A chief monetary officer’s job is being redefined. There’s an expanded remit—not simply making certain fiscal self-discipline, however driving transformation, spurring development, and cultivating expertise for a digital future.
The position of the CFO has been evolving for years, however it’s occurring extra quickly immediately than ever earlier than, mentioned Gina Mastantuono, president and CFO of ServiceNow, throughout a chief monetary officer panel on the Fortune Most Highly effective Ladies Summit in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 14. “It’s now a mix of strategic imaginative and prescient, disciplined execution, and enterprise-wide management,” she mentioned. “Finance and technique at the moment are inseparable.”
Along with her position as CFO, Mastantuono was lately promoted to president, now overseeing international technique and company growth. “I inform my groups day by day that we now have to carry out and remodel on the identical time,” she mentioned.
Yanela Frias, EVP and CFO at Prudential, moved into the position after years main enterprise models. Closing the books and monetary reporting are on autopilot with nice groups, Frias mentioned, liberating the CFO to focus on enterprise technique. “What that permits us to do is actually associate with the CEO and the management group to really run the corporate,” she mentioned.
The CFO is the “inside development associate” on the chief group, serving to leaders set daring targets, set up guardrails, and reallocate assets as wanted, Ellie Mertz, CFO at Airbnb, mentioned. Mertz helps them unleash the capabilities they’ve inside their group to essentially push towards greater targets, she mentioned. And he or she additionally helps them perceive the “acceptable guardrails that we should always have in order that we are able to transfer as shortly as potential whereas reaching these targets,” she added.
CFOs have visibility throughout your complete enterprise, providing a singular vantage level, Mastantuono mentioned.
That perspective is more and more putting finance leaders on the heart of company-wide AI technique. In keeping with McKinsey, expectations for AI and generative AI are notably excessive among CFOs, with the assumption that these applied sciences will unlock enterprise worth.
Leaning into AI
All three leaders, who’re CFOs at Fortune 500 firms, agreed: AI is already reshaping finance and operations.
ServiceNow has been capable of understand over $350 million in annualized financial savings pushed by productiveness positive aspects, Mastantuono mentioned. “We’ve reinvested chunk of that again into the enterprise, however we additionally allowed about $100 million to fall to the underside line this 12 months alone,” she mentioned.
Mastantuono mentioned that not all financial savings should be mirrored in earnings. You should utilize them to rent extra individuals or assist different development areas. “If you happen to actually lean in with the enterprise and present that it’s not nearly pulling {dollars} to the underside line—however investing for his or her future—you acquire much more credibility,” she mentioned.
Mertz views AI as a “capability acquire,” enabling groups not simply to chop prices, however to do extra impactful work and higher-value duties. “Hopefully, we are able to drop one thing to the underside line,” she mentioned. “However even when we don’t, how can we create extra capability within the group in order that we’re sooner, we’re faster, we’re smarter, and we are able to do extra?” she mentioned.
Prudential eliminated legacy processes in life insurance coverage utilizing AI, reducing underwriting occasions from weeks to seconds, Frias defined. That enables environment friendly enterprise development, and due to this fact spurs extra funding, she mentioned. And this in flip permits groups to do extra worth work, in finance, for instance, changing into strategic companions to the enterprise. “That’s what we must be doing versus guide work—that may all be executed with AI,” Frias mentioned.
You’ll be able to view the complete panel session here.
