When it comes to business expansion, CFOs are of a common mind: Stay off my turf.
A vast majority of them — 81% — believe they should be the primary driver of growth at their company, according to research by SAP Concur. Only 9% agreed that growth should be shared across the C-suite.
However, those views are not necessarily shared by their direct reports, according to the global survey of 350 CFOs and other senior finance leaders, as well as 115 HR leaders and 115 IT leaders.
Within the finance space, far fewer senior vice presidents of finance (54%) and heads of finance (44%) think CFOs should be anointed as the prime driver of growth.
SAP Concur strongly suggested that finance chiefs may be missing opportunities to further enhance their influence through collaboration. “CFOs must prioritize becoming a strategic partner to all business functions,” the expense management software vendor said in its research report. This “will help the organization keep up with technological advances, navigate regulatory changes and adapt to evolving economic conditions.”
Indeed, more than half (52%) of IT leaders want to collaborate with finance on cost management and reduction, while 50% want to work together on investment and technology tools, according to the report.
What are the barriers to better cross-functional efforts? A majority (58%) of finance leaders said the biggest one is conflicting departmental priorities, and 57% of IT leaders agreed. However, among IT leaders, 57% cited insufficient data sharing and transparency.
Likewise, HR stood apart when it came to ways to enable better cooperation. While HR leaders were generally oriented toward aligning shared goals and KPIs, only 11% of finance leaders identified that as a key priority. “More effort is needed to get finance and HR on the same page,” the report stated.
Finance leaders aren’t exactly in lockstep with their counterparts in IT, either.
For example, more than half (59%) of finance leaders said they plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets, and 27% of CFOs have taken over cybersecurity responsibilities in the past two years.
Yet only 20% of finance heads said they plan to enhance collaboration with their chief information security officer to drive that agenda. That compared with 42% of IT leaders who are looking to improve cybersecurity collaboration.
And, despite the anxiety associated with growing cyberattack risks, just 16% of finance leaders said they will slow down growth initiatives in order to heighten their focus on the evolving cybersecurity landscape.
SAP Concur noted that CFOs and CISOs should work together to identify critical data assets, determine potential vulnerabilities, and establish strategies to safeguard those assets.
“They can also bring in other leaders such as the chief [digital] transformation officer to ensure cybersecurity is factored into the organization’s transformation plans from the beginning,” the report said.
