9 steps for CFOs to build a future-focused finance organization
The following is a guest post from Sid Basu, managing director of business transformation at Riveron. Opinions are the author’s own.
As CFOs entered 2025, many believed the worst economic turbulence from 2024 was behind them. The Federal Reserve’s rate cuts, backed by strong economic data and November’s presidential election, sparked renewed vigor in a pro-business environment. Then, Liberation Day, a day in April where the administration announced a new tariff structure on U.S. imports, reset expectations overnight: Tariffs, or threats thereof, paralyzed businesses in the United States and around the world. Companies entered triage mode, navigating punitive trade shifts and attempting to accelerate supply chain diversification. Just as quickly, tariff strategies were paused or reversed.
For CFOs, this whiplash environment makes one thing clear: Waiting for policy clarity is not a viable strategy. Corporate finance leaders can’t sit on the sidelines and must act decisively with the information at hand to address risks and ensure agility.
CFOs must shore up planning, liquidity and cost discipline
While supply chain networks are being redrawn, CFOs need to prepare their organizations for the long run by focusing on three key capabilities: scenario planning, short-term cash forecasting and cost conservation.
- Scenario planning: While scenario planning has been a CFO’s asset for years, it was pole-vaulted to the top of required capabilities during the pandemic. Several commercial-off-the-shelf solutions also burst onto the market at this time to address this need with great success. With significant uncertainty on the horizon, investing in a robust scenario planning capability could be a game-changer for most businesses.
- Cash flow management: Cash was, is, and will always be king. Analyzing your cash flow and determining strategies to improve and monitor your cash situation is crucial, especially for smaller businesses.
- Cost management: CFOs need to periodically reassess costs to reset the baseline. By keeping fixed costs low and having a lean yet effective organization, enterprises can create a nimble finance function.
These are not new tools, but the unpredictable macroeconomic environment has given them a new urgency. From working with finance functions of clients across the private equity-backed, publicly traded, and family-owned businesses, we believe there are nine steps CFOs can take now to build future-focused finance organizations.
The CFO’s resilience toolkit
In light of today’s market pressures, CFOs might find the gap between current and desired states daunting, but a thorough assessment and road-mapping can help leaders prioritize and initiate impactful changes across the organization, technology and processes.
Technology
1. Invest in data warehousing capabilities
An integrated data infrastructure is no longer optional. While CFOs may live and breathe enterprise resource planning systems (like Oracle, SAP, MS Dynamics or Workday), these platforms often coexist with dozens of other operational and transactional systems that enrich financial data with critical context. Enterprise-grade data warehouses (such as Snowflake, AWS Redshift and Microsoft Azure) enable organization-wide access to unified, high-quality data.
2. Adopt a fit-for-purpose corporate performance management solution
Robust forecasting starts with a strong CPM platform. Tools like OneStream, Anaplan and Oracle enable finance teams to consolidate data, streamline planning and build more accurate forecasts, especially when powered by machine learning. The key is selecting a solution that aligns with a business’s size, complexity, scalability needs and growth ambitions.
3. Automate manual processes
Despite advances in financial systems, many teams still rely on spreadsheets and repetitive tasks, especially during period-end close. While complete system overhauls may be impractical in the short term, automation platforms like UiPath, Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere can help eliminate low-value activities. With AI increasingly built into these tools, automation is more powerful and more accessible than ever.
4. Implement integrated scenario planning
While Excel-based scenario planning has long served finance teams, it falls short in capturing the complexity of today’s dynamic landscape. Leading CPM platforms now offer enterprise-wide scenario modeling that spans sales, operations, HR and finance. Solutions like Prophix, Anaplan, Planful and SAP IBP allow organizations to simulate multi-variable outcomes and better prepare for disruptions.
5. Leverage artificial intelligence to unlock insight
Data alone isn’t enough. AI can detect patterns, outliers and emerging risks across vast data sets far faster than humans. Increasingly, AI capabilities are embedded into ERP and CPM platforms, offering CFOs a scalable, cost-effective way to extract real-time insights without the need for custom builds. The case for AI adoption has never been stronger, or easier.
Process
6. Keep a tight leash on costs
Organizations often swing between unchecked spending in good times and severe cuts in downturns. Instead, CFOs should champion a disciplined, ongoing approach. Zero-Based Budgeting can force business leaders to think through and justify their budgets each period instead of simply tacking a percentage increase to an old budget. In addition, periodic vendor renegotiations, benchmarking and targeted reductions can create a sustainable cost culture and help CFOs better prepare for uncertain times.
7. Prioritize liquidity with rolling cash forecasts
The 13-week cash flow forecast, while a cornerstone in private equity, is an often-overlooked tool by many business leaders, who instead prioritize P&L over real-time liquidity visibility. Implementing this 13-week rolling forecast (or four-, eight-, or 26-week variations) is critical for ensuring preparedness and the availability of funds to navigate volatile business conditions. This proactive approach to managing cash allows CFOs to strategically plan for financing needs and reduce a company’s reliance on borrowed funds, especially vital during periods of high interest rates. CFOs should also review customer and vendor terms to unlock working capital and extend runway.
People
8. Lower the cost of corporate services with a distributed delivery model
In today’s hybrid and remote work environment, maintaining cost competitiveness without a distributed service delivery model is nearly impossible. Offshoring and outsourcing have long delivered value for large enterprises, but the landscape has evolved. Now, new technologies such as process automation (e.g., Blue Prism, Power Automate), AI and ML, telecommuting technologies, document digitizing and process flow technologies, combined with the emergence of smaller outsourcing outfits and new global delivery locations beyond traditional centers, make it possible for organizations of all sizes to reduce costs while maintaining (or even enhancing) service quality.
CFOs must assess which services are truly “close to the business” and which can be centralized or virtualized. A well-structured mix of captive, onshore and offshore resources can drive scalability, speed and savings across finance, HR, procurement, legal and beyond.
9. Upskill the finance function for the future
Traditional finance organizations resemble pyramids: a few highly skilled leaders at the top, supported by a broad base of lower-cost compliance professionals. But transformation happens in the middle tier, with roles like business partners, analysts and planning leads.
As companies leverage more technology and progressive service delivery models, CFOs need to continue to move toward a finance function that flips the pyramid on its head. Upskilling this layer to support data-driven decisions, strategic initiatives, and digital tools is essential. The future finance function must be tech-savvy, analytically fluent and deeply embedded across the enterprise.
Benchmarking before building: The transformation roadmap
When companies are unsure of the business environment, it is admittedly challenging to consider expending time and resources on building capabilities that might not appear to be burning issues. Even more daunting is to consider all needed changes and determine what can be done with reasonable effort for the maximum possible gain.
This is where a structured assessment can help. CFOs should evaluate their finance function to identify capability gaps, benchmark against leading practices and weigh the cost, effort and impact of possible actions. The goal is to build a thoughtful roadmap. The goal isn’t to do everything. Instead, CFOs should prioritize intelligently and develop a roadmap that aligns with both short-term needs and long-term strategy. Some initiatives may present quick wins, delivering meaningful benefits with minimal effort. Others will be larger, transformational plays that require sustained investment.
CFOs don’t need to boil the ocean, but they do need to lead with focus. A clear-eyed view of where the function stands, paired with a pragmatic, phased roadmap, is what turns uncertainty into forward motion
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