Preparing for an uncertain future

As the world adjusts to living with the Covid-19 virus, accounting and finance professionals are preparing for a more volatile future that will require them to evolve as they take on a more active leadership role in their organisations.

Indeed, with a return to pre-pandemic days no longer on the cards, finance leaders need to be versatile and adaptable, as they are called on to manage their people and resources in ways they may never have imagined.

"(Accounting and finance leaders) will have to constantly reset their mindsets and reimagine how their services are delivered; and how service lines can be expanded by building capabilities, innovation and differentiation," said Woo E-Sah, Partner, RSM Singapore.

"They also need to consider how the pillar of their firms - their people - can be motivated in delivering these services. It is important for leaders to ignite the passion and fun in their people's work. A happy worker is likely to be a productive worker."

To succeed in a changing landscape, industry players say that leaders today need to display humility, courage, open-mindedness and a willingness to try new things, as well as the ability to collaborate with people from different backgrounds and with different ways of thinking.

"Around the world, leaders have been tasked to lead at a time like never before. To find answers and solutions during unprecedented times, it is important for leaders to be able to bring people together from different disciplines and walks of life to work, as well as innovate, together. One of the key ingredients to making this a reality is nurturing a culture of empathy that embraces servant leadership," said Marcus Lam, Executive Chairman, PwC Singapore.

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Beyond business as usual

The pandemic has brought forth numerous unexpected consequences which many organisations were unprepared for. With uncertainty likely to persist in the coming years, accounting and finance professionals have to go beyond just being custodians of funds or acting as a check and balance, but also ensure that they partner the business in key areas such as ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance.

"With the increased awareness and requirements on the ESG agenda, leadership is increasingly required in transforming an organisation's product, services, business model or supply chain to meet stakeholders' expectations," said Ong Pang Thye, Managing Partner, KPMG in Singapore.

"Given accounting and finance organisations have the skillsets in measuring and recording transactions, helping companies to navigate through the ESG agenda with high-quality data will be a significant contributor in decision making."

Lam noted that that stakeholders' expectations towards organisational performance are also evolving, with a focus that goes beyond just financial performance. "This is a calling for finance teams, that they will need to extend beyond their traditional role of financial reporting and help develop and embed a new performance-management framework for both external and internal reporting."

Grooming talent in a time of change

Even before Covid-19 hit, the ongoing technology revolution and more stringent regulatory requirements were already causing significant shifts to the operating landscape. The pandemic further exacerbated the extent of the changes that accounting and finance teams have had to face in the past 18 months.

"In this endemic Covid era, organisations are facing accelerated pressures to get their house in order. To tackle this complex agenda, the entire CFO function, including risk management, compliance and mergers and acquisitions, need to be looked at and transformed holistically," said Lam.

Experts argue that accounting and finance talent will have to draw inspiration from outside their realm of work, if they are to play their part in pivoting business models creatively.

"A good indicator of accounting and finance talent, especially in the endemic Covid era, would be some restlessness to constantly push for quality and influence change, comfort and savviness with technology and different environments, as well as an inquisitive mind keen to learn more. We are looking for professionals that thrive on ambiguity, beyond just going with the flow," said Ong.

Meanwhile, Woo noted that upgrading the skills of local talent has become even more urgent in light of labour shortages. "Since it is now harder to rely on foreign talent, reskilling and upskilling are ways to improve employee retention and reduce overall hiring costs. One must also be able to keep up with their clients' new developments, understand them, be relevant, and be able to serve them well," she said.

There is also an opportunity to redefine skills acquisition and life-long learning as we transition to an endemic state.

Said Ong: "The future worker will need to be tenacious, and want to get things done even with multiple problems facing him or her. Learning, whether through courses or on-the-job, can help throw the keys in his or her direction. Such resourcefulness is that agility much talked about in the face of ambiguities."

• Establish a high-performance culture: focus on identifying and embedding the right culture and behaviours to enhance productivity, engagement, agility and resilience
• Invest in upskilling the finance team: provide the central support and platform to improve Digital IQ and the soft skills of the team to prepare people to work effectively in the hybrid, technology enabled workplace
• Build an agile and resilient operating model: optimise people, process, technology and governance to create an agile business resilient to disruption and able to deploy rapid change
• Transform from a 'finance department' to 'finance as a business partner': proactively provide insights and challenge the business to create the desired value, and become a key sounding board for decision-making as well as strategy.