In 2011, the primary concern of most CFOs was to help theorganization survive the financial crisis and manage the challengespresented in its aftermath. Today most companies have left theeconomic downturn behind, and growth is finally returning to thecorporate agenda. As a result, the CFO must not only continue tomanage the business in terms of traditional financeresponsibilities, but also to develop and deliver growth strategiesfor the organization overall.

In our recently released High Performance Finance study, Accenture explores theevolution of the CFO's role and the position's ever-wideningagenda. The project surveyed 617 senior finance executives across10 industries and from 28 countries. The resulting reportconfirms that CFOs have increased their strategic influence overthe past several years, and the trend shows no signs of stopping.(See Figure 1, below.)

One of the key findings of our research is that CFOs have madeextraordinary strides in dealing with external forces that engulfedcompanies right after the downturn—for example, regulation. Just 39percent of this year's survey respondents said regulations arehaving a strong impact on their finance function, compared with 53percent two years ago. Similarly, CFOs' growing digital literacy ishelping them get a better handle on data, which continues to expandexponentially in volume, variety, and velocity. Even the perennialproblem of attracting, retaining, and motivating the right kind offinance talent is a major issue for only 21 percent of respondents,versus 40 percent in 2011.