
Current finance leaders are expected to balance various priorities and tasks by supporting both short-term performance and long-term value creation. Financial controllers are no exception. The
2024 Global EY DNA of the Financial Controller Report notes that controllers now have a dual role. While they should still fulfill their traditional reporting and compliance functions, they should also become agents of transformation and value creation.
EY broadly defines value creation in the report as important activities that the finance team can undertake. These include developing and funding business strategies to ensure that business decisions are based on solid financial criteria, providing insight and analysis to support the CEO and other senior managers, leading key initiatives in finance that support overall strategic goals, and communicating the organization’s progress on strategic goals to external stakeholders.
As catalysts for transformation, controllers can “become exceptional partners to the CFO” as well as trusted and strategic advisers to their peers in other functions, to the management, and to their companies’ board.
EY’s report, which sets out a roadmap for redefining the financial controller’s role, is based on a survey of over 1,200 financial controllers and other senior finance leaders. In addition, EY teams
analyzed data from job postings and 6,600 individual LinkedIn
profiles. In all, 4,000 job postings from 2020 to 2024 were
collected from multiple sites. Both datasets included financial
controllers and other senior finance leaders such as CFOs and
finance directors.
The respondents generally said they expect the controller’s role to change, a paradigm shift highlighted in the survey’s various findings. For example, 86% of controllers surveyed expect their role to change significantly over the next five years.
The survey also found that 26% of the controllers surveyed noted that in five years’ time, the role will have a very different and unknown skill set compared to what it currently has.
When asked how the controller’s role would transform, the most common answer was that it would shift from being mostly focused on value protection and value optimization to embracing value creation, which was noted by 39% of both controllers and senior finance leaders surveyed.
EY’s report maintains that financial controllers can redefine their roles in three important ways. The first is to embrace transformation opportunities presented by data, artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability to create new value. EY recommends that they can accomplish this goal by building on their data steward ship role; by understanding how both automation and AI systems can be used to reinvent the processes of finance and other functions within the organization; and by exploring opportunities to free up their capacity so that they can become more involved with the production of sustainability information
The second way is to get future ready. EY recommends that finance leaders can accomplish this goal by expanding their internal network and look to create value by building relationships with peers across the organization; by creating time and capacity to work on their skill sets and mindsets by applying new technologies and tools to their daily activities and processes; and by understanding the current perception of controllership across internal stakeholder groups.
The third way is to develop as a confident controller. EY recommends that finance leaders can accomplish this goal by creating the capacity to lead on
innovation and understand how
to demonstrate a tangible return
on investment for innovative
projects; by focusing on attracting and retaining
the best talent; and by enhancing the brand of
controllership within the organization
by demonstrating their team’s ability
to impact a broader range of key
performance indicators.
EY observes that, whereas concentrating on value protection, such as through regulatory compliance, and on value optimization, such as by driving incremental efficiencies, remain critical roles for controllers, they should also fulfill "a third and equally important role: that of value creator." By doing so "they can reinforce their position as
indispensable partners to the CFO."