Driving and enabling the shift to digital Less than half (49%) feel they make a significant or very significant contribution to the shift to a digital business model (see Chart 5). Digital business model innovators Chart 5: How much of a contribution do you make to the shift to a digital • GE Aviation shifts to an outcome-based business model, selling business model? “power by the hour” rather than selling an engine plus a service 4 package. Very significant contribution 18 • Red Bull, the energy drink maker, expands into media, creating Significant contribution 31 content from TV shows to magazines and distributing that content across multiple channels, from TV to the web.5 Average contribution 30 • Nike uses advances in wearables and sensors to create a fitness 6 tracking community and build direct relationships with customers. Small contribution 13 4. “Commerce trends: Moving from goods to services,” The Future of Commerce, 10 April 10 2015. No contribution at all 8 5. “When a Brand Becomes a Publisher: Inside Red Bull’s Media House,” mediashift.org, 10 November 2014. % 6. “Tomorrow’s business will harness a new digital reality,” Financial Times, 13 March 2014. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 This suggests that CFOs have not yet come to grips with the impact digital The CFO’s role in digital is likely to have on their organization, nor what their remit should be in While many CFOs surveyed clearly feel that digital sits outside their remit, positioning the organization to adapt and secure its relevance. they have an important role to play in both championing and embedding “Many large, traditional companies are caught between David and Goliath,” digital within their organization. For example: says Laurence Buchanan, Digital Leader for EMEIA, EY. “On the one hand, • CFOs need to understand new digital business models, how they can be you’ve got the technology mega-vendors disrupting every sector, be it applied to their sector and organization, and new ways of raising capital and insurance, health care or automotive. On the other hand, you’ve got disruptive financing such models. startups who have no legacy and can completely turn a business model on its • CFOs can leverage digital technologies within the finance function to head. Most people are caught in the middle, with yesterday’s business model improve data processing and reporting. In-memory computing has the and yesterday’s technology.” potential to revolutionize data analysis speeds, dramatically reducing the burden on the finance function. Partnering for performance Part 5: the CFO and the chief executive officer 12