Importantly, they demonstrate a keen awareness of the close relationship between cross-functional collaboration and strategy. Thirty-three percent identify better strategic investment planning as the main benefit of greater collaboration, compared with 23% globally. As such, they are the most likely among all countries surveyed to spend ten hours or more with every function, including management/strategy (80% spend ten hours or more v 60% elsewhere globally), operations (69% v 47%), sales (63% v 41%) and marketing (63% v 38%).
Quest for more seamless collaboration
But perhaps as a result of high levels of engagement across so many functions, Japan’s finance executives believe that the absence of a single version of the truth across departments is the biggest challenge to more and better collaboration, cited by the highest share in Japan compared with all countries surveyed. Consistent with this finding was the conviction that the most important activity to collaborate on to achieve integrated risk management was providing a consolidated view of risk and potential impact on business objectives.
Perhaps as a result of high levels of engagement across so many functions, Japan’s finance executives believe that the absence of a single version of the truth across departments is the biggest challenge to more and better collaboration
Their top choice for emerging technologies to enhance collaboration addresses this: real-time information-sharing technologies. The same share of respondents also cite automation of day-to-day activities using artificial intelligence and digital voice assistants as a solution to their collaboration challenges.
Nearly half (47%) foresee that 30-50% or more of such activities will be automated in the next three years, while only 19% of CFOs and their direct reports globally share these same expectations.
In fact, finance professionals in Japan seem to be more optimistic than most that automation of a sizable share of the activities of the CFO will soon become a reality. Nearly half (47%) foresee that 30-50% or more of such activities will be automated in the next three years, while only 19% of CFOs and their direct reports globally share these same expectations.
Targeted collaboration
Automation of the finance function in Japanese companies can be targeted towards streamlining the closing cycle—the biggest hurdle they face in executing their day-to-day activities (cited by 45% of respondents), significantly more than those in Asia-Pacific and globally (24%).
Were automation to free up an additional 30-50% of time for CFOs, respondents’ top pursuits would be marketing strategy development and human resource strategies. They were more likely to focus on these than others globally and regionally (with 49% prioritising marketing strategy development compared with 32% elsewhere regionally and 29% elsewhere globally; and 35% prioritising human resource strategies compared with 18% elsewhere regionally and globally).
In marketing and sales, the top choice for greater involvement is customer data privacy management strategies and compliance, while in HR, focus areas are employee benefits and salary negotiations, employee conflict management and resolution and employee training and development strategies.
Beyond these functions, 69% of CFOs and their direct reports say that when it comes to procurement and supply chain, they are already involved in supply-chain capacity management (eg, warehousing and transport). Where they would want to see an expansion in their role is in contract negotiation with suppliers and distributors.
They would also like to carve out a larger role for themselves in operations. Here, 63% would like more involvement in both cyber-security risk analysis and strategies and in guiding regional management on labour management policies and legal requirements.
In terms of broader objectives, 55% of Japan’s CFOs and their direct reports say that, should automation free up 30-50% of the finance team’s time, they would create a taskforce to focus on strategic projects.
In terms of broader objectives, 55% of Japan’s CFOs and their direct reports say that, should automation free up 30-50% of the finance team’s time, they would create a taskforce to focus on strategic projects. This seems to reinforce the idea that the finance function’s strategic mandate is important to this group
of executives.
But respondents here are the most likely in Asia-Pacific to offer employees additional time off (37% v 23% elsewhere regionally)—welcome in a country known for its long working hours and one that has a legally recognised word for “death by overwork”: karoshi.
Empowered to steer
Levels of personal empowerment are strong in Japan, with 61% strongly agreeing that they personally feel empowered to drive strategic decisions, which is significantly higher than the rate elsewhere regionally (41%) and globally (44%). In a country where CFOs are generally pessimistic about growth prospects, much more so than in other countries in Asia-Pacific, it is imperative to let CFOs take the wheel, to help drive strategic and operational decisions that, our global analysis reveals, delivers higher financial performance.
