When speed is of the essence, budgets are limited, resources are strained, and the risks for failure are high, the collaboration between CFOs and CIOs may spell the difference between growth and profitability, or the end of the road for the company.
As organisations navigate digital transformation and rely heavily on data for decision-making, the partnership between these two roles has the potential to enhance operational efficiency and strategic alignment significantly.
CFOs bring financial acumen and risk management expertise, while CIOs contribute technological insight and innovation. Together, they can leverage technology investments to drive shareholder value, improve data governance, and optimise business processes. This collaboration is essential not only for successful project execution but also for fostering a culture of agility and responsiveness within the organisation.
Andrew Seow, regional general manager for Southeast Asia and Greater China at Rimini Street, recalled that within the walls of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, the CFOs have always overseen spreadsheets, finance, budgets and more. “Meanwhile the CIO is viewed as the back-end person who ensures that the technology runs smoothly. If everyone's emails are working, it's a normal day. But if it doesn't work, it's the CIOs' phones that start ringing,” he reminisced.
These days, however, he says CFOs deal with budgets company-wide, and work with CIOs to allocate technology budget – spending where it matters. “Silos are of the past. Now, there is greater collaboration between CIOs and CFOs, resulting in successful companies,” opined Seow.
The secret to successful collaboration
Every role in the C-suite has responsibilities unique to that role. But it is widely understood that all these responsibilities must be aligned towards a common, unifying goal. Typically, these days of hyper-competitive business, evolving regulation and unpredictable socio-economic conditions, the goal is to grow the business at the lowest cost possible.
Seow observes that CIOs and CFOs are working closely together to fuel growth and enterprise. “From what I've observed, they aren't investing in back-end products (that do financial accounting or revenue reconciliation) but deal with technology that impacts the customer,” he explains. “They want to know their customers better, sell more to their customers, and do business better. When CIOs and CFOs work together, their priorities are to increase company revenue with the lowest cost of IT investment.”
Minimising the risk of failures
In his book, Why Digital Transformations Fail, Tony Saldanha, former VP of global business services at Proctor & Gamble, claims that 70% of digital transformations fail. He cites two ways: a lack of discipline causes them to fail to take off and maintain momentum, resulting in them crashing.
For Seow, the business requirement needs to come in. “The CFO funds it, and the CIO works from a technological standpoint together with the business user to build up the model, while managing partners and sticking to the timeline. It's like a puzzle - with financial, management, and IT standpoints at play,” he elaborated.
He acknowledges that hiccups are bound to happen: “The company needs to be prepared to recover from failures at the fastest pace to be more successful.”
Clash of personas
When you have two personas that share a common goal but see different ways to get to the same goal, you are bound to have a clash of personas. As keeper of the bottom line, the CFO is driven by profitability – one metric of which is driving costs down. The CIO is not far off here. He or she is tasked with using technology to drive operational efficiency (and hopefully this translates to lower costs).
Seow believed both roles can find common ground from the standpoint of engaging the business users, which is one of the key things that will contribute to success.
Action items for success
So how to make the partnership work as smoothly as possible? Seow lists three action items:
The first is common ground. The board must provide objective KPIs to be met either from a budget, manpower, or business standpoint. This makes the KPIs manageable for both the CIO and CFO to work on together.
Two, to have a lasting partnership, they must understand business requirements well to be able to provide technology at the most efficient cost.
The third is to ensure that CIOs and CFOs have good teamwork and robust synergy with their team members.
Into 2025
With 2025 just around the corner, Seow believes that CIOs and CFOs need to leverage technology – better. He notes that everyone is on the AI path with a lot of resources being used to evaluate the new technology and implement it within organisations.
“Every organisation has many ongoing projects, but they also have limitations. The main limitations are time, resources and money. CIOs and CFOs have to evaluate every project, prioritise them and maximise available resources to ensure company growth,” concluded Seow.
Click on the PodChats player to listen to Seow elaborate on the imperative of a CFO-CIO collaboration post-2024.
- Looking back, have these personas worked well together in the past? Why or why not?
- What is the secret to getting the two personas, each with its strengths, weaknesses and priorities, working together effectively?
- Not all IT projects, including digital transformation, are guaranteed to work the first time every time. How should each leader approach these projects to minimise failures when such becomes inevitable?
- If there is a clash, how should the two roles approach the differences to come out with a solution that is mutually beneficial for the two roles and the company as a whole?
- Who is the best intermediary when faced with an escalating clash of personas?
- Can you list three actions critical to achieving a strong, and lasting, CFO-CIO partnership?
- What are your expectations for 2025?
