Leading through uncertainty
Finance leaders pivot from recovery to resilience
Navigating unexpected change
Today, finance leaders find themselves navigating a new wave of unexpected changes, including rampant inflation, talent shortages and supply chain bottlenecks.
That’s in addition to some long established but evolving risks – such as cyberattacks and regulatory changes – that have not gone away.
Are finance leaders rising to the challenge?
Amid the turbulence, finance leaders have a vital role to play in steadying the course. But are they confident in their ability to manage these new risks? Are they clear about what mitigation measures they can pursue and how they should work with the wider business? And have they actually taken action? To answer these questions, we surveyed 750 finance professionals in businesses across the U.S.
Where there’s risk, there’s also opportunity. And finance leaders have a role to play in seizing those opportunities. We therefore examined how they are pursuing opportunities related to ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues and digital transformation.
Here are some of the key findings:
Finance leaders have pivoted their efforts from revenue growth and improving cash flow to risk management, cost optimization and technology deployment. Yet 49% struggle to balance the need to mitigate risk and drive growth.
Survey participants identify talent shortages, digital disruption and high inflation as their top three risks, but less than 15% are ‘very confident’ in their ability to manage any of these.
A clear digital strategy is needed: the lack of an enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy has risen to become the number one challenge to successfully executing digital initiatives within finance.
The majority (69%) believe they have a strong role to play in ESG, but action lags intent.
Explore further
New priorities
In the past 12 months, the priorities of finance leaders have shifted from revenue growth and improving cash flow to risk management, cost optimization and technology deployment.
Managing risk
Finance professionals identify talent shortages, the pace of technology change and high inflation as their top three business risks, yet fewer than 15% are highly confident in their ability to manage them.
Digital transformation
Finance leaders are focused on digital transformation, but are challenged by the lack of an enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy and reluctance and resistance to change within the workforce.
Accelerating ESG
The majority of finance leaders believe they have a strong role to play on ESG issues, but action lags behind intent. For example, just 21% are involved in ESG reporting.
About the research
The results of this research are based on a survey of 750 senior finance leaders who work in U.S. businesses across multiple sectors. Half of the survey participants are group, regional or divisional CFOs. The remainder are senior managers within the Finance function. Every surveyed finance leader works for a business that generates at least $100 million in annual revenue, and 45% generate more than $1 billion. In addition, interviews were conducted with the following individuals:
- Chris Lynch, CFO, Living Spaces Furniture
- Jamie Cohen, CFO, Vacasa
- Michael Stitt, Head of Trade and Supply Chain Finance Sales and Origination, U.S. Bank
- Dominic Venturo, Chief Digital Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, U.S. Bank
- Marcus Martin, Managing Director, Head of ESG for Commercial Products, U.S. Bank
This report follows Leading the recovery, a U.S. Bank survey of 300 finance professionals released in 2021. Several questions in the research are repeated this year to show how sentiment has changed.
Explore our latest thinking
Article
Supply chain finance: Turning risk into opportunity
Finance leaders need innovative new solutions to the problems raised by a deteriorating economic outlook. Fast-evolving supply chain finance products and services could help them navigate this uncertainty.
Article
Digital transformation: Improving the probability of success
Finance leaders can play a big role in making digital transformation work; they can start by looking at payments innovation.
Article
Financing the future: Businesses look to sustainable sources of funding
The past decade has seen enormous growth in sustainable finance. An increasing number of finance executives are starting to consider how it could benefit their businesses.
Listen to our webinar replay
On November 15, 2022, an exclusive U.S. Bank executive roundtable discussion focused on our 2022 CFO Insights Report. Listen as U.S. Bank executives Stephen Philipson, head of commercial products and Terry Dolan, CFO, welcome Jon Segner, CFO of BI Worldwide, Janet Lewell, CFO of Deloitte, and Phil Donaldson, CFO of Andersen Corporation, to this executive roundtable.
Leading through uncertainty
Finance leaders pivot from recovery to resilience
Navigating unexpected change
Today, finance leaders find themselves navigating a new wave of unexpected changes, including rampant inflation, talent shortages and supply chain bottlenecks.
That’s in addition to some long established but evolving risks – such as cyberattacks and regulatory changes – that have not gone away.
Navigating unexpected change
Today, finance leaders find themselves navigating a new wave of unexpected changes, including rampant inflation, talent shortages and supply chain bottlenecks.
That’s in addition to some long established but evolving risks – such as cyberattacks and regulatory changes – that have not gone away.
Are finance leaders rising to the challenge?
Amid the turbulence, finance leaders have a vital role to play in steadying the course. But are they confident in their ability to manage these new risks? Are they clear about what mitigation measures they can pursue and how they should work with the wider business? And have they actually taken action? To answer these questions, we surveyed 750 finance professionals in businesses across the U.S.
Where there’s risk, there’s also opportunity. And finance leaders have a role to play in seizing those opportunities. We therefore examined how they are pursuing opportunities related to ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues and digital transformation.
Here are some of the key findings:
Finance leaders have pivoted their efforts from revenue growth and improving cash flow to risk management, cost optimization and technology deployment. Yet 49% struggle to balance the need to mitigate risk and drive growth.
Survey participants identify talent shortages, digital disruption and high inflation as their top three risks, but less than 15% are ‘very confident’ in their ability to manage any of these.
The majority (69%) believe they have a strong role to play in ESG, but action lags intent.
A clear digital strategy is needed: the lack of an enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy has risen to become the number one challenge to successfully executing digital initiatives within finance.
Explore further
New priorities
In the past 12 months, the priorities of finance leaders have shifted from revenue growth and improving cash flow to risk management, cost optimization and technology deployment.
Managing risk
Finance professionals identify talent shortages, the pace of technology change and high inflation as their top three business risks, yet fewer than 15% are highly confident in their ability to manage them.
Digital transformation
Finance leaders are focused on digital transformation, but are challenged by the lack of an enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy and reluctance and resistance to change within the workforce.
Accelerating ESG
The majority of finance leaders believe they have a strong role to play on ESG issues, but action lags behind intent. For example, just 21% are involved in ESG reporting.
About the research
The results of this research are based on a survey of 750 senior finance leaders who work in U.S. businesses across multiple sectors. Half of the survey participants are group, regional or divisional CFOs. The remainder are senior managers within the Finance function. Every surveyed finance leader works for a business that generates at least $100 million in annual revenue, and 45% generate more than $1 billion. In addition, interviews were conducted with the following individuals:
- Chris Lynch, CFO, Living Spaces Furniture
- Jamie Cohen, CFO, Vacasa
- Michael Stitt, Head of Trade and Supply Chain Finance Sales and Origination, U.S. Bank
- Dominic Venturo, Chief Digital Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, U.S. Bank
- Marcus Martin, Managing Director, Head of ESG for Commercial Products, U.S. Bank
This report follows Leading the recovery, a U.S. Bank survey of 300 finance professionals released in 2021. Several questions in the research are repeated this year to show how sentiment has changed.
About the research
The results of this research are based on a survey of 750 senior finance leaders who work in U.S. businesses across multiple sectors. Half of the survey participants are group, regional or divisional CFOs. The remainder are senior managers within the Finance function. Every surveyed finance leader works for a business that generates at least $100 million in annual revenue, and 45% generate more than $1 billion. In addition, interviews were conducted with the following individuals:
- Chris Lynch, CFO, Living Spaces Furniture
- Jamie Cohen, CFO, Vacasa
- Michael Stitt, Head of Trade and Supply Chain Finance Sales and Origination, U.S. Bank
- Dominic Venturo, Chief Digital Officer and Senior Executive Vice President, U.S. Bank
- Marcus Martin, Managing Director, Head of ESG for Commercial Products, U.S. Bank
This report follows Leading the recovery, a U.S. Bank survey of 300 finance professionals released in 2021. Several questions in the research are repeated this year to show how sentiment has changed.
Explore our latest thinking
Article
Supply chain finance: Turning risk into opportunity
Finance leaders need innovative new solutions to the problems raised by a deteriorating economic outlook. Fast-evolving supply chain finance products and services could help them navigate this uncertainty.
Article
Digital transformation: Improving the probability of success
Finance leaders can play a big role in making digital transformation work; they can start by looking at payments innovation.
Article
Financing the future: Businesses look to sustainable sources of funding
The past decade has seen enormous growth in sustainable finance. An increasing number of finance executives are starting to consider how it could benefit their businesses.
Listen to our webinar replay
On November 15, 2022, an exclusive U.S. Bank executive roundtable discussion focused on our 2022 CFO Insights Report. Listen as U.S. Bank executives Stephen Philipson, head of commercial products and Terry Dolan, CFO, welcome Jon Segner, CFO of BI Worldwide, Janet Lewell, CFO of Deloitte, and Phil Donaldson, CFO of Andersen Corporation, to this executive roundtable.
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