Looking for the CFO of the future? EQ is gaining fast on IQ.

“There’s been an amazing transformation when I think about what finance professionals were being asked to deliver on 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago compared to today,” says Steve Gallucci, Deloitte’s U.S. national managing partner and head of its CFO program. The program creates quarterly CFO Signals surveys providing organizations research on the business environment, priorities and expectations for CFOs.

In our conversation about the role of CFOs in 2021 and beyond, Gallucci shared his perspective on three areas financial leaders will need to increasingly focus on:  

• Tech fluency
• Becoming a strategy catalyst
• Having a level of empathy

Tech fluency will assist CFOs in meeting the challenge and opportunity of technology disruption. That one has been apparent for some time. But strategy is a newer focus. Companies are gravitating towards CFOs who have shown they can think—and pivot—strategically. That could mean a background not just in finance or accounting but even those with legal backgrounds, Gallucci said.

If strategy is your forte, now is the time to show your skills amid this shift accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. “If you look back to 13 months ago, when the world was turned on its ear, finance organizations, CFOs in particular, were asked to pivot,” Gallucci explained. “Most planning analysis has followed historical approaches whereby you took internal data, historical data, and tried to build trends off of that. When the world stopped, and companies had to pivot, that whole FP&A had to really be revamped.”

And while having a level of empathy is something you don’t necessarily hear in reference to CFOs as “they’re typically focused on driving numbers and performance,” it’s important, Gallucci said. Understanding empathy from a talent perspective, including how to build a high-performing team and making sure the company is leading in ESG and DEI goals, will become more essential to the CFO role, he explained. From Gallucci’s perspective, the ability to be an empathetic leader is something that will “separate the good from the great.”

Deloitte’s first-quarter CFO Signals survey found that the CFOs are becoming more optimistic about economic growth, but are also looking to sharpen their skillsets. The survey indicated that more than half (63%) of respondents would like to improve in FP&A reporting, and 46% in management reporting.

“It’s just a fascinating time for CFOs,” he told me.

Has the role of the CFO changed in your own organization? I’d love to know what you are seeing.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Big deal

Envoy, in partnership with Wakefield Research, surveyed 1,000 workers to find out their biggest safety concerns and their sentiment towards hybrid work as employers plan for a return to the office. The majority of respondents agreed with a mandated vaccine for employees. 

Going deeper

“Perhaps the most consistent aspect of our survey over the years is that the advisor community, overall, ranks CRM as the most valuable piece of their software suite,” according to the T3/Inside Information Advisor Software survey report for 2021. This year, 56.55% of the 5,255 advisor respondents ranked CRM as the most valuable technology; meanwhile, 26.46% chose financial planning and 15.46% chose portfolio management as MVP, the report found.

Leaderboard

Mike Riccio was appointed CFO at Applied UV, Inc., an infection control technology company, effective April 5. Riccio was most recently CFO and treasurer at Panasonic Corporation of North America.

Sean Douglas, EVP and CFO at Huntsman Corporation announced his resignation from the company, effective July 1. Douglas has accepted a "a full-time calling to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," the company said in an announcement. Huntsman Corporation, a publicly traded global chemical manufacturing company, has initiated a search for a permanent CFO.

Overheard

“CFOs are more likely to look at the broad spectrum of benefit strategies in the market, but they still look to HR to balance financial measures versus the impact to employees.”

— Tricia Collins Schmidt, managing director for health and benefits at Willis Towers Watson, on an ongoing shift in how companies view their employees, as told to BenefitsPro.