CFO as Liberator
One of the key drivers of this era of analytical competition will be the emergence of the CFO as a vital force in both strategy and execution. Senior executives that hope to make something happen and propel their own careers should start forming alliances with their CFOs right now.
The outlines of this transformative trend are sharply sketched out by Jeremy Hope in the most recent issue of Optimize Magazine. Hope is the research director for the Beyond Budgeting Roundtable, a group dedicated to elevating the modern CFO by liberating the role from stultifying, budgetary bureaucracy and placing emphasis on advice, analysis and agile leadership. As he explains:
Finance faces a host of problems. For one thing, transaction processing and month-end routines take up more than two-thirds of its time—there are simply too many journals, too many spreadsheets, too many errors, and too many disconnected systems. Budgeting takes too long, is too expensive, and adds too little value. In addition, there are too many irrelevant measures and reports, and information flow is way too slow. Clearly, forecasting and risk management aren't core competencies, and finance is seen as an accounting specialist, not a business partner. The results of all these failings are increasing levels of detail and complexity, and less time available for value-adding work.
If analytics are to be widely distributed and operationalized, the CFO must be liberated -- and liberate the rest of the enterprise -- to concentrate on the performance management and measurement issues that truly matter. As Hope points out, "few CFOs have realized the ultimate goal of transferring resources from transaction processing to decision support." 
He offers a powerful model to guide us as we consider the implications of this situation. Citing compelling examples such as American Express, which has an "investment-optimization process that lets senior managers prioritize new investments on a monthly basis," he points to links between performance management and measurement. As he explains the model:
It isn't about quick-fix solutions, but about applying a number of clear, simple principles that liberate the finance team and its management colleagues. It means simplifying everything and providing effective decision support and performance insights that really help managers improve their results.Instead of using crude targets to drive performance results, the CFO...believes that a better and more sustainable approach is to relentlessly focus managers on improving processes so the company can boost customer value and rival competitors in profitability. This approach encourages managers to eliminate costs that add no value, use measures to improve their work, and make sensible risk-adjusted decisions. Words such as clarity, simplicity, transparency, and accountability best describe this vision, through which finance becomes a valued and trusted business partner.
Ultimately, Jeremy Hope argues that CFOs must free themselves and the organization from the top-down, centralized controls now being proferred by executives, consultants and vendors that preach the gospel of "managing by the numbers." Hope offers hope, but it will take initiative. As he puts it: "It's up to the finance team to take the initiative and not only build more adaptive systems with fewer targets and performance contracts, but also to rescue managers from excessive detail, complexity, and micromanagement so they can focus on improving performance—and the business."