Gary Goodenough, Regional Director at SAP Concur
Many finance leaders are gearing up for a step change in 2025. New technologies are bringing significant opportunities to improve productivity in finance and beyond. But CFOs also have a chance to widen their influence this year, as they use their unique skills to help organizations strategise around returning growth and business reinvention. These changes bring vast challenges but large potential rewards for those who can upskill their teams and tackle the looming talent crunch.
To set up their organisations for growth, CFOs will need to be nimble in executing their strategies, evaluate the technologies they invest in, prioritise cybersecurity, integrate ESG reporting, and tackle talent crunch.
- Bringing to life 2024 growth plans
In 2024, many CFOs focused on devising growth and reinvention plans to scale their businesses in a sustainable manner. In this quest, they had to be nimble and creative: according to PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO survey, over 80% of CEOs thought that their company would no longer be viable if it did not try to reinvent itself. In order to succeed in 2025, CFOs will need to continue building trust with CEOs to partner on executing these plans successfully.
To sell their vision in 2025, CFOs will also need to build their leadership image with the wider business, internal and external stakeholders. This is why they will need to dedicate resources to mastering their storytelling skills. This will enable finance leaders to ensure that peers and colleagues are aligned with the business’ short- and long-term planning, especially as it undergoes reinvention in challenging market conditions.
- Evaluating technologies for long-term benefit and efficiency
According to a study by Orgvue, in 2024 82% of businesses were investing in AI, despite 50% being unclear on its impact. In 2025, CFOs need to lead the business-wide charge on delving deeper into the technologies they are investing in. As a number of companies are rushing to adopt AI, CFOs are uniquely positioned to ensure this adoption is truly valuable to the company. To do so, they can drive establishing ROI measures to ensure it is used productively and ethically.
They will need to be involved in evaluating the technologies that the businesses will invest in critically, ensuring that risks are properly assessed and in line with compliance or responsible-use frameworks.
With AI becoming an essential business tool across many industries, CFOs will need to make sure that it adheres to federal and international AI regulatory frameworks. They should also continue investing in new capabilities to strengthen their compliance, auditing, and planning toolkits. Because CFOs have a holistic view of their business’ data and needs, they have a unique insight into the most efficient ways to use AI.
- Prioritising cybersecurity
The global average cost of a data breach in 2024 is $4.88 million – 10% up on 2023, according to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report. The ubiquity of generative AI provides bad actors with always more tools to commit complex fraud schemes. Consequently, in 2025 CFOs will need to dedicate resources to protecting their organisations from cybercrime in the coming year and onwards.
Because CFOs understand business risk and reporting, they are well-placed to take an oversight role. This best positions them to work with their business’ Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) to assess investments and the maturity of security arrangements, as well as budgets dedicated to this.
Another way that CFOs can protect their organisations’ financial assets and data is to appropriately prepare their teams. Since human error remains the biggest risk for a cyber-attack, it is important that CFOs educate their teams on best practices and developing incident response plans.
- Integrating ESG reporting
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks are becoming increasingly important for businesses as wider regulation schemes are established globally. For a CFO to set up their business for success in 2025, they should embrace ESG as more than just a set of rules, but as a means to build a data base and strengthen their business’ profile.
Not only does collecting ESG data help boost a business’ revenue, but it presents them with a unique opportunity to see how they are performing and inform future related decisions. For example, giving employees sustainable business travel options and recording their decision can help inform future reporting. CFOs should also set measurable goals for how sustainability data will be used to enhance the business’ performance and value creation. These goals will guide the development of the organisation’s staff and its infrastructure.
CFOs integrating ESG reporting can also help attract social-minded investors, customer loyalty, enhancing brand reputation, and helping open access to untapped market segments.
- Retaining employees despite the ‘talent crunch’
In 2025, the workforce will continue to evolve, as baby boomers retire and young finance professionals re-evaluate their working priorities. CFOs will need to retain employees and keep them enthusiastic. They can do this by better understanding younger employees’ values and adapting development, training, and recruitment policies accordingly.
They will also need to collaborate with HR to foster continuous learning, reskilling, and adaptability for staff. This same flexibility should be applied to bringing in new technology. By accepting to adopt these, businesses can drive more competition for the right talent.
Similarly, CFOs can embrace using technologies such as AI to automate certain tasks, freeing people for more meaningful work. This not only resonates with the values of younger workers but will highlight to employees that their time is valued, boosting retention.
A CFO’s role continues to evolve in challenging market and macroeconomic conditions – so adaptation and flexibility is key to unlocking rewards for themselves, their teams, and organisations. Embracing the outlined strategies promises CFOs can continue to secure the business’ future and steer it towards success.
