The new role of the CFO in the face of digital transformation and sustainability

In this context, the role of the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) has evolved significantly to adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by this new era. Their role is no longer limited to guarding a company's numbers, but plays a strategic role in making decisions and supporting the definition of the company's future direction.

The CFO used to be primarily responsible for financial management, ensuring the accuracy of accounting reporting and regulatory compliance. However, with the digital transformation, the focus has changed. The greater systematized coverage of processes, advanced data analysis tools and, more recently, those that rely on artificial intelligence, have allowed CFOs not only to achieve better control of business performance but also to analyze the past, predict future trends and make decisions based on near real-time data. They work closely with the CEO and C-Level executives to develop and implement the companies' development strategy.

Digital transformation has broken down barriers between departments, requiring closer collaboration between teams such as IT, Commercial, Marketing and Operations. The CFO, in his strategic role, acts as a bridge between these departments, ensuring fluid communication aligned with the organization's objectives, in relation to information management and decision making.

The speed with which information flows today requires agile and well-informed decision making. CFOs must be able to quickly analyze data, evaluate different scenarios, and make decisions that drive growth and competitiveness. Technology allows you to improve productivity, saving operating and data processing time to provide more time to think, make decisions and improve management, doing things differently.

This context requires CFOs to understand the relevance of investing in digital technologies and have the ability to scale it, capturing value for the company, while improving their functions.

Digitalization has presented a double edge in terms of risks for companies. While it has facilitated the automation of processes and improved efficiency, it has also increased exposure to cyberattacks and digital threats. This is where the CFO plays a crucial role by preserving the company's financial data, leading cyber risk management and ensuring, with the support of the IT Area, that the systems are protected against any eventuality.

The new digital context has generated a growing demand for talent in areas of data analysis, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. CFOs play a vital role in strategic investment planning, including developing or hiring existing talent, to ensure the organization has the right skills (and retains them) to meet the future demands of the role and navigate the new context.

The progressive search for business sustainability, growing regulations and even investor requirements increasingly require companies to report their development objectives, covering information such as environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). This requires CFOs to develop new processes and information systems, in conjunction with the Areas responsible for managing sustainability, to collect and report ESG data, which complement the historically required financial information.

In summary, this new digital era, which converges with the search for sustainability in business management, has turned CFOs into much more than guardians of the numbers. Now they are strategists, agile decision makers, facilitators of interdepartmental collaboration, leaders in information risk management and in the complementation of ESG information with traditional financial information. CFOs must achieve proactivity in the transformation and adoption of new technologies that allow capturing opportunities, based on the challenges of the new context, helping to achieve the company's strategic objectives.