Finance
CFOs play a vital role in guiding businesses through the storm of change
Published by linker 5
Posted on September 2, 2020
5 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by linker 5
Posted on September 2, 2020
5 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
By Tim Wakeford, VP Financials Product Strategy at Workday
With the UK economy expected to shrink by as much as 10% challenging times lie ahead for many businesses. Even before COVID-19, a variety of political, economic, social, environmental, and technological factors were putting pressure on leaders to adapt quickly to change.
But how do you adapt to such an unpredictable environment? How can leaders choose what to prioritise, when a single shift in the wind can reshape the immediate future for an entire sector? And how does an organisation stay focused when the pace of change is increasing with little to no warning?
To answer these questions we first need to better understand the macro-forces that are ramping up the speed of transformation and how they are impacting the finance function.
The macro challenges driving uncertainty
Globally, we are seeing strained trade relations between the U.S. and China, and in the UK we have the added concerns around building new relationships without the solid platform of our pre-Brexit EU partners. The move out of the EU not only brings market instability but also regulatory changes that need to be accounted for.
Environmental forces are also impacting organisations’ priorities, with central banks and other supervisory authorities considering climate change as a risk to financial stability. A recent report by Deloitte also found that 70 per cent of CFOs are feeling under pressure from clients when it comes to climate change. Outside of the pandemic, California’s recent wildfires and the 2019 Australian bushfires brought this discussion into sharper focus. As climate incidents become more common, businesses will need to tackle the potential impacts they bring to their operations, such as risk management and the supply chain.
Another pressure that’s driving CFOs to action is the need to respond to social change. Forward-thinking leaders now see that both employees and customers are prioritising integrity, holding companies accountable for what they do — or fail to do — to contribute to a more inclusive and citizen-driven economy. The recent Black Lives Matter movement is a clear example of this, where companies that donated to the cause were praised or criticised, depending on their past actions. Ultimately, even though this isn’t about profit, research shows that social commitment ends up having an impact on business growth.
A storm of pressure and opportunity
While handling this combination of macro-forces may seem like an impossible task, COVID-19 has shown that organisations can mobilise when forced to do so. Emerging digital technologies allowed millions of workers to continue to work remotely and shift operations in a matter of weeks. Over the last few months, we also saw the spotlight fall on companies that took the crisis as an opportunity to pivot and refocus their efforts to collaborate in the production of ventilators. Many companies will emerge from this crisis revitalised, having learned to self-disrupt and change the way they do business.
More importantly, the pressure of the pandemic will have helped them learn to do this with agility. After surveying over 900 professionals, we’ve found that organisations that were leading in their markets were 10 times more likely to react quickly to change.
Finance holds the key to change
Not all businesses are ready for this. Only 25% of finance leaders feel confident that their planning processes prepare them to respond quickly to market shifts. CFOs have been impeded by fragmented and slow running systems that have stopped them from acting quickly. However, challenges brought on by the pandemic, such as the need to work from home, also brought solutions that will become the new default for the finance department. Workday customer Aon, for example, was forced to change its IT investments so that they could continue to close the books with the entire financial office working from home. For the first time, the team delivered a 100% virtual financial close, finding that it was one of the most seamless closes they’ve ever had.
In addition to changing systems that are slowing organisations down, CFOs must also overhaul their processes, addressing everything from the way they think about recruiting and developing skills, to how they plan and measure success. Being responsive isn’t enough; processes need to become active so that leaders can plan and re-plan continuously as internal and external events evolve, informing all parts of the businesses to drive fast decision-making.
Agility to respond to the macro-forces impacting business
The macro-forces driving economic disruption and the demand for insights to enable a faster more effective response put the finance function in a position to be the leaders of growth and innovation for their businesses. Disruptions in the economy can be challenging, and even deadly for organisations that aren’t well-prepared. But for organisations that respond quickly, even the hardest of storms can create the opportunity for long-term growth.
Explore more articles in the Finance category
