The need for 'complementary’ teams to keep up with expanding roles
Chief financial officers are taking on broader responsibilities within their organizations, extending well beyond traditional finance functions.
A recent Gartner survey found that finance chiefs now oversee or co-manage areas such as IT, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation—signaling a fundamental shift in the role.
As CFOs navigate these new demands, they must rethink the composition of their finance teams, said Mallory Bulman, CFO advisory leader in Gartner’s finance practice.
“You want to make sure that there’s good alignment and clarity around who’s doing what in teams,” she said. “When the alignment is out of whack, you’ll see a CFO who gets pulled into firefighting on issues, or digital transformation is slowed, or the size of the finance function is out of alignment because staff are spending their time on things they shouldn’t be spending their time on.”
Gartner’s survey of 251 finance chiefs found that 76% oversee enterprise data and analytics strategy, 70% are responsible for enterprise risk, and 68% play a key role in corporate strategy. This growing scope requires finance leaders to make deliberate hiring decisions that complement their expanding mandates.
“As you’re looking at your team, it’s really about…‘how can you build a team who can complement you, but also achieve what you are trying to achieve as a function?’” Bulman said. “The key is to build a team that not only fills functional gaps but also enhances the organization’s overall strategic objectives.”
Yet, sourcing the right talent remains a challenge. The accounting and finance industries are grappling with a skilled labor shortage, and many companies are focusing on profitability, further straining hiring efforts.
At the same time, the integration of AI and automation is reshaping the finance function, requiring leaders to reassess the skills they prioritize.
With AI and related technologies becoming more widely utilized, the makeup of the future finance team “will really shift where we may see as much as half of finance be digital talent, not core finance talent, depending on the digital profile and digital footprint of the organization,” Bulman said.
Gartner’s research found that 43% of CFOs already oversee AI initiatives, underscoring the increasing importance of digital capabilities within finance teams.
For CFOs, successfully balancing these changes will require both strategic hiring and a clear division of responsibilities—ensuring that finance teams are structured to support, rather than constrain, their evolving leadership role.