Step into the future

There has probably never been a more interesting or exciting time to be a financial controller. Long recognised as the ‘safe pair of hands’ that oversees accounting and reporting, the role of today’s financial controller is fast evolving; and they are becoming influential value creators who can co-pilot their business towards long-term success.

The scale of the evolution underway is highlighted by a new EY report, the 2024 Global DNA of the Financial Controller survey. This research, based on a global survey of 1,000 financial controllers, found that 86% respondents expect their role to change significantly over the next five years. Furthermore, a quarter of respondents (26%) believe that in five years’ time, the role will have a very different and unknown skill set compared with today.

When asked how the controller’s role would evolve, the most common answer – cited by 39% – was that it would shift from being largely focused on value protection, such as regulatory compliance, and value optimisation, for example driving incremental efficiencies, to embracing value creation – actively supporting business growth.

The research sets out a three-step roadmap for forward-looking financial controllers who want to accelerate their evolution into value creators. This roadmap aims to set them up for long-term career success — whether that’s as a controller, a CFO, or in another senior role.

Step 1: Embrace transformational opportunities

Today’s controllers are operating in what we have been calling the ‘Age of And’ – an age when finance teams are expected to deliver high performance and tackle multiple challenges in parallel. In this age, controllers must embrace important new priorities while upholding their previous responsibilities.

The research identified three transformational opportunities for controllers to reframe their role while helping their organisation to shape its future with confidence. The first opportunity is to transform data into action. Controllers can unleash the full potential of their organisation’s financial data by mining it for insights that can be used to inform decision making. In fact, most respondents to the survey (88%) said that using data insights to recommend strategic opportunities is already an important aspect of the controller’s role.

Building AI confidence within the finance function and enterprise is the second transformational opportunity. Controllers appear to be enthusiastic users of AI tools, with 89% saying they have already adopted AI and 65% using generative AI (GenAI) on a frequent basis. They can draw on this expertise to help drive AI-enabled transformation within their organisation. As well as identifying potential use cases, controllers can build confidence in the technologies by assessing whether the outputs of AI – and GenAI, in particular – meet the necessary requirements for reliability, transparency and explainability.

Thirdly, controllers can help to integrate sustainability with business performance and support their organisations to produce robust sustainability reporting. That might mean sourcing new kinds of data, implementing new systems, building new processes and establishing new checks and controls. Despite the scale of the opportunity, many controllers are not yet as engaged with sustainability as they could be, however. Only 43% expect to be frequently involved in sustainability considerations associated with financial planning and reporting in five years’ time. That’s a moderate increase from 36% of respondents who are frequently involved today.

Step 2: Get future-ready

To seize the three transformational opportunities, controllers need to expand their skill sets. In addition to financial technical expertise, they will likely require general business acumen; knowledge of AI, analytics and cybersecurity; strategic thinking skills; and the ability to oversee data governance.

Controllers should also possess strong interpersonal skills to ensure they get the best from their team. These include skills in communication, empathy and personal brand building. Certainly, the research showed that controllers recognise the importance of collaboration and coaching. Almost half (46%) of respondents believe that in five years’ time, they will always or frequently need to engage in team-building, mentoring and career development.

Additionally, controllers need agile, innovation-oriented mindsets to create greater value through data, AI and sustainability. Yet just 43% of controllers surveyed for the research see being innovative as an important quality for their role. This finding is likely down to individual mindsets and organisations not giving controllers enough support and encouragement to innovate. Nevertheless, if controllers are to evolve into genuine value creators, they must develop innovation-oriented thinking and skills.

Step 3: Develop as a confident controller

The research identified a set of financial controllers (25% of the overall sample) who are already actively creating value through technology. Described as ‘confident controllers’, nearly two-fifths of this group (37%) lead on innovation, compared with 25% of other controllers.

Those who want to evolve into confident controllers should devote time to future-focused tasks. Almost three-quarters (72%) of confident controllers always or frequently invest time in data-driven decision-making and technology use. Two thirds (66%) of confident controllers always or frequently spend time on risk management, while the same percentage of respondents say they focus on corporate responsibility.

Would-be confident controllers should aim to take on responsibilities for data governance, strategy, analytics and reporting at an enterprise level. Nearly half (45%) of today’s confident controllers lead on enterprise-wide analytics and reporting (1.7 times higher than other controllers). Meanwhile, 26% lead on data governance and strategy (3.3 times higher than other controllers).

Transformation of controllership

The role of the financial controller is on the cusp of far-reaching change. Going forward, controllers are set to become hugely important enablers of organisational resilience, adaptability and long-term value creation. To fulfil this destiny, however, they must embrace uncertainty and disruption and understand how to exploit the potential of data. They must also be ready to harness the power of AI and equip their team with future-focused mindsets and skill sets.

Already the controller is one of the CFO’s most important and trusted collaborators. Yet today’s fast-changing business and technological landscape affords them the opportunity to become an even more exceptional partner – to both their CFO and their organisation. By following the recommendations outlined here and evolving into a force for true value creation and innovation, they can support their finance function to transform at pace and enable their business to reinvent its future.

By Myles Corson, EY Global and Americas Strategy and Markets Leader, Financial Accounting Advisory Services. The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.