9 FINANCEOUTLOOKINDIAAUGUST, 2024Today, the CFO's role has become overarching which transcends traditional operations such as meeting all regulatory deadlines on time, making sure there are accounting controls in place, and managing cash and working capital. As the CFO's role widens, this position growth is a response to the shifting macro-factors that businesses face, which appear to be more complicated and interwoven than ever before. These landscape-rattling tendencies are outlined below: 1. Capital markets characterized by high borrowing rates and uncertainty about potential interest rate decreases provide CFOs with a changing target when pricing potential investments. 2. Geopolitical tension increases risk and complexity for enterprises. When hostilities erupt or transit routes get blocked, protecting cross-border assets and keeping products flowing via supply networks may become enormous issues. 3. Demographics, particularly aging populations, cause some financial executives to reconsider product mixes and company portfolios, with some firms reconsidering how they serve younger clients. 4. Technology is evolving at a dizzying rate. As a result, CFOs may find themselves working as engineers, collaborating with IT and assisting their C-suite colleagues in making educated decisions about whether and how to incorporate AI into operations. 5. Environmental norms and regulations are anticipated to force CFOs to include sustainability into capital allocation choices in order for their firms to compete in a low-carbon world. More broadly, finance executives must find methods to strike a compromise between the duty to address climate issues and the drive to produce value for shareholders. Ground-Level View The following six drivers appear to have risen to top-of-mind problems for CFOs: 1. Value creation: Building value for stakeholders necessitates a fresh perspective - one that enables CFOs to go beyond stock prices, ROI, and the next quarter's outcomes. Investments in climate and equality efforts, for example, may not provide easily quantitative results.2. Talent and Culture: Finance executives may need to prioritize hiring or upskilling workers who have shown the ability - and willingness - to adapt swiftly to changing demands. 3. AI and Digital Transformation: Before firms can realize the full promise of GenAI, CFOs will most likely need to address concerns of talent, governance, and risk. 4. Operational Efficiency & Resilience: Finance chiefs should collaborate closely with procurement officers and functional leaders to enhance supply chain efficiency and resilience, as well as with chief information security officers to address cyber threats. 5. Climate and Sustainability: Finance leaders must examine the possible implications of climate and sustainability while maintaining their emphasis on development. 6. Enterprise Security and Risk: CFOs may need to devote resources into analytical tools that may offer an overview of how external challenges may affect the firm. These drivers, like the larger forces at work, are not discrete entities that can be easily identified. They, too, are merging and connecting. So to say, CFOs roles and responsibilites are continuously changing as per the eveolving market dynamics. Hence CFOs must stay parallel with today's ever changing market dynamics and broaden their area of responsibilities time and again. THE 2024 CFO AGENDAFinance Outlook India Team
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