In the digital age, businesses need to be agile, just to survive. Consumers' demands are unpredictable, and digital technologies and internet-enabled new business models are disrupting all sectors. To flourish in this environment, businesses must be highly adaptable and capable of rapid, constant change.
Just as an agile business must be ahead of the strategy and technology curve, so too must finance. The research report, "Agile Finance Revealed: The New Operating Model for Modern Finance" provides key insights to empower business and finance professionals to support greater agility in their organizations, paving the way for greater success in today's rapidly-changing economy.
Cloud computing technologies put the new operating model for modern finance within the reach of all businesses – large and small. However, the challenge then is to implement a change management program and to develop or recruit the talent that's needed to implement an effective cloud strategy.
To ensure success, the CFO must have a clear vision for the evolution of finance in the organization, a roadmap for delivering change, and a strategy for onboarding the right skills. Partners should also be selected on merit, considering their experience of delivering similar change programs at other organizations.
The new operating model for modern finance empowers management accountants to provide objective, rational and measured commercial solutions to improve decision making and performance management. Here's how.
Recent AICPA and CIMA research has found that management accountants provide the objectivity and multi-disciplinary collaboration needed to generate greater insights and to improve business performance. However, modern management accountants require strong business understanding and influencing skills, as well as a good knowledge of data sources and data analytics.
Based on our research, we believe that management accountants stand to gain more from an agile finance model than any other type of finance professional in the digital era.
