Indeed, in a survey recently conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by SAP, 30% of finance professionals in Mexico say that introducing software to share information for better decision-making is their top approach for managing expenditure across all areas of the business, relative to a smaller percentage (23%) who responded the same way globally.
Information sharing is a core theme for finance executives in Mexico, particularly vital when steering the business through change and adapting finance processes to rapidly evolving business models
Information sharing is a core theme for finance executives in Mexico, particularly vital when steering the business through change and adapting finance processes to rapidly evolving business models, their top challenge in executing their day-to-day activities. A collaborative culture can play a central role in enabling CFOs to steer.
Confidence in an ability to steer
Mexican CFOs and their direct reports believe that finance should facilitate collaborative enterprise planning to ensure operational plans are aligned with financial and strategic plans—68% of respondents strongly agree, higher than the global average of 56%. A majority of respondents also strongly agreed that they feel empowered to drive strategic decisions.
A sense of empowerment notwithstanding, Mexican CFOs and their direct reports identified a number of barriers to more and better collaboration with outside functions. In particular, they face an internal, structural impediment to collaboration at a fairly high level; 30% cite no formal process for information sharing on a periodic basis as their greatest challenge, nearly twice the global average (16%) who say the same.
In tech we trust
Given the focus on information sharing, automation and information technology will be at the heart of the finance function in Mexico going forward. Just over 50% of respondents believe that 30-50% of the role of the CFO will be automated in the next five to ten years. Technology-related skills are among the most important non-traditional skills a finance executive of the future will need to possess, according to those surveyed. Specifically, 46% of Mexico’s finance professionals ranked proficiency and knowledge of emerging technologies as the most important non-traditional skills to cultivate.
Should automation eventually save 30- 50% of the time of a CFO, Mexican finance professionals were ready with a number of strategic and practical goals. As chief priorities, they ranked operational strategy development, sales strategy development and identifying more strategic investment opportunities high on the list of priorities.
Mexican CFOs and their direct reports believe that finance should facilitate collaborative enterprise planning to ensure operational plans are aligned with financial and strategic plans—68% of respondents strongly agree, higher than the global average of 56%.
With the operations function, they have a desire for greater involvement in cyber- security risk analysis and strategies and facilitating digitalisation of processes. With marketing and sales, the aim would be to focus on identifying new products and services and customer conflict management strategies. These are aimed at some of the broader benefits of collaboration recognised among finance professionals around the world—a deeper insight into department dynamics, better risk management and identifying new business opportunities.
Beyond these functions, more engagement with HR and procurement and supply chain can also yield similar benefits. Supplier audits or vendor compliance analysis with procurement and supply chain can help with risk management while employee retention strategies and determining office space requirements and design can help better understand department dynamics.
When asked to name specific emerging technologies to enhance collaboration across business functions, Mexico’s finance professionals ranked cloud computing for remote access at the top, reiterating the need for better information sharing. Predictive analytics for strategy development and decision support was important to address their key challenge of responding to rapidly evolving business models.
In the end, Mexican respondents clearly see better strategic investment planning as the key benefit of cross-functional collaboration, and, in fact, 36% gave this response top honors, relative to 23% globally. Improved department budgeting/fewer unplanned costs is among the top benefits and significantly more important for Mexico’s finance executives than their peers around the world. Together, these make a strong case for collaboration as a tool for CFOs as they strive to fulfil their broader, strategic mandate.
