How financial leadership can help boost performance for organisations

How financial leadership can help boost performance for organisations

CFOs today are expected to drive long-term growth and performance in organisations, and are involved in strategic decision making outside finance. In many industries, finance teams must help determine where organisations should invest in new technologies to keep up to date with digital transformation, according to SAP Concur.

The latest survey by Oxford Economics and SAP Concur reports that fast-growing, successful organisations excel at managing expenses and are more likely to make use of technology that helps them track and analyse spending, including travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses.

Matt Goss, managing director, ANZ, SAP Concur, said:

“CFOs can help organisations understand the link between superior financial performance and cost control. Finance teams can use analytics to understand their organisation’s spending trends in T&E, procurement, and supply chain, as well as pinpoint the cause of rising costs and wages for organisations.

“They see finance as an internal service within their organisation, and look for tools to help them serve all its different parts. Automating reporting can be about efficiency, however, from the CFO’s perspective, it can also be about getting a better quality of information. Developing higher-quality data can help lead organisations to better discussion around value propositions and how to drive value for the business.”

To explore what the top-performing organisations do differently from others, the survey identified six traits that make a finance leader:

Have strong influence beyond the finance function.

1. Drive strategic growth initiatives.
2. Improve efficiency with automation.
3. Be effective at core finance processes.
4. Collaborate regularly with business units across the entire organisation.
5. Work closely with governance, risk, and compliance.

When the finance function is proactive in these six areas, it pays off for the organisation. Businesses have a significantly tighter grip on costs, and make the most of technology innovations, including tools that automate routine tasks to improve efficiency and performance.

Matt Goss said:

“Organisations can’t have automation without embracing technology. However, those who have the right tools in place can help CFOs manage costs, unearth new efficiencies as they analyse ever larger streams of data, and take laborious, repetitive work away from staff to improve business efficiency.”

References
(1) – https://www.concur.com/sites/default/files/effective_spending_management_boosts_performance_oxford_economics_2017.pdf