Agility has become an increasingly important and more meaningful word for Finance, alongside other key words Responsiveness and Resilience, as I discussed in my earlier blog post concerning the impact of recent events on FP&A professionals. And while agility has been a word associated with Finance for some time, the events of the last year have placed a whole new emphasis upon the importance of what it really means for the CFO and office of Finance to be agile and responsive, and to enable them to make quick and informed corrective steering and strategy changes amidst rapidly changing circumstances. And it has also provided a new focus for CFO attention, as they consider how to enable their Finance function and team to be more agile and responsive, acquiring the right blend of resources, skills and technology, to better able to cope with whatever the future has in store.

So, just what does a CFO need to consider, when contemplating the steps that they need to take, to create an agile Finance department, and become an agile CFO?

It will come as no surprise that this will be one of the topics considered and discussed by thought leaders and experts next week, at the virtual Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference, May 25-26.

Joining the conference this year are a number of my SAP colleagues, experts in their own right in topics related to Finance, Data and Analytics, all of which have a role to play in bringing clarity, agility and responsiveness to the office of Finance.

If you are attending the conference, then I’d invite you to keep an eye out for two sessions in particular. The first, led by SAP’s Martin Naraschewski, Senior Vice President, GM LoB Finance and Risk, and Stephanie Miller, Vice President, SAP S/4HANA Center of Excellence as they consider “How to Build a Future-Ready Intelligent Finance Organization”. The second, led by @TimoElliot Innovation Evangelist, and @BirgitStarmanns Senior Director at SAP, is a roundtable event at the conference, where they will consider just how CFO’s can prepare to be “Ready for Anything”. Joining them will be Gina McNamara, SAP CFO Australia and New Zealand, to share her thoughts on this topic, from a CFO’s perspective. These and other session details can be found on the Gartner CFO conference agenda.

Wherever you are on your journey to becoming an agile CFO, I am confident that the thoughts, experience and advice on offer at the Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference will give you lots more food for thought. So if you’re already registered or planning to attend, then why not take in one of the SAP sessions, to hear what my colleagues have to say, and then have a virtual chat with one of our attending team, who’ll be delighted to speak with you.

Remember, agility is the watchword; be the “Agile CFO”!