Chief financial officers need to focus on several key areas, including where the business risks and opportunities lie, prioritizing talent recruitment and retention, and digitizing operations. They're investing in RPA, AI, and other technologies to help.
With rising interest rates, continuing supply shortages, and increases in energy costs ahead, CFOs today need to be strategic and nimble, and ready to respond to changing economic and market conditions. Given this and heading into 2023, CFOs need to focus on several key areas, including where the business risks and opportunities lie, prioritizing talent recruitment and retention, and digitizing operations. A recent survey from research firm Gartner found talent is the top challenge facing CFOs heading into 2023, with accurate forecasting and cost management following close behind. "Following the massive changes brought on by the global pandemic, no company or business is the same as it was three years ago," says Tom Donnelly CFO at Datasite. "And while some have been challenged, others have thrived." He explains that as a finance leader, it's important to understand how to drive growth for the organization, while also being prepared for the possibility of higher operational costs next year. "CFOs need to understand where new customers or revenue streams can be generated, or new products or services can be offered to ignite new growth," he says. This could mean something as big as a potential partnership or acquisition, or a new marketing or sales strategy. In 2023, they will need these strategies to offset higher business costs and minimize any potential losses. "At Datasite, we continue to invest in innovation," Donnelly says. "For example, during the pandemic, we introduced three new products to help dealmakers market assets, prepare assets, or acquire assets." CFOs Tap RPA, AI to Improve Performance Gartner analyst Marko Horvat points to robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) as among the technologies increasingly being used in finance to increase the speed, accuracy, and auditability of the finance function. "It's not just experience with technologies and technology literacy that CFOs are looking…