In the past, organizations prioritized performance growth at any cost, often at the expense of investors or margins. Today, however, the focus has shifted towards profitability and operational efficiency, especially for medium-sized businesses. Those who survived the drying up of cheap international funding – successful entrepreneurs and senior managers – realized that sustainable business development requires the establishment of regular management accounting, an internal control system, and end-to-end process automation. Ultimately, this demands a radically new approach to company management, based on modern, comprehensive financial management principles.
Among recent trends, there’s a movement towards adopting an effective service-oriented approach within organizations. The essence of this approach can be summed up in a simple slogan: outsource what can be done more effectively that way, while internal departments should focus on their economics and adopt a customer-oriented competitive approach, considering market conditions and external competitors.
If an internal function like legal or recruitment lacks customer focus and performs poorly, internal clients may seek external specialists for the same services, leaving internal teams idle. To assess employee performance adequately, tools such as basic financial dashboards with efficiency metrics, departmental and team income and cost comparisons against market benchmarks, along with customer satisfaction indicators, are essential. This includes developing methodologies for calculations, data collection, interpretation from various sources, process automation, and engaging with end consumers, who are also internal clients of the financial department, and evaluate the services provided. Customer orientation and marketability of obtained services are paramount.
The tasks outlined above undoubtedly fall within the purview of the CFO and their team, presenting a new challenge for the profession. It’s crucial to not only realign oneself but also to transform the work and mindset of teams (if not done already) and assist the entire company in this transformation. This underscores the pivotal role of the CFO, the primary responsibility of the financial planning and analysis manager, and the key function of financial business partners.