Financial Times Series: Accelerate Decision-Making with Financial Storytelling

The CFO role is increasingly complex. According to findings from the SAP Concur CFO Insights report, the organizational priorities that CFOs touch have changed substantially in just one year.

For instance, 33% of CFOs surveyed in 2023 said that their organization was investing in cutting-edge technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI), to enhance its ability to react to changing circumstances. That percentage increased to 63% in 2024. Meanwhile, 57% reported that their organization was increasing its monitoring of market conditions in 2023, but only 20% said this was a priority in 2024.

Fifty-seven percent of CFOs said that their company is investing heavily for growth. In turn, their most critical responsibilities include ensuring capital is available, providing general advice on growth strategy, finding cost savings that can be deployed into growth, and partnering with IT and HR on growth strategy. Measurable insights that accelerate decision-making and strong relationships across the C-level are key.

The third and final article from the new series of articles from SAP Concur, produced in partnership with the Financial Times, considers how data-backed financial storytelling can help CFOs effectively fulfill these responsibilities.

Translating the numbers

Finance is all about the numbers, but financial storytelling relies on translating those numbers to something others can easily understand and make use of. Not everyone—perhaps not even every senior leader—brings a background in traditional finance to their role. One effective way to accomplish this is by using visuals, like graphs, charts, and tables, to show relevant trends, support strategy development, and enable rapid decision-making.

Enhancing the visuals

With AI technology, sourcing the information required to create easy-to-digest and actionable graphics is becoming simpler and faster than ever. These tools can help automate data analysis and generate real-time insights, making reporting and trend identification substantially lighter lifts for the finance team. Generative AI also makes it possible to build quick, effective visuals based on the information that is gathered, whether a chart, a graph, or a presentation deck.

Knowing the audience

As noted earlier, it can’t be expected that all senior leaders have a background in finance. Additionally, the audience that a CFO may be reporting to might span different sectors, such as public vs. private, and various stakeholders, including board members, investors, fellow C-suite members, and more. Visualizing data and trends has value in financial storytelling, but equally valuable is tailoring key messages to the audience to provide the proper context, clarity, and consistency.

Read further

For additional perspectives and insights, read on to  find out how the art of financial storytelling, and the technology behind it, can speed up leaders’ decision-making to fast-track the business toward long-term success.