Trends across the finance industry.
What to know about the emerging trends affecting finance sectors.
Part of being a successful CFO is staying up to date on industry news and the latest trends that may affect your organization. Businesses rely on C-suite level executives to lead change, communicate to the executive team, empower and train their own employees, and be aware of things that could help or hinder their business. Here are some emerging trends that CFOs should be aware of as they research trends in the financial marketplace.
Emerging Trends in Business Financial Management
One area that CFOs should be aware of is the growing role of CFO responsibilities in certain organizations. Because CFOs are tasked with managing finances, many organizational, operational, and strategic responsibilities are falling to the CFO, with some organizations doing away with the role of COO entirely and folding their previous job duties into an expanded CFO role. Many CFOs are now tasked with more strategy-related to-dos, particularly pertaining to strategy around financial performance.
Emerging Trends in Financial Services
While the bottom line continues to be the business of most CFOs, it’s important to think holistically and understand customer or client expectations and satisfaction as part of a way to drive more revenue. Technology continues to drive change in the financial services sector. Users expect faster transactions and more personalized services, and digital apps and software are rising to meet this need in the marketplace. AI, blockchain, and other revolutionary digital solutions are helping to create better, faster experiences for customers. Savvy financial officers should pay attention to the technology that continues to drive and grow the financial services industry.
Emerging Trends in Finance and Accounting
The trends of cloud accounting and automation continue to dominate accounting. Both of these technologies help to free up resources and with addiitonal resources – specifically money or manpower – accounting firms can redirect that to marketing and customer acquisition. In fact, some accounting operations are using automation to not only increase the efficiency and accuracy of certain parts of their business, but to also increase client outreach – through triggered emails (like around tax time) or emails that run as part of campaign to help educate customers with relevant information.
Another accounting specific trend is that some businesses are choosing to outsource their own accounting services. While there are some advantages to having an on-site accounting team at your organization, it can be beneficial and strategic to outsource through an accounting firm or agency. It can offer businesses the ability to connect with accounting-only professionals, often at a lower cost than the salary of accounting employees.
Financial trends – like these and others – continue to be vetted by finance experts, with many showing a lot of potential for growing a successful financial strategy or increasing business reach and impact. What are trends in finance that your business has noticed making an impact on the finance industry or your business industry? Do you feel that staying mindful of emerging trends in finance is important to keeping a business moving forward and financially viable? Do emerging trends strike you as something to consider as part of a long-term strategy or are they too new to consider as a serious part of business strategy?
