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 progress, and cultivating expertise for a digital future.
The position of the CFO has been evolving for years, but it surely’s occurring extra quickly as we speak than ever earlier than, mentioned Gina Mastantuono, president and CFO of ServiceNow, throughout a chief monetary officer panel on the Fortune Most Highly effective Girls 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 are actually inseparable.”
Along with her position as CFO, Mastantuono was just lately promoted to president, now overseeing international technique and company growth. “I inform my groups day by day that we’ve to carry out and rework on the identical time,” she mentioned.
Yanela Frias, EVP and CFO at Prudential, moved into the position after years main enterprise items. Closing the books and monetary reporting are on autopilot with nice groups, Frias mentioned, releasing the CFO to focus on enterprise technique. “What that enables us to do is absolutely companion with the CEO and the management workforce to truly run the corporate,” she mentioned.
The CFO is the “inner progress companion” on the manager workforce, 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 workforce to essentially push towards increased targets, she mentioned. And he or she additionally helps them perceive the “acceptable guardrails that we should always have in order that we will transfer as shortly as potential whereas reaching these targets,” she added.
CFOs have visibility throughout the whole enterprise, providing a singular vantage level, Mastantuono mentioned.
That perspective is more and more putting finance leaders on the middle of company-wide AI technique. In accordance with McKinsey, expectations for AI and generative AI are significantly 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 in a position to notice over $350 million in annualized financial savings pushed by productiveness beneficial properties, Mastantuono mentioned. “We’ve reinvested an excellent 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 income. You need to use them to rent extra individuals or assist different progress areas. “For those who 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 will drop one thing to the underside line,” she mentioned. “However even when we don’t, how will we create extra capability within the group in order that we’re quicker, we’re faster, we’re smarter, and we will do extra?” she mentioned.
Prudential eliminated legacy processes in life insurance coverage utilizing AI, slicing underwriting occasions from weeks to seconds, Frias defined. That enables environment friendly enterprise progress, 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, turning into strategic companions to the enterprise. “That’s what we needs to be doing versus guide work—that may all be accomplished with AI,” Frias mentioned.
You may view the complete panel session here.
