The role of the CFO is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Beyond financial stewardship, today’s finance leaders are shaping business strategy, influencing boardroom decisions, driving enterprise-wide transformation, and fostering innovation. This conversation explores how modern CFOs are redefining leadership, balancing resilience with growth, embracing technology, and creating sustainable long-term value in an increasingly dynamic business landscape.
In an exclusive conversation with The Mainstream, Mr. Bharat Agrawal, Senior Vice President and Group Chief Financial Officer at The Anthea Group, shares his insights on the evolving role of finance leaders, the importance of technology and AI, balancing short-term performance with long-term value creation, and the qualities needed to lead finance into the future.
1. How has the role of the CFO evolved beyond traditional finance?
The CFO’s role has shifted from a backward-looking control function to a forward-looking enabling function that is embedded in every major decision the business makes. Having managed businesses across geographies and industries, I can say that a finance leader or a CFO can be a genuine game-changer in a company’s journey. A few key takeaways for the audience:
The Strategic Co-Pilot: Beyond reporting numbers, today’s CFOs help shape company strategy, from short-term, actionable priorities to long-term planning, working closely with the Board and the company leadership team.
Spearheading Technology: Data availability and integrity have become critical in an environment increasingly driven by technology and AI. CFOs now oversee analytics, ERP systems, and the broader digital roadmap, since reliable data underpins nearly every business decision.
Risk and ESG Oversight: CFOs manage the enterprise risk landscape, the cybersecurity agenda, and sustainability and ESG strategy, areas that now carry real weight with investors and regulators and have become a virtual license to operate in most economies around the world.
Investor and Stakeholder Communicator: The CFO is often the public face of the company to the stock exchange, articulating the growth narrative, addressing current vulnerabilities, and charting the company’s path forward. This, in turn, builds investor and stakeholder confidence and helps secure the company’s future.
Influencing People Strategy: CFOs also guide workforce planning, union relations, and compensation strategy, not merely through the lens of cost, but with a broader view of these areas as investment opportunities. I firmly believe in people and process-led growth, and I have seen this kind of investment deliver returns that are simply incomparable.
Operational Excellence: In the organisations I have built, I have realised one thing that the change doesn’t just happen with the functional reporting lines, you can be a change maker if you decide to mentor the community / people around you. My view is that be a mentor to the entire operational community, whether it’s supply chain, pricing, customer experience, or plant operations. With the right approach, the right processes, and the right systems, any operation can unlock efficiency and achieve excellence. This is truly where real value is delivered.
- What qualities define an effective CFO in today’s boardroom?
For me, it comes down to bringing a strategic dimension to your thinking. I have, encountered many executives who think and speak in purely transactional terms keeping only the short term deliveries in mind and that is a telling sign that the organisation may face a blind spot in the times to come. A strong command on technology is another essential quality, discipline to remain performance-driven in capital allocation decisions. Finally, two qualities that are often overlooked but are, in fact, decisive: composure under pressure, which will truly be tested, and integrity at the core of everything you do / say. Without the last one in place, everything else becomes meaningless.
- How can finance leaders become stronger catalysts for business transformation?
That’s a great question. Finance leaders need to move away from pure accounting and reporting towards steering the business. When the business performs well, everything else fall in place. The starting point is building a solid foundation grounded with strong people, processes, and systems. Once that foundation is in place, the entire organisation can focus its energy in unlocking value through transformation initiatives. CFOs who bring deep knowledge of the market, the customer, technology, and operations are best positioned to lead that transformation journey.
- How do you balance short-term performance with long-term value creation?
This requires striking a careful trade-off. It starts with having a thoroughly curated business MIS that tracks the vital signs of the business in the short run, alongside periodic check-ins on long-term projects the bets you are placing to curate the organisation’s future.
There inevitably comes a point where choices must be made; the business has to keep moving, so short-term performance cannot simply take a back seat, but neither can it come at the cost of long-term priorities.
I’m reminded of a line I often heard from Brijesh, VP – Diversey South Asia, during my time leading one of the largest businesses at Diversey: “let the managers on the ground drive the monthly and quarterly numbers, let the zonal leaders own the annual delivery, and let the business leaders keep their focus unwaveringly on the next three to five years”. That’s the sign of a healthy and progressive organisation. Working alongside him, we invested heavily in areas that are yielding strong returns today and will continue to do so in the times to come. Decide your playbook carefully, and stay committed to it.
- What role does technology play in shaping the next generation of finance leadership?
Technology is changing the game in a big way. AI is making life considerably easier, automating routine tasks, enabling real-time oversight, powering interactive dashboards, and generating predictive insights. I believe finance, as a domain, should rely on technology for more than half of its core work, freeing up the team’s bandwidth to focus on the initiatives that a machine simply cannot handle. I have seen excellent examples of finance teams using technology to build dashboards that give investors a complete pulse-check of the business from product- and customer-level performance to bleeders and volume-price matrices. Used well, technology can work wonders, and organisations would do well to make it an overarching theme across the business.
- What advice would you give aspiring finance leaders preparing for the future?
This is something I regularly share with my team and with the young professionals I meet: Step outside your comfort zone. Finance expertise is a given, build strong market knowledge as well, as it will help you unlock significant value for the organisation you work with. You don’t have to become a data scientist, but do build a solid digital foundation which will lay down a fast track path for the growth of the organistion. Clear, concise communication is rare, make it a habit, and you will see the difference it makes. Learn agree to disagree. It may not always be welcomed, but it is a vital part of the job. Stay curious, make life easier for the people around you, and remember that no individual is bigger than the organisation, always think company first. And finally, a word for everyone reading this: stay fit, spend quality time away from work, with family, friends, or your network, keep a smile on your face, and help bring one to the faces of others. The journey will turn out to be far more beautiful than the destination itself. All the best. The only professional platform I use is LinkedIn, so please feel free to reach out and connect there.
Also read: Viksit Workforce for a Viksit Bharat
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