Oxford Economics Global + Canada Report: Leadership in a New Era

Finance and IT leaders have their work cut out for them as they balance function specific initiatives with their new strategic roles, pursue both efficiency and growth, and strive for increased visibility into all aspects of their operations.

Global finance and IT takeaways include:

• Finance and IT leaders are playing an increasingly strategic role as pandemic-driven operational changes persist and the pace of digital transformation. Complicating matters: collaboration between functions could use improvement.
• Uncertainty about the post-pandemic world lingers. Most companies made adjustments to day-to-day business processes, but many are unsure which ones will be permanent.
• Technology and culture pose dual threats. Respondents identify increasing agility as their top functional goal, but difficulties implementing changes to company culture and digitizing manual operations are top challenges.
• Decision-makers are not using technology to its fullest potential. They face difficulty gaining visibility into spending, compliance challenges, and adapting to a hybrid working environment.

The past year has demonstrated that planning can only go so far. Companies must be able to move in real time to adopt new tools and technologies and collaborate effectively despite obstacles. This is the great opportunity and challenge facing finance and IT decision-makers today.

Download the full Oxford Economics Global + Canada Think Piece, Leadership in a New Era: How Finance and IT Leaders Are Guiding Post-Pandemic Strategy to get the full global research findings as well as results from their analysis of IT and finance leaders from Canada.