What Finance 2035 Tells Us About the Evolution of Financial Leadership

The most successful leaders are always looking toward the future.

After all, within that future exists vast potential and opportunity coupled with the need to anticipate and address emerging challenges and risks.

In recent years, chief financial officers (CFOs) have emerged as leaders of this forward-focused imperative. Armed with increasingly powerful AI finance, forecasting, and scenario-planning capabilities, CFOs are evolving from traditional financial stewards to pivotal strategic catalysts.

The shift comes amid real urgency. Over the past decade, unprecedented global risks, economic volatility, and rapid technological advancement have proliferated. All these challenges continue to reshape investor priorities, challenge corporate growth, and force companies to rethink operations.

What does it all mean for CFOs — and the organizations they support — when looking to the future of financial leadership? OneStream recently sponsored an ambitious study to find out and help chart a promising path forward. Finance 2035: Return to Investment offers unique insights into the ongoing evolution of financial leadership over the next decade.

High Expectations

The secret’s out: The CFO role will rapidly become more important over the next decade. According to Finance 2035, a solid majority of business leaders (66%) agree that the CFO role will have elevated importance moving forward. Investors are even more bullish, with a full 88% saying the CFO role will be more important in 2035.

Meanwhile, CFOs are clearly getting the message. Three-quarters of them report that expectations have multiplied over the past 3 – 5 years. Accordingly, CFOs are facing increasing pressure to expand and strengthen their already diverse skill sets.

These fast-rising expectations come with daunting challenges. For context, 67% of chief executive officers (CEOs) believe an organization’s success or failure rests on the shoulders of the CFO.

No pressure there.

Further, the study found that a strong majority of CEOs and line-of-business managers believe CFOs should be “masters of everything.” Those expectations include CFOs being ambitious drivers of corporate growth while having a full understanding of business risks and opportunities.

Based on the study, these lofty expectations have left many CFOs (70%) struggling to drive organizational strategy and growth as their workload swells.

Part of the solution likely rests on keeping pace with technological change. Nearly three-quarters of business leaders believe that AI and automation will completely reshape the finance function.

And those who hesitate in adopting that technology could be lost. Roughly 70% of CEOs and CFOs believe that organizations who do not invest in tech, infrastructure, and skills today won’t survive the next 5 years.

Investors Want CFOs to Lead

The pressure on CFOs to assume a robust leadership role isn’t just coming from inside the house. From the outside, investors increasingly view CFO’s playing an outsized role in a company’s value and growth potential.

In fact, the study found that investors identify the competence of the CFO as the second most important factor when considering investing in an organization. That factor ranks above the competency of the CEO.

Meanwhile, 85% of investors say CFOs need to focus on building a long-term strategic vision to attract the most investment for their organizations. It’s no small challenge, but the potential rewards are huge. On average, investors increased their initial investment in organizations where the CFO was the main strategic growth driver by 2.6%.

The Path Forward

Risk and reward. The calculus between the two has always been a core calculation of CFOs as they guide operational efficiency and help drive profitable, sustainable growth.

Yet today, more than ever, that risk-reward calculus pertains directly to the CFO role itself.

Embracing increased expectations offers unprecedented opportunities for CFOs. Most importantly, they can solidify their role as visionary and transformative leaders who can build sustainable organizational strength and investor value.

However, the path forward will also surely be riddled with new challenges, untold risks, and ever-growing pressure to deliver results.

On the path ahead, CFOs must keep pace with rapid technological change, effectively communicate their needs, and make a sound case for essential investments. CFOs who do so will be in a strong position to lead their organizations into a prosperous future — through 2035 and beyond.

Want to gain more insights into the future of finance? Read the full report.