Top-Tier Tech Investments for Today’s CFOs

A pressing priority

In a survey conducted by CFO Signals in 2021, 40% of CFOs polled cited increased investment in technology as their respective company’s most pressing priority. Earlier this year, in financial services and human resources software vendor Workday’s Global CFO Indicator Survey, 48% of those solicited afforded investment in technology-based innovation the same critical status.

While these numbers attest to the growing importance of the CFO in a company’s technological game plan, they also reflect an occupational majority failing to catch this all-important wave. Without a CFO steeped in the advantages of cloud-based technology, ML (machine learning), AI (artificial intelligence), deep learning, robotics, blockchain, and the latest web conferencing platforms, keeping your company competitive, safe, and attractive to today’s workforce is like taking a horse and buggy to a NASCAR race and expecting to win. 

Benefits of the tech-savvy CFO

The pre-pandemic methodology of most CFOs can now be classified as the “close but no cigar” school of financial management. The increased integration of automation, data analytics, and risk management-related technology necessitated by the onset of COVID has permanently diversified the definition of the dependable CFO. 

It all began when leadership teams, fretting for their respective companies’ survival, began to rely on near-real-time financial data. Since then, data-driven technologies such as AI and ML have become essential to identifying game-changing factors that might necessitate yet another pivot (or two, or three, or four, etc.)

But more reliable forecasting in fluctuating times isn’t the only reason why a CFO intimately acquainted with today’s technological advancements will afford your company a competitive advantage. 

Other benefits include…

• Productivity – By investing in technology supporting the hybrid work model, businesses not only empower employees but also gain the facility to adjust workloads that can improve productivity and boost employee satisfaction.
• Cybersecurity –Only with tangible metrics to measure a comprehensive range of potential offenses, and of course, the corresponding protectionism, CFOs can safeguard a company against even the most sophisticated cyber-attacks.
• Risk management – Where once forecasting kowtowed to a set schedule, the pandemic has pluralized the need for historical financials—not only that, companies need this information sooner. This combination of timeliness, accuracy, and analysis is impossible without the proper technology to support rolling forecasts.
• Competitiveness – With the business landscape still reeling from supply chain disruptions and labor shortages, maintaining productivity remains a major issue. Cloud-based platforms, AI-based technologies, and blockchain are essential to the amelioration of productivity, filling in talent gaps, and rescuing staff from routine tasks that detract from more beneficial functions.  
• Talent retainment –Companies that virtualize FP&A enjoy higher employee engagement and satisfaction levels, enabling them to retain top talent and lure the best of the up-and-coming generation

Grayhawk Search – Your First Investment

As a leading procurer of top financial talent from around the world, with an unparalleled success rate to boot, Grayhawk Search is the first investment your company needs to make before pulling the trigger on your next technology spend. Only Grayhawk’s proven, scientific methodology can locate and recruit the caliber of CFO capable of properly auditing and underwriting your company’s technological requirements, those aimed at protecting, improving, and growing your business—a CFO with the following prescriptive aptitudes:   

• Digital transformation strategy – Ability to develop a digital transformation strategy with clear, concrete goals, based on technology emphasizing affordability, ease of use, optimization of operations, and the creation of a competitive edge.
• Deep technological knowledge – Intimate knowledge of cloud computing, AI, ML, edge computing, robotics, blockchain, peer-to-peer software platforms, and more. Demonstrated talent for procurement of the proper tech solutions for the company in question, incorporating forecast-based options that provide flexibility.
• Persuasiveness – Ability to audit a company’s existing core systems and to persuasively shape and present the IT Value story to the company CIOs, addressing areas of resistance such as transformation costs, data privacy, loyalty to legacy systems, training requirements, and others.  
• Partnership-minded – Ability to work in close, productive collaboration with the company CISO and outside partners to leverage major technological investments, ensuring accountability for implementation, education, ongoing support, and upgrades.                             

Grayhawk keeps you modernized 

CFOs worth their technological mettle don’t make do with outdated processes—nor do they waste valuable resources on cursorily investigated solutions. Just as you shouldn’t err on the side of complacency when looking for the right financial talent to help contribute to your organization, the tech-savvy CFO doesn’t compromise either, cheapening their business intelligence and leaving your company vulnerable and your bottom line flat.  

Only Grayhawk Search, with its empirical research and recruiting practices, can help you locate and procure the proactive personality required to keep your company properly and affordably modernized.  

Grayhawk Search – We’ve got the talent for talent.

Contact us today!