The past year has been a challenging one for CFOs and finance leaders as they try to balance economic uncertainty, supply chain disruption, and rising costs while remaining profitable. Recent months have stress-tested finance leaders, who are taking a direct hit from the mounting hardships. In this environment, finance leaders must quickly reduce costs to improve margins, proactively assess and mitigate risks, forecast accurately, and improve agility to navigate future disruption.
According to Coupa's inaugural Strategic CFO Survey of 600 CFOs and finance leaders across North America and Europe, 90% reported increasing struggles to maintain a competitive edge, exacerbated by trade-offs between cutting costs and investing in growth. This is a challenging balancing act, especially when a business' spend is under heightened scrutiny. Ninety-one percent of respondents are concerned about hitting their sales forecasts in the next 6-12 months.
Finance leaders are under unrelenting pressure to make sacrifices, including layoffs, despite their strong conviction that layoffs should remain a last resort. The survey found that 86% of CFOs and finance leaders say layoffs are a last resort to cut costs. With concerns ranging from hitting upcoming sales forecasts to a lack of visibility into company spend, one thing is clear: CFOs must get their finances in order if they want to make it through these uncertain times.
Economic volatility calls for a strategy of managing costs intelligently, rather than hurrying to cut costs reactively. The ability to do this hinges on having a wealth of data that is accurate and timely to inform decision making. Resilient companies use intelligent spend data to execute in the present with urgency but in a way that reduces the risk of unintended long-term negative consequences.
The survey found that nearly half (46%) of CFOs and finance leaders lack full visibility into spend data across their company. This lack of visibility poses a major roadblock to increasing efficiency, which is a top strategy cited by 53% of finance leaders to boost profitability.
Legacy systems are also a major concern. These systems leave finance leaders vulnerable to blind spots and misguided assumptions when managing spend and making financial decisions. In fact, the survey found that just 46% of companies have proactive or predictive financial forecasting and risk management in their organization.
To become best in class, digitization and automation are key. The survey found that 41% of CFOs and finance leaders say increasing digitization is among their top priorities in 2023. An overwhelming 93% of finance leaders agree that more automation would help their company better respond to today's economic challenges.
Business Spend Management (BSM) platforms have emerged to empower finance leadership to better understand and influence how resources are being used across their company. BSM takes a holistic approach by capturing everything that comes before, during, and after the direct action of spending money. With increased visibility across all spend types, from cost of goods sold (COGS) to operating expenses, finance leaders are better able to make the informed decisions necessary to ensure their company remains competitive.
In conclusion, CFOs and finance leaders are walking a tightrope, and their next steps are crucial. With a potential recession on the way, finance leaders should move now to optimize their organization's financial health and equip their company to respond faster and more strategically to disruption. The ability to contain costs smartly, rather than cutting costs broadly, will result in resilient companies that can plan long-term and execute in the present with a sense of urgency.









