Days are numbered for

• Narrow, vertical careers through the finance organisation will become less common

Tomorrow's finance chiefs will need deeper business acumen balanced with core finance understanding gained from a broader finance and business career, says a new report from ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (Institute of Management Accountants).

Nearly 750 CFOs from across the world were surveyed for the Future Pathways to Financial Leadership report. Many of today’s CFO’s had taken classic finance career paths and the usual finance stepping stones to the CFO role, but they suggest new experiences will be needed by tomorrow's CFOs to meet the changing needs of business. Consequently the career experiences of most value will shift.

Jamie Lyon, ACCA head of corporate sector and author of the report said: “We can expect a different premium to be placed on the capabilities that will really matter for future finance leaders. The survey suggests you can’t get away from the need for retaining baseline finance skills, but there's so many more capabilities future CFOs will need to bring to the table too.

“We already see this now with finance leadership roles today, but it’s going to be more prominent in the future because the environment and business needs will demand it.”

Key findings

• The survey revealed that the ‘classic’ career path of current CFO was largely domestic in nature, but we are already seeing that changing with 27% of CFOs having spent any time in an international role, and 25% having worked in an emerging market.
• Tomorrow’s CFO will play a critical role in strategy formulation, validation and execution. The future CFO has a number of options to gain this broader experience; they can take embedded finance roles in the business to gain greater insights into the value drivers of the organisation. They can proactively seek out roles which develop change management or project management capabilities, or take up overseas postings that give greater insight into regional or market dynamics.

• Our survey identified leadership skills, communication skills, strategy skills and change management skills as the top four must-have capabilities. Tomorrow’s finance leader will need to bring deep change management capabilities because the finance team will be continuously re-engineering itself to ensure it is most effectively aligned with the business.

Jennifer Lopez, head of ACCA Malaysia, said: “The current crop of finance leaders is already adapting to the changing role of the CFO, which requires a broader, strategic approach to the business, and they can see that gaining those skills early on in the career journey will be a major benefit to the future CFOs.”

It should also be said that all of ACCA’s research in this area suggests that a core understanding of fundamental finance concepts will remain as relevant for future finance chiefs as it does today for current CFOs.

“Businesses will still want to create value and profit, they will still want to manage costs, they will still need funding, they will still need to be controlled and their risks managed, they will still be asked to account for their activities. These finance fundamentals aren’t changing. This is why future CFOs need to continue to build these core finance capabilities in their careers, and why qualifications such as ACCA and CMA will continue to remain relevant,” Lyon concluded.