Going Beyond the Book 2023

Going Beyond the Book 2023 | 17 [ THE CHANGING ROLE OF CFOs ] CFOs from leading Indian companies. The survey questionnaire, analysis and report output consisted of: 9 A combination of quantitative ( r a t i ng s ca l e 1 t o 5 ) and qualitative aspects to get a holistic perspective on the evolving role of CFOs across areas such as risk management, enterprise t r ans f o rma t i on , co rpo r a t e strategy, investor and other stakeholder management, Board engagement, amongst others SHIFTING PRIORITIES FOR CFOs Thi s sect ion captures how the engagemen t l eve l s wi t h bo t h traditional and emerging activities are undergoing a dynamic shift in the life of CFOs, and sheds light on the level of re-prioritization needed in the years ahead. Against each engagement activity, CFOs provided their rating based on evolving importance. It is evident from the results that Corporate St rategy , Enterpr i se Transformation, Risk Management, Board Engagement , IT - Digi tal and Cybersecuri ty, and Investor Management have seen a sharp rise in engagement levels fromCFOs andwill continue to do so in the years ahead. Having said that, the engagement levels in traditional activities such as Internal Audit, Regulatory Compliance and Product/service Pricing have remained at the same level or shown 1. Enterprise-wide and / or operational risks 2. including portfolio strategy, management and ESG 3. including transactions, execution and postmerger integration 4. shareholders, banks, private equity, other financial institutions Ratings: 1 = Less engagement levels; 5 = High engagement levels Source: IFMR GSB at Krea University, D&B analysis a decline because of technology adoption. ESSENTIAL TRAITS OF NEW-AGE CFOs ACFO today is often seen as a “Deputy CEO”, co-owning the growth and resilience agenda of the company. In addition to the traditional skills of accounting, auditing, financial analysis, procurement and compliance, CFOs today, need to strengthen their interpersonal and relationship management ski l ls, story-tel l ing capabilities by interpreting data and mining insights, have decent levels of technology fluency to ask the right questions and get the right answers, as wel l as understand the larger demands of the society to fulfil the larger corporate purpose. Dun & Bradstreet