Going Beyond the Book 2023

Going Beyond the Book 2023 | 23 [ NAVIGATING THE EVOLVING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT: THE CFO’s WAY ] The largest proportion, i.e., 85% stated that one of the ways of demonstrating their commitment to ethical financial practices is by ‘Ensuring compliance w i t h i ndu s t r y s t a nda r d s a nd regulations.’ Another 84% believe that ‘Promoting transparency and accountability in financial reporting’ is essential to upholding ethics within the finance function. Notably, about 7 in 10 CFOs believe that the ‘Consideration of ESG into financial decisions’ is crucial to driving ethical and sustainable business operations. HOW ARE CFOs DRIVING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TO IMPROVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE? As businesses enter an era defined by rapid technological advancements and digital disruption, the role of CFOs as taken center stage in leading the digital transformation journey. CFOs are no longer confined to traditional finance tasks but are now catalysts of innovations, leveraging technology to drive efficiency, insights, and sustainable growth. In our research, we also asked CFOs about how they leverage technology and data analytics to drive organizations’ financial performance. Over 80% said that they ‘Implement advance financial systems & tools’ as well as ‘Use data to identify trends and opportunities andmake informed decisions.’ Interestingly, over half the CFOs (55%) stated that they leverage new, cutting-edge tech solutions such as Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) to drive organization’s financial operations, indicating that CFOs are keeping up with disruptive technology rather well. Dun & Bradstreet