Becoming a Finance Superhero

Today’s Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are under increasing pressure to drive the growth of a business. Following a survey, the percentage of firms getting optimal or near-optimal performance from their finance functions was more like 25 percent — a top quartile called the ‘finance superheroes’. This report by Cognizant, explores what makes a superhero different, how that mindset manifests in practice and what concrete changes can aspiring 'superheroes' make as finance leaders look to keep up with new pressures.

Key takeaways include:

• 36 percent of ‘finance superheroes’ are driving transformation programmes across all functional towers, compared to just 16 percent of aspirants.
• 'Superheroes' are adopting and scaling emerging technologies more quickly than aspirants — for example, 74 percent of 'superheroes' adopt analytics and big data tools compared to just 53 percent of aspirants.
• 'Superhero' companies are happy to devote significant time and resources to developing, retaining, reskilling and attracting talent for their finance teams.