17 ;`Yjl,2Managing tomorrow’s risks executive function. This team will lead on major priorities, Looking ahead five years from now, what are the top finance capabilities that will from back-office operations/shared services to accounting be critical to meeting the demands of your organization? and control. Job titles will become less important as people demonstrate their value through the skills they bring and the Strategic risk management, responsibilities they assume. including reputational, 57% regulatory and cyber risk • As the economy becomes more connected, and collaboration and effective information flows become Sophisticated planning 56% increasingly important, finance business partners and and forecasting centers of excellence will provide the interface not only with Big data and andvanced analytics internal stakeholders, but also external stakeholders and to provide business intelligence 53% their counterparts in ecosystem partners. Business partners and management information and centers of excellence will become the heart of the function, with permeable organizational borders that allow Corporate reporting, including them to build effective relationships and accelerate data and meeting increased demands of 46% information flows to (and from) external stakeholders, such stakeholders, from boards to investors as technology partners. Management of regulations to meet 40% • As finance and accounting processes are increasingly increasing and changing requirements automated, the finance back-office will shrink, as a virtual workforce begins to replace large numbers of full-time Investor relations 33% employees in shared service or outsourced arrangements. The concentration of people effort and headcount in the finance function will instead shift up into the business <]ka_faf_l`]^mlmj]^afYf[]gh]jYlaf_eg\]d partnering and center of excellence layers. Tomorrow’s finance operating model will look very different from today’s as finance leaders respond to a more demanding and connected world. As Figure 2 (p.18) illustrates, the future operating model will be shaped by a number of drivers: • As the CFO role in many organizations expands to such a degree that it becomes too big for one individual to do well, CFOs will need to pull their best leaders into a finance ;]fl]jkg^]p[]dd]f[]2Yf]ngdnaf_[gf[]hl In many organizations, finance centers of excellence emerged as a means of streamlining and centralizing expertise for the use of stakeholders across the business, particularly in areas of specialism, such as analytics or tax. However, as the demands on finance functions and the tools available to them change, finance leaders should be open-minded about revisiting how to use these centers to their best advantage. For example, analytics centers of excellence — rather than being located at the organization’s head office — might be more strategically located with proximity to the best skills, such as near an academic or university hub where there is the best chance of finding graduates with analytics education and experience. ey.com/dnaofthecfo