Key Findings Report - TCS 2021 Global Financial Leadership Study

ESTIMATED READING TIME: 5 minutes

Explore new insights on how leaders are strengthening financial planning and analysis (FP&A) to achieve sustainable growth

We asked 750 global financial leaders from across 14 industries to share their views on these three topics:

What is the current state of their FP&A?

 What are trendsetters doing differently to secure an advantage?

How are they preparing to meet the finance demands of the future?

What the research found

1. The TCS 2021 Global Financial Leadership Study revealed four critical areas where FP&A teams can sharpen their capabilities.

Read more details from the study here.

2. Three attributes set Trendsetters apart from their peers.  

Accelerated: They have higher FP&A maturity levels and rely more on data and analytics, and less on intuition, when planning and forecasting.

Agile: They can more easily adjust to swiftly changing circumstances and execute FP&A functions at speed.

Aspirational: They have moved beyond existing processes and are investing more in transformational FP&A capabilities.

Read more details from the study here.

3. Finance leaders are rapidly plugging FP&A gaps.

The majority of organizations are increasing their technology investments to close FP&A gaps.

Percentage planning to increase investments over the next 12 months.

Read more details from the study here.

Q&A with Christian Nilsson, CFO, ABB Electrification

During the 2020 downturn, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) took on a new level of urgency. Listen to the discussion on how new gaps and priorities have emerged for CFOs and senior finance leaders. Topics include: 

• How the forecasting and planning environment changed as a result of COVID-19 
• How it might evolve over the next year or two 
• Automation in FP&A
• Shifting finance skillsets
   

View the video here

Infographics

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams have a key role in post pandemic recovery. But are they ready for the challenge?

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FP&A teams are successfully forging ahead in the post-pandemic world. But there’s still work to do.

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Trendsetters have higher FP&A maturity levels and rely more on data and analytics, and less on intuition, when planning and forecasting.

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Finance executives revealed what they consider their biggest gaps in FP&A capabilities.

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