Future-Proofing the Finance Function

Abstract

The last task remaining for finance functions is to become ‘future-ready' to deal with all kinds of changes in the environment. Such changes consist of threats caused by (worldwide) disruptors and megatrends or opportunities provided by (mainly) megatrends. Unfortunately, there is limited literature on making the finance function future-ready, which limits the ability of the finance function to prepare itself for the future. This is illustrated by the COVID pandemic of 2020, which has shown that many organizations and their finance functions were not ready for the havoc it caused, resulting in considerable negative consequences. In this chapter, the 14 most important megatrends and disruptors are described, and courses of actions that finance functions should apply, in order to adapt to these megatrends and disruptors in such a way that they can remain high-performing, are discussed.