Foreword
Over the past decade, the world has faced unprecedented global risk, economic volatility and a surge in digitalization. These forces are reshaping investor priorities, challenging corporate growth, and forcing companies to rethink their operations. CFOs have always been at the heart of a business’s analytical operations, but recent events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have really seen them step into the spotlight. Businesses are increasingly relying on finance leaders to steer them through uncertainty and ensure resilience.
The question I, and many other C-suite leaders, continue to ask is: what do the next 10 years hold for business? And how can we empower CFOs to become more strategic drivers of corporate innovation and growth?
This is exactly what we at OneStream have set out to answer in our Finance 2035 initiative. This ongoing, research-driven project aims to foster a dialogue among finance leaders, business executives, and investors on how the Office of the CFO must evolve to take on a more strategic role in guiding the business through macroeconomic uncertainty and a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
As part of this initiative, our Return to Investment report is based on a global study of more than 2,000 business leaders. It reveals that CEOs and investors see the CFO playing an increasingly strategic role. In fact, CFO competence outranks CEO competence as the second most important consideration for investor decision-making, just behind market expansion opportunity. And, on average, investors increased their initial investment in an organization where the CFO was the main strategic growth driver by 2.6%.
However, today’s CFOs are juggling competing priorities. They are expected to have a focus on both governance and growth; be both operational and strategic; and be profit-led yet purpose-focused. At the same time, they’re navigating limited crossfunctional collaboration, legacy tech limitations, and talent shortages.
A modernized finance function, driven by unified data, is a strategic imperative for the future. The actions CFOs take today will shape corporate growth over the next decade and beyond.
I invite you to join the dialogue and share your thoughts on how CFOs can become more strategic than ever and help their organizations achieve growth. Learn more about our Finance 2035 initiative at: www.finance2035.com.
