The dawn of a new age in the finance function

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Think ten years into the future. What will it be like to work in the finance function? There are no guarantees, but it will likely be different from today. How can we recognize these changes? That’s the tricky question we set out to answer in this week’s blog post. It’s the final post in our Finance 2035 series, where we have predicted the future of the finance function in 2035.

We once worked with a finance function to change the way they work. It was based on the formula: Quality X Acceptance = Success. The main challenge was that they spent too much time delivering quality and could not get acceptance for their analyses and insights. Through rigorous work, much training, and even more practice, the teams started to change, and it was a great success. However, success is often short-lived, and companies fail to sustain the change. As a result, the change doesn’t become embedded in the company’s culture.

This company was different, though, and here’s how we could tell. A few years later, one of our partners attended a conference where someone from the company spoke. When we worked with them, this person wasn’t part of the company and hadn’t received the training. Yet, he elegantly presented and explained their way of working as if it were second nature to him. This indicates that the company's culture—or, in this case, the finance function—had truly transformed. Let’s dive deep into how Finance 2035 has come to life.

Walking the hallways of Finance in 2035

When you meet a newcomer in your company, do you ask them how their experience working in your company has been so far? If not, you should because you always get many great insights. Ideally, you want to hear them say, “It’s different here, and I like it.” Naturally, you want to understand how different it is to learn how the culture is experienced in your company.

Now, imagine you’re a new hire in the finance function in 2035. You have warped ten years into the future, coming from an average financial function of today. What should you expect to experience? With the outset in the vision “Think AI-first to realize the people potential of your finance function.” let’s share some highlights.

• Physical presence: The finance function's physical size is smaller for two reasons. 1) automation and artificial intelligence have eliminated many jobs, and 2) most of the remaining people have relocated from a central finance function into the business teams they support. This leaves a small corporate team of highly qualified experts.
• Digital experience: Everything you need from a financial perspective, you get delivered as a digital experience. You’re surrounded by dashboards constantly updating with the latest information about the present and the future. No one focuses on the past anymore, as insights from trends and patterns are automatically included in future projections.
• Digital assistant: Much like wearing a smartwatch today, you’ll be wearing your insights in the future. With every query, you ask your digital assistant. From getting the latest market updates to solving complex problems, your digital assistant is your biggest asset. This frees you to unleash your creativity together with your stakeholders.
• Collaboration: All physical boundaries are removed, and the office is one ample collaborative space where even remote workers appear on equal terms through a virtual reality-like setup. This dynamic environment enhances communication and promotes the sharing of diverse ideas.
• Beyond finance: Most of the work done by finance professionals is beyond the traditional finance scope. They address key strategic questions, such as: How can we sell more? How can we deliver more efficiently? How can we find the right talent and develop the needed skillset? What are the latest consumer trends we need to catch? These questions are much more frequently asked than how we can close the books faster or the latest forecast. By 2035, Finance will have evolved into a driver of superior business outcomes rather than merely tracking financial performance.
• Leadership: Finance leaders are still involved in decision-making and have their stakeholders to support them; however, they lead differently. They have evolved into coaches rather than managers. They frequently observe their team members in action and share feedback continuously on how to optimize the use of the digital experience while spending most of their time building relationships and enhancing insights, decision-making, and execution together with business leaders.
• Learning: Active learning has become the most important skill in the finance function. It’s the only way to keep up with rapidly evolving technology and working methods. Continuous learning is embedded into the finance function through a learning dashboard. Here, AI-generated suggestions for learning new things pop up daily, and team members are encouraged to dedicate at least 30 minutes each day to this ongoing learning.

Are you excited about working in such a finance function? We’ll leave that question with you; however, we can all agree that it’s a different experience from today's finance function. The real question is how we can get there. We have shared many actionable steps during the past two months, but let’s finish by highlighting the simple process of creating a new culture.

Steps to take to build the culture of the future finance function

Like the old saying, "Rome wasn’t built in a day," building the Finance 2035 culture takes time and consistent effort. To form a new culture, there are four simple steps to follow:

1.?Microsteps: These are small, simple changes to your daily routines where you try new things you have learned. For example, you could try a new formula in Excel to solve a task more efficiently. It will likely feel strange at first, but after a few times, you’ll start to see the benefits.

2.?Habits: It takes around two months to form a habit , so trying the new Excel formula only a few times won’t ensure it becomes your new way of working. You will need to force yourself to use it every time consciously; there’s an opportunity to do so until it becomes second nature for you to start typing the new formula and not the old.

3.?Mindset: Your thinking changes when you successfully adopt many new habits. We call this mindset change. To stay in the Excel analogy, you’re not just trying new formulas anymore; you’re consistently asking yourself if you’re solving your tasks most efficiently.

4.?Culture: It’s not enough that your mindset changes to create a new culture. After all, you’re just one person. To change the culture, you need to help others change, too. Do this by being a role model and actively training colleagues in new ways of working. Show them how using the new Excel formula works wonders, highlight how you have increased your overall efficiency through constant challenge, and support your colleagues through the change by encouraging them to stay focused even if the benefits don’t show as fast as they did for you.

We used Excel as a simple example, which we can all relate to. You should translate this example into the use of artificial intelligence. Ask yourself today what’s one new way you can use artificial intelligence in your work. Apply it consistently, and you'll gain efficiency and shift your mindset toward "AI-first." Once that thought has become a mainstay, start helping others through the change.

Finance leaders should not only do this themselves but also start to think about how to realize people's potential. Naturally, they should make the necessary resources available for staff to use AI in their work, but they should also provide training in the skills we have outlined as critical in 2035. In that way, they can easily create personal development plans for their team members and get them used to active learning.

By focusing on both individual and team development, these efforts will fuel the ongoing finance transformation toward Finance 2035. No one can do it alone, but the means to get started on the journey are available today. Are you ready to get started? Reflect on these questions: how is it different working in your finance function? Can you imagine walking the hallways of such a finance function, or is it too space? Finally, what’s the first microstep you plan to take toward Finance 2035?

This was our new series's eighth and final article, "Finance 2035 - what Finance will look like a decade from now". Find the previous one(s) below. Remember to subscribe to be notified when we publish future articles.

Finance 2030 - how far have we progressed?

Finance 2035 - a vision for the future

A strategy for the finance function of the future

How should finance functions operate in the future

How Finance will serve the company in 2035

What tech stack will the finance function of the future be built on?

A look at the finance professional of 2035

You can catch our previous series, "Hacking the Annual Wheel in Finance." below.

Hacking the Annual Wheel in Finance

Hacking the Annual Report - The Holy Grail of Finance

Month-end reporting - the dreaded never-ending finance cycle

The 100-year-old management process - budgeting

Quarterly forecasting - your view of the future

Strategic planning - is your finance team involved?

Continuous improvement - the path to a world-class finance function

What work will keep finance functions busy in the future?

If you want more trends in finance and accounting, you can read our previous series, "The Top 10 Priorities for CFOs in 2024." This series explored what critical issues CFOs should focus on in 2024.

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CFO, how are you planning for success?

CFO, it's time to break down the finance silo you've been living in

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Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder and a partner at Business Partnering Institute and the owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn, which has more than 12,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk . I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner ”, a long-time Finance Blogger, a LinkedIn Learning instructor , and a Top Voice on LinkedIn with 375,000+ followers.