We sat down to speak with Muhammad Anwar (Director of Strategic Planning and Business Finance at Sadara Chemical Company & Speaker at Future of Finance & CFO Summit) to understand his perspectives on the evolution and future of finance. Read on the hear what he had to say!
Beth: In your opinion, how has the role of finance evolved over the years?
Muhammad: I think the role of finance/CFO is undergoing perhaps the biggest change in recent history. An effective finance professional is now required to have a business-wide leadership role and the adaptability to keep up with the pace of digital disruption. They do not only need to be ‘street-smart’ – they also need to be technology-smart. Finance are now being asked to drive strategies on investments and advise on business model transformation. Being asked to support business model transformations means that not only do we need to build the models, but we also must to report them to the external world. This is the innovation which comes as a challenge to Sadara and to our chemical industry, so we use tools like predictive asset analytics to help us ascertain how assets can be more dependable.
While the CEO will always push for innovation, it’s the CFO who must maintain the balance between innovation and creativity with operational effectiveness. They must induce an environment of cooperation and collaboration between multi-disciplinary teams with experts from different professional hubs
Beth: What are Sadara’s biggest digitalisation priorities for finance today?
Muhammad: If we embrace and pioneer digitalisation, it will lead to the strategic development of the entire organization. The priority for finance is to analyse these digital trends to build a common vision and mission for Sadara. We need to combine the strategic competence with the business know-how to deliver the skills and data modelling analytics. Standard processes that we had previously been using have all now been automated, so we don't need humans to dig into the numbers put the financial statements together. In fact, what we’re now trying to embed in Sadara is for finance professionals to be a co-pilot in the strategic development of the company.
Beth: What can we can look forward to from Sadara Chemical Company at The Future of Finance & CFO Summit once it's reinstated in our calendars?
Muhammad: Firstly, I’ll be joining a panel discussion on what it means to be a modern-day CFO. I actually don’t believe you need to be a CPA or chartered accountant to be a CFO of a company anymore - a chemical engineer or a senior IT professional could equally now qualify for the position! Old traditional accounting standards have now been automated so what is now required is for finance leaders to be data-savvy. I will also be speaking on creating value through finance, and the financial and monetary systems that represent the cornerstone of economic activity in any organization. Data science is so important in life today (whether we’re watching movies on Netflix or stalking someone on Facebook!), and we are literally leaving data points behind us all the time. A finance professional is the one who can utilize these data sets and be the thinking power putting the algorithms together.