Know how finance leaders are tackling the challenges and leading the transition to a real-time business, we sought the views of more than 500 CFOs and senior finance leaders in Europe (UK, Germany, The Netherlands) and North America.

1. February 2020
Master Report
How real-time intelligence will separate the agile from the
irrelevant
TCS Thought Leadership Institute
TCS 2020 CFO Study
How Future-Ready CFOs
Are Driving Real-Time
Business Performance

2. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
• Transform enterprise data into real-time insights that drive growth
across the entire business?
• Manage organizational change, control, responsibility and accountability
to support future-ready digital business models?
• Leverage new technologies—blockchain, analytics, machine learning
and AI—to enable new forecasting models and create a truly agile
finance organization?
• Act as a catalyst for growth?
• Embed front-to-back transformation?
• Assess new technological investments?
More than 500 CFOs in North America and Europe were asked
if their finance organizations were able to:
The TCS 2020 CFO Study asks:
How Are Future-Ready CFOs Driving Real-Time Business Agility?

3. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
Framing the CFO Study
1
Leadership
& Skills
2
Front-to-Back
Transformation
4
Technology
& Data Innovation
3
Agile
Finance
The survey results break down the results into these four pillars:

4. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
Only 1 in 5 businesses are able to access and
immediately act on 90% to 100% of key financial
performance data.
Defining Agile Leaders in the Study
The CFOs at these organizations are known as
“agile leaders” — and they are significantly
outperforming their traditionalist counterparts.
Read More

5. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
Which Areas Will CFOs Play A Critical Role in Five Years? Leadership & Skills
Technology-enabled business model evolution
Capital allocation for digital transformation
initiatives
New product and service development
Embedding new cultures and ways of working
Enterprise-wide analytics governance
Enterprise-wide data governance
Blockchain evaluation and adoption
Enterprise-wide talent management
Non-traditional risk management
44%
40%
37%
33%
33%
31%
29%
28%
26%
Read More

6. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
What Are the Future Skillsets for Finance Teams?*
Long-term
strategic
planning
z43% z33% z32%
z29%z29%z30%z31%
z27% z27% z19%
Change management
delivery strategies
Data
governance
Soft
skills
Core financial
capabilities
Understanding of
advanced technologies
Process
optimization
Enterprise-wide
data analytics
Lateral & innovative
thinking
Data modeling
& simulation
*Agile leaders = 98; Total sample = 508
Read More

7. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
Are CFOs Satisfied With Their Organization’s Task-Performance Speed?
45% predict the CFO will play a critical role in technology-enabled
business model transformation over the next five years
Futurist leaders vs Traditionalist
followers
Financial
reporting
Adjustment of
budget forecasts
Moving talent
to higher-value tasks
Adjusting
customer-facing messaging
Freeing cash for
growth initiatives
Monitoring and
optimizing supply
chain
Read More

8. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
What Are the Effective Ways of Changing Employee Behavior? Front-to-Back Transformation
Empowering internal teams for digital change
Adding new performance metrics
Establishing cross-enterprise key performance indicators
Investing in employee education and training
Appointing employees to pilot new applications
Incentivizing executives to take on unfamiliar tasks
CEOs sponsoring change management strategy
47%
43%
42%
42%
38%
35%
34%
Read More

9. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
Which Initiatives Have Been Fully Implemented Across Your Enterprise?
Adding new performance metrics to measure progress
in adopting new ways of working
Futurist leaders vs Traditionalist
followers
58% of CFOs look beyond finance and take responsibility for driving
the digitalization of the entire business
Empowering internal teams and making them accountable
for digital change in their part of the business
Incentivizing executives to take on unfamiliar tasks and responsibilities
Establishing cross enterprise key performance indicator
to avoid conflicting stakeholder priorities
Investment in workshops, employee engagement
and other education and training
CEO sponsorship of change management strategy
Appointing “champions of change” to pilot new
applications and communicate and communicate benefits
Read More

10. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
Between Now and 2025, Which Aspects of Forecasting
Will be Most Important for Your Organization?
Technology evolution
Agile Finance
Financing/capital
Customer demand
Payments landscape
Business partnerships
Talent/skill needs
Product/service lifecycles
Business model lifecycles
Political stability/instability
Competitor landscape
Acquisition candidates
40%
39%
29%
28%
26%
26%
25%
24%
24%
23%
16%
Read More

11. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
What Are the Biggest Challenges of Compiling Accurate Forecasts?
Skills shortage and weak recruitment pipeline
Workforce resistance to new ways of working
Difficulty of collaborating with C-suite
Cost control across different business functions
Inconsistent or inaccurate enterprise-wide data
Siloed business functions lack cross-collaboration
Difficulty of integrating newer technologies
FP&A systems are inflexible
Inability to model future business scenarios
Inaccessible enterprise-wide data
40%
Futurist leaders vs Traditionalist
followers
41%
32%
40%
38%
24%
36%
30%
32%
23%
32%
32%
31%
37%
27%
32%
5%
26%
21%
22%
Read More

12. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
Which Technologies Will Have a Positive Impact in FP&A Capabilities?
45% of agile leaders (vs 27% of traditionalists) expect to have used
blockchain to secure access to more reliable data within the next five years
Cloud
42%
Advanced analysis
35%
Automation
35%
AI/Machine learning
32%
Internet of Things (IoT)
32%
Blockchain
22%
Read More

13. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
How Often Are CFOs Using Data for Decision Making? Technology & Data Innovation
Always Ad-hoc Rarely Never
Enterprise data
49%
16%
1%
35%
Ecosystem data
43%
41%
15%
1%
Universe data
1%
22%
49%
27%
Read More

14. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
How Confident Are You With Forecasting Investment
Requirements for New Technologies?
45% of CFOs believe that developing a formal process
for integrating external data will be critical for future growth
Within the next 12 months
Between one and three years
Between three and seven years
More than seven years
84%
70%
57%
47%
Read More

15. TCS 2020 CFO Study Master Report
60% North America
40% Europe
11
Sectors
Survey Methodology
500+
CFOs
$1 Billion
Annual Revenues
Download the TCS 2020 CFO Study for more actionable
insight into the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Read More

16. Copyright © 2019 Tata Consultancy Services Limited
Sign up to get each report
as soon as they are released
Download the full survey
Read the Master Report now-
How real-time intelligence will separate the agile from the
irrelevant
TCS 2020 CFO Study
How Future-Ready CFOs
Are Driving Real-Time
Business Performance
Copyright © 2020 Tata Consultancy Services Limited