Growth opportunities are being hampered by a lack of readiness in technology and a skills gap within the Finance team, according to a survey by EY.
The ambition of chief financial officers in terms of investment and value creation for their respective organisations is being impacted, as 68% of those polled say definition of enterprise value must change.
Further, the EY Global DNA of the CFO survey found that 60% of CFOs say they want to lead on value creation, but only 25% front vital investment decisions and just 26% lead value creation discussions.
Only 21% view their AI preparedness as leading or advanced while most still have only a limited grasp and are having a hard time to see AI’s full potential.
EY reveals that one of the key barriers to CFOs fulfilling their potential as value creators is the challenge of measurement, with 49% believing that traditional metrics cannot capture the value created by technology, data, new roles, or even long-term investments.
Meanwhile, 50% say that a big obstacle is the difficulty in proving ROI upfront, and 68% believe the current metrics need to be redefined.
EY points out that a fundamental challenge revolves around leadership capabilities that are not keeping up with the fast-changing demands of the CFO role.
The survey found that 38% of CFOs think they are evolving faster than their leadership teams across the wider finance function, and 68% believe they need new skills and leadership styles if they are to remain effective.
Fifty percent want leadership development to be available across the finance team, in order to prevent succession risks.
The report outlines a series of recommendations to aid CFOs in building resilient, innovative finance functions which serve as strategic partners to businesses:
- Overhaul value measurement and take ownership of key investment decisions.
- Build AI readiness through strong data foundations and skills investment.
- Elevate people and culture as core priorities.
- Ensure adaptability, collaboration, and confidence with new technologies.
- Accelerate leadership development to strengthen succession pipelines.
- Redesign roles and operating models to free up time for value creation.
