Data empowerment can assist organisations in proactively applying positive pressure on all areas of the business. Read to know the impact of data on a CFO’s role.
The current market set-up demands every organisation to strategise and develop a trait for innovations as it has been a mainstay for businesses to maintain a strong foothold in the long run.
Going beyond the confines of the finance department, a CFO is anticipated to help the company about what is in store in the future by supporting decisions related to innovation.
An intuitive move towards this direction is to harness the power of data.
Data As An Asset
Every industry, irrespective of the sector is being disrupted by new and innovative technologies giving competitors the power to make better and faster decisions.
The need for storage of big data was the main challenge in the past and hence building a framework and solutions to store data was the priority. With HADOOP and other frameworks, the problem of storage has been taken care of allowing more unstructured data to be processed quickly through data science.
Businesses that have embraced this trend and are honestly treating data as an asset, for instance, big giants like Google, Amazon, Flipkart to name a few are winning not by small margins but are experiencing great footfalls in their fields. On the contrary, those who aren’t showing any liking towards this shift are being trampled down.
CFOs are in the best position to lead this transformation because of the strategic vision already required by the role.
Playing Around With Data
An organisation empowered with data can drive and channel the positive results on all areas of the business, in a more proactive way than what it was possible until now. Rather than waiting for a major crisis to occur, real-time data might allow spotting a problem before it is too late.
Being insightful is inherent, and today, the time taken to fetch the relevant data are a thing of the past as organisations have invested a lot in the data strategy and infrastructure to make it possible. The focus now rests on how and what can be done with the structured data pool.
Controlling the data that has great potential will invariably reflect in the target and numbers set by organisations.
A Hold Over Numbers
When a CFO is at the helm of data strategy, it helps him resolve and overcome the scepticism over the accuracy and integrity of numbers; he is getting from all quarters trying to ascertain as to why they’re under-performing.
By streamlining the new process, removal of data chaos and isolation between departments becomes easy. This, in turn, will help to unify the company under a single source of truth.
An organisation starting to move along with this path should begin with three steps:
Once a single source of truth has been created, a CFO’s job is to secure broader investment from the organisation and use it to create technical systems.
Conclusion:
An equally critical step that organisations should be wary of is resisting spontaneity. Although companies are investing millions of rupees in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), CFOs need to stop taking extreme measures for lack of action so far. Assuming that a high-priced tech tool can lead the organisation to deliverance is considered immature. An unorganised data that is inaccurate will not serve the purpose of data science, no matter how well it’s sold. The lacunae between the job CFOs think they’re doing and the one they’re expected to do continues to widen. That’s a risk for few, but an opportunity for anyone else willing to grow their own ambitions to match the size of the role. Hence, it is the right time for CFOs to make the maximum use of data science to be ahead of others in a highly competitive industry.
