Global CFO insights - Leathwaite

1. Global CFO insights - Leathwaite To find out what the future holds for the CFO and finance function, we surveyed finance leaders globally. Top priorities identified this year include: data management and analysis, cost management pressures/cash flow management and talent acquisition. These are similar to last year's results, which ranked talent and digital-related hurdles at the top. This was no surprise given some reoccurring themes and trends we are seeing across the function. Will the CFO turn to tech, data and automation to solve its challenges? Technology has taken a front seat across all operations, so much so that only 2% of CFOs and finance leaders are not planning on using tools such as AI, machine learning and automation. We are confident that these avenues will completely transform organizations, with budget, talent and priorities all being shaped by technology. Evaluating budget and talent We found that 54% of finance leaders are expecting their budgets to increase over the next 12 months. This is particularly interesting when considering external concerns such as the current state of the economic climate and interest rate fluctuation. The last few years proved to hit talent retention hard, and survey respondents identified acquisition and retention as a top challenge. In our global HR survey earlier this year, HR leaders also ranked talent retention as the third most important priority to tackle. It would be easy to assume that the expected increase in the function’s budget is to benefit talent. With 69% of finance leaders surveyed identifying cost and operational efficiency as the area where the function will deliver the most value over the next 12 months, addressing the areas of weakness in retention should be an obvious next step to improve efficiency. We were initially

2. shocked to see an astounding 85% of those surveyed do not expect much movement in terms of a function headcount, whether a slight increase, slight decrease or flat movement. However, upon re-evaluation, it is evident that leaders are turning to technology and automation with this increased budget to enable the business to execute efficiently. For more information, please visit: https://www.leathwaite.com/insights/2023-global-cfo- survey/