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Perspectives

The CFO Agenda

CFO Insights

Ask CFOs today who and what are setting their agenda, and they might say: The CEO for sure. Certainly, shareholders and the Street. Employees: they’re the engine. Customers and suppliers—a company couldn’t exist without them. The board of directors, to some extent. In many degrees, the environment. And there’s also international conflicts and the head-spinning pace of technology changes. But with changes come new possibilities.

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Chief financial officers have always had to deal with new—sometimes unforeseen—issues. However, the very nature of change appears to often be, well, changing. Speed has altered the equation, often leaving little time to make decisions, let alone weigh options. Geopolitical turmoil, for one, has spread lightning fast, forcing companies to act swiftly to try to secure supply chains and, where necessary, pull out of once lucrative markets. Sources of capital have tightened, while the cost of capital itself has escalated. Increasingly, stakeholders and investors are applying pressure on companies to both improve performance and act on climate change. Meanwhile, breakthrough, possibly disruptive, technologies like generative AI seem to be arriving on the scene at a dizzying pace.

The reality is, the job description for a chief financial officer has expanded mightily in the past few years. Thus, when disruptions happen, CFOs will likely feel it on a number of fronts. Indeed, consider the wide array of board-level considerations that often involve input from CFOs.

The CFO Agenda

To varying degrees, all of these topics are front and center for many chief financial officers. In some cases, they are reframing the job itself, pushing finance executives well beyond traditional functional boundaries. And while these seven drivers typically require CFOs to think big-picture—and years out—finance chiefs still need to make sure that their teams deftly handle the day-to-day, core tasks of the finance function.

About Deloitte's CFO Program

The CFO Program brings together a multidisciplinary team of Deloitte leaders and subject-matter specialists to help CFOs stay ahead in the face of growing challenges and demands. The Program harnesses our organization’s broad capabilities to deliver forward-thinking and fresh insights for every stage of a CFO’s career—helping CFOs manage the complexities of their roles, tackle their company’s most compelling challenges, and adapt to strategic shifts in the market.

Learn more about Deloitte’s CFO Program.

Acknowledgments

We thank the following for their support in developing The CFO Agenda 2023: Patricia Brown, Jessica Day, John Goff, Dean Hobbs, Mike Licata, Alexandra Pace, Stephanie Veljacic, and Ryan Ventura.

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