brand and manage customer signals as they happen. In the short term, John's focus has been on addressing data connection issues that can offload, extract, transform and load (ETL) tasks for his finance team—most of which automate the reconciliation of accounts for things such as cash flow reporting. His long-term mission for the company's system layer, however, is to expand the reach of its data. His hope is for people, regardless of skill sets, to be able to explore financial or other data of interest in a conversational way. In other words, they don't need to be data scientists to obtain and understand key business information. 5. Ilan Cohen: The Digital CFO As a self-described digital CFO, Ilan Cohen has led several different data projects in various applications. For example, he leveraged the access to data from open banking to develop a product that would help lending companies predict a loan applicant's likelihood of funding based on creditworthiness. This data-based approach resulted in a 300% increase in funded loans. Additionally, Ilan used other data frameworks to help a company intervene in customer relationships to improve retention rates, noting the value of keeping existing customers over finding new ones. Source: EBizCharge 6. Edwin Ang: Foodpanda Senior Financial Controller Edwin Ang for Foodpanda, a food delivery company, has seen its dashboard—which provides several data points for addressing profit and loss—as one of the company's greatest internal achievements. The dashboard's real-time data provides insight into the effectiveness of user incentives, pricing, new customer reach and other metrics. The immediacy of the data allows the company to proactively make decisions instead of waiting for the month to close and relying on old data. 7. Ben Goodband: London Stock Exchange Group Interim CFO for Data and Analytics Ben Goodband at the London Stock Exchange Group uses cloud-based software and machine learning predictive analytics to increase the accuracy of forecasts on sales data. Ben noted the adoption transition for this new technology system was challenging because of old processes but said the key was collaboration among team members in traditionally siloed aspects of the company—such as finance and data science. What’s more, Ben believes the CFO is a necessary bridge between these groups, thanks to their ability to frame and contextualize questions around company strategy. Data-Driven Finance Solutions Transform how your company accumulates and shares data to jumpstart innovation across your company's products and operations.