Many Irish Business Leaders believe that the traditional role of the Finance Leader will no longer exist in the future new PwC and ACCA survey reveals

PwC and ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) have published a new report in Ireland ‘Finance: a journey to the future?’ benchmarking the development and role of the finance function of the future.  It finds that four out of ten Irish business leaders are of the view that the traditional role of finance leader will no longer exist in the years ahead.  Designing the future finance function needs strong management to lead the significant change that is required.  Over 1,100 ACCA members and PwC clients worldwide, including in Ireland – all leading finance professionals – participated in the worldwide survey, which also involved a series of roundtables about the future of finance.

The survey suggests that Irish finance functions are currently less advanced than their global counterparts.  For example, real-time decisions are already a reality for a third of global respondents compared to just a fifth in Ireland.  Irish finance functions are also currently less advanced when it comes to forward looking insights and access to trusted data.   There is also more work to be done in Ireland on the future structure of the finance function.  But the survey reveals that plans are afoot in Ireland to deal with the significant changes ahead: for example two-thirds of respondents said their finance teams plan to spend most of their time on generating forward looking insights within the next three years compared to 47% globally.

Jens Gladikowski, Director, PwC Consulting, said: “The survey finds that the finance function needs to develop its agility in order to support the business develop long-term strategies for profitable and sustainability growth.  While not losing focus on cost and efficiency, it must recognise that improvements to the way finance operates internally will have much less impact than solving business problems and delivering increased value to stakeholders.”

Other key findings in Ireland include:

91% of Irish respondents agreed that the role of finance will change within the next three years (Global: 88%).  Of these, 33% believe the change during this time period will be significant (Global: 26%).

Many see the evolution of the role of finance leader as focusing on business performance and strategy rather than historic financial reporting.  Four out of ten Irish respondents said that the traditional role of the finance leader will no longer exist in the future (Global: 50%).   22% in Ireland said the role won’t exist within the next three years (Global: 26%).

There will be less emphasis on historical reporting and more on finding patterns informing future decisions.  67% of Irish respondents said that their finance teams expect to spend most of their time generating forward looking insights in the next three years (Global: 47%).  22% say this is happening already (Global: 25%).

Key to strategic success is that finance skills will be used in a wider context across the organisation. Just 18% of Irish respondents expect the structure of their finance function to be virtual in the next three years (Global: 36%).

By increasingly supporting forward looking decisions, new roles and skills will be needed in the finance function.  50% of Irish respondents confirmed the need for these skills in the next three years (Global: 45%).

Real time, customer-centric decisions are becoming a reality with  67% of Irish respondents seeing this as an imminent requirement (Global: 66%).  Of this, over a fifth (22%) say this is happening already (Global: 34%).

The need for trusted and accessible data that meets customers’ needs will be critical.  Half (51%) of Irish respondents said that their trusted data will be open and accessible within the next three years (Global: 56%).  Of this, just 20% say that this is happening already (Global: 29%).

Commenting on the report, Clive Webb, Professional Insights Manager with the ACCA, said: “The results show that finance is changing at a rapid pace, and this is both a challenge and an opportunity.  Interestingly, the biggest barrier to this change is leadership mindset – alongside getting to grips with the technology that now pervades our working lives.  It’s knowledge of this technology that’s key for the future – leaders need to keep up to speed on trends.”

Jens Gladikowski, Director, PwC Consulting, added:  “In a rapidly changing market, the research highlights that Irish finance functions have some work to do to catch up with their global counterparts in terms of the key attributes required to support the business strategically.   There is a real opportunity for finance to develop a more proactive advisory function where technology is applied to minimise the operational finance workload enabling the finance function drive business performance.”