5 CFO SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PIVOTING FROM COVID 19 AND BEYOND Its safe to say that the need to digitally transform business backends has morphed from mission possibly to mission critical. We had the honor of co-hosting a virtual executive panel with the world-leading news organization, the Financial Times, that addressed the changing needs and upcoming challenges facing the office of the CFO. This whitepaper covers the insights discussed by the CFO panel. Malcolm Moore Technology News Editor, Financial Times Chitra Balasubramanian Chief Financial Officer, CircleCI (Computer software, California) Watch the webinar: Giving CFOs the tools for effective financial planning CFOs have had a lot on their plate this last year. In between re-forecasting, re-planning, and re-organizing their businesses in the moment, theyve had to keep a pulse on the future. Customers needs have changed, but for how long? The way businesses are run has changed, but will they stay that way? Business models have been upended, but will they be viable in the future? So. Many. Questions! Uncertainty isnt the only certainty; more than ever, organizations need the ability to pivot and pivot fast. Now a clich, the need to pivot is a reality that, unfortunately, isnt going anywhere. Throughout their discussions, our esteemed CFO panel identified five critical focus areas that helped their organizations pivot through this crisis and will continue focus on so as they face an uncertain future head-on. Rakesh Thakrar Group Chief Financial Officer, Phoenix Group (Financial services, UK) Alessio Lolli Director, General Management, CCH Tagetik Shawn Duffy Senior Vice President first, you must identify your KPIs. As the pandemic has taught us, by identifying fundamental data across your business, KPIs act like barometers indicating whether youre on the right path or need to make a change. Of course, there are known industry benchmarks that can help direct our attention, but KPIs will differ across different business models. This is why an understanding of KPIs at multiple and granular levels is essential. A nuanced understanding of your KPIs Duffy illustrated what this looks like for Viasat: “When you look at this in commercial air, for example, patterns change very dramatically based on flight paths and time-of-day. Theyre very different data sets than what happens in a rural community that were connecting. Its a layered approach of knowing the dataset thats right for the business model and how that dataset connects up to a companys OKRs and KPIs. It has to connect so you can make sure that you can anticipate where youre going to go next as youre making a business decision.” 5 5 CFO secrets to successful business pivoting from COVID and beyond 6 Connecting operational and financial data Duffy hits on an important point here: the interconnection of operational and financial data. One without the other is like a budget without a forecast or historical data without actuals; its only half the picture. By understanding how, say, the market impacts demand, operations impact production, marketing impacts sales and what this looks like on the balance sheet you can generate a meaningful strategy that will positively influence those KPIs. Advanced planning for all From logistics to marketing to sales to production, every department could benefit from advanced planning tools and a comprehensive understanding of how their results resonate across the business. But there is a strong argument for keeping finance at the wheel. Balasubramanian elaborates, “CFOs are close to the company-levels goals and metrics, and what links up to the financial metrics. This why CFOs are so well-positioned to help with the data portion. There are so many elements of data within the product related to pricing; its important to understand the relationship between those and OKRs and other company metrics in a way that builds over time.” In the COVID-economy, CFOs have an opportunity to create a new and improved business model that better fits the reality of todays world. When we boil down the insights provided by the CFO panel, we can confidently say investments in technology drive future opportunity. The pivots required by the pandemic have provided CFOs the perfect excuse to allocate budget, time, and human resources to overhauling long-standing but outdated processes holding many finance teams back. We all have a heightened awareness of how critical modernized technology truly is. Digitizing the office of finance is no longer a should-have but a must-have. Closing thoughts 5 CFO secrets to successful business pivoting from COVID and beyond 7 What if we told you that you could develop a robust culture of analytics in your organization, complete with mature analytics, a comprehensive information systems strategy, and explainable machine learning? Then what if we told you that you could manage it all without involving IT or adding talent to your team? To learn more about how we can meet your unique needs, book a complimentary consultation today. BOOK A DEMO The benefits of a finance-friendly analytics solution Our solutions are built by Finance for Finance. Every CCH Tagetik solution has been carefully developed hand-in-hand with our customers. With open ears and an eye for innovation, we continue to produce solutions and release regular updates so that were in step with Finances immediate needs. We built the CCH Tagetik Finance Transformation Platform, powered by the Analytic Information Hub, to be owned and operated by Finance. The platform gives Finance the ability to captain their own ship through a Finance-friendly frontend that users can intuitively navigate. 5 CFO secrets to successful business pivoting from COVID and beyond 8 Finance-owned: No IT intervention or data scientists needed. Our solution was built for Finance to manage, maintain, and administer. Since the CCH Tagetik Finance Transformation Platform readies your data for AI and ML and comes with a pre-configured data model, you can focus on analysis without worrying about the science behind it. Self-service analytics: Our solution gives you the tools to respond to change and anticipate the future on-the-fly. You can play out the impacts of different assumptions, test scenarios, and consider various courses of action with the click of a button. Ad hoc analysis: Simply drag, drop or drill into metrics and display your results on our intuitive dashboards. You can easily share those insights with users across your organization after youve illustrated trends or visualized variance.