Digital transformation and talent management are among finance executives' top concerns this year, according to The Hackett Group's "2022 Finance Key Issues" research.
In late 2021—admittedly, before Vladimir Putin threw the global economy into crisis—The Hackett Group conducted its annual survey asking finance executives about their priorities for the year ahead. Digital transformation emerged as their top priority, with respondents reporting that their finance teams are focused on strategically investing in technologies to reduce their department's costs and improve its capabilities.
Recommended For You
But technology isn't the only area that CFOs have set their sights on. Several improvements related to finance processes and mindset also rated high. Survey respondents' number-two priority for 2022 is to serve as a strategic adviser to the business. Number four is to "skill up and retain finance talent amid the Great Resignation." And the number-five priority is to "foster a nimble mindset and enable finance agility."
For many finance professionals, these priorities derive directly from the chaos of the pandemic economy. The unpredictability that Covid-19 introduced into the global business environment highlighted treasury's need for quick and efficient insights into the company's cash position and liquidity forecasts. It's the same force that led envelope and label manufacturer Cenveo to launch an initiative that won the company an Alexander Hamilton Award in Liquidity Management.
"Early in the pandemic, [our senior vice president of finance and accounting] was presenting a liquidity update to the board almost every week," says Benjamin Seal, Cenveo's vice president of treasury services. "At any point in time, we might have two dozen different forecasts going, ranging from daily forecasts to 12-month forecasts. Keeping all those forecasts updated took a tremendous amount of time. We needed a more efficient process for changing forecasts quickly and accurately based on the rapid changes we were seeing in the marketplace."
Cenveo responded to these pressures by investing in an innovative approach to payment processing and cash management, incorporating both technology and process upgrades, which increased the effectiveness and the efficiency of treasury operations.
To learn more about the Cenveo project—and/or to ask questions of the project's leaders—don't miss the live Treasury & Risk webcast recognizing our first Alexander Hamilton Award winners of 2022. Join us: March 16 • 2 p.m. ET • 11 a.m. PT. Register today!
Other treasury groups responded to Covid challenges by investing in strengthening the relationship between their function and business units. "Not surprisingly," the Hackett report explains, "more than one-half of finance organizations (58%) have a 2022 initiative designed to create a clear interaction model between finance and business stakeholders. [See Figure 1, below.] … Between one-third and one-half of finance organizations also have initiatives aimed at bolstering individual business partnering capabilities—whether through defined role requirements, experiential learning, or assignments within specific business functions. Nearly one-third plan to dedicate full-time staff to business partnering."
The "2022 Finance Key Issues" report also emphasizes that the importance of these collaborative relationships between finance and the business will only grow as companies grapple with the challenges that 2022 presents.
In particular, it reports, "an inflationary environment poses strategic and operational business challenges that require financial analytical support. For example, companies need to model the impact of increases in nominal interest rates, wage rates, and cost of raw materials and other supplies; develop pricing strategies; and conduct profitability and growth analyses. Given the prospect of continued instability in demand patterns and the supply chain, companies will need to maintain strong discipline around working capital health and liquidity—developing both the insight necessary to manage them proactively and the agility to respond to unexpected changes."
For Seal and his colleagues, that was the exact result of a well-planned and well-executed project. "With the visibility we have now … we're [no longer] spending the whole day looking at accounts payable," he says. "We're actually helping change and invest in the business." It's a result that CFOs around the world are striving to achieve in 2022.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
