News for Finance and Accounting Professionals

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New Skills For Finance Professionals

It’s not news that the finance function is evolving and facing new challenges. With these challenges comes the need for finance professionals to develop new skills.

But where to start? Numerous studies that I’ve conducted over the years of CFOs, of controllers, and of finance professionals in general have found that finding the time to develop new skills is a challenge as the remit of the finance function expands to include new responsibilities while retaining its traditional responsibilities. Companies need to know what skills they need to focus on developing among their finance staff.

In order to see where the greatest perceived need for skill enhancement lay, PACE conducted a poll on LinkedIn asking which of four selections was the area in greatest need of skill enhancement. The survey results confirmed the rapid change that finance is undergoing, and the new strategic business partner role that finance is assuming. A majority (54%) of survey respondents thought that “learning how to think strategically” was the area in which staff needed the most improvement. Clearly accounting and finance professionals need to move beyond being content with preparing their organization’s financial statements and safeguarding its assets and focus more on becoming organizational value creators by engaging in strategic thinking.

Next most important (to 23% of respondents) was the need to improve skills around the visualization and presentation of data. As data analytics becomes an increasingly important part of accountants’ skill sets, so also will the ability to present the results of that analysis in a way that enhances users’ understanding. Improving the presentation of data can also yield strategic insights, supporting finance professionals’ ability to deliver strategic insights.

The areas with the least need to improve were “gaining influence where they have no authority” (19%) and “building effective relationships with internal customers” (4%). Clearly, these are still important skills but many, if not most, finance professionals already possess these skills and so the need for improvement is less than with the newer skills.

The changing finance profession is creating both challenges and opportunities. Challenges in the need for finance professionals to acquire an enhanced skill set; opportunities to move up the organization value chain and help it create value. As a profession, we must confront the skills challenge and embrace the opportunity to become strategic business partners in order for our profession to remain relevant and thrive. To read the entire article click here New Skills for Finance Professionals

Check out more articles related to this topic

Making Yourself “Future Proof” with Profitability Analytics

What They Forgot to Teach Management Accountants in School

Assessing the finance department skill set

Imagine Data and FP&A Analysts with Superpowers

Revenue Management - A Key Competency for Management Accountants

Are Revenue Insights a Path to being a better Business Partner for Management Accountants?

Podcasts related to this topic

Ethics for financial professionals in the digital age (Spotify, Google and Apple Podcasts)

Maintaining relevance in the digital age (Spotify, Google and Apple Podcasts)

The Profitability Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE) is a?non-profit community of professionals?dedicated to helping organizations make better, more informed decisions through the use of data analytics employing integrated, causal models.?Focusing exclusively on how to enable better managerial decision-making within organizations through the use of such models, PACE is the go-to source for people looking for independent and impartial (vendor and methodology neutral) information in this area.