Suppose your organization needs to quickly pivot financially, especially during these uncertain times. In that case, finance is better off becoming a partner with operations and the rest of the organization, rather than becoming a heavy-handed overseer of budgets and spending. Organizations have come to realize that without deep connections with the rest of the company, finance departments will miss early warning signs of significant market changes and operational challenges.
says Anjali Motiani, chief financial officer of Datasite, a Minneapolis-based company that provides a digital platform to facilitate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. Motiani, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, is a former finance director at SunGard Financial Systems.
Of course, collaboration isn't just about fostering personal relationships. It is about integrating the data that a business generates into one or more views and, with the help of analytics, increasingly capturing the near-future status of the business.
In an interview, Motiani talked about starting digital transformation projects by identifying risks and opportunities, allocating resources for maximum impact, and asking the right questions.
How do you approach risk management and scenario planning given changes in the global economy and trade? Are there any specific frameworks or strategies that help your team better predict and respond to volatility?
Datasite's finances are deeply embedded in the business. We are partners, not a police function. This allows them to receive signals from the front lines sooner, which is essential for quick changes of direction.
We adopted an agile, data-driven risk management strategy that leverages cross-functional collaboration and real-time analytics to anticipate disruption. We hold regular meetings and discussions with all stakeholders to ensure comprehensive coverage and thorough understanding of the risks and opportunities within our business.
Over the past several years, we have acquired several businesses around the world and continue to leverage the collective authority of these businesses across various tax and corporate jurisdictions to evaluate policy changes that impact us.
As a CFO leading a global finance team, what is one initiative you have recently championed to make operations more agile in the face of economic uncertainty?
Today's CFOs need to leverage real-time data, scenario planning, rolling predictions, and incorporate AI automation into their processes to support faster and smarter decision-making. That's why at Datasite, we focus on integrating all the data, analytics, and trends surfaced in different parts of your business into a single view to secure enterprise value.
That effort includes creating a data analytics team within the finance function, improving collaboration with other business functions to gain better insights, and becoming smarter about the past, present, and hopefully near-term future of the business. We are moving from a position of hindsight to a position of foresight.
Can you share how you overcame that change and what skills and attitudes you brought with you? What matters most to CFOs who want a bigger seat at the strategy table?
The CFO's role is evolving to become more strategic and forward-looking than just a number cruncher. Today's top CFOs are enterprise value architects who blend financial acumen with digital expertise, people leadership, and long-term planning to navigate uncertain environments and seize opportunities.
What helps me be a strong strategic partner is (1) building relationships and (2) always collaborating. Collaborating with other leaders helps ensure that your efforts are ambitious, realistic, and support long-term organizational goals.
Continuous collaboration also enhances risk assessment and mitigation, enabling more informed responses to market changes, competitive pressures, and operational challenges, increasing Datasite's agility and ability to innovate in ways not possible within departmental silos.
This collaboration optimizes profitability by ensuring resources are allocated where they have the greatest impact, based on objective analysis and input from various departments. Additionally, partnerships allow for more open communication and foster a culture where continuous improvement and mutual accountability are the norm.
What advice would you give to other CFOs looking to lead the digital transformation of the financial industry, especially when balancing cost pressures and innovation goals? Have you ever led an initiative that had a meaningful impact?
One of the key lessons I've learned is that it's important to understand and be clear about the problem you're trying to solve before choosing the right tools and systems for your organization. Digital transformation has a huge impact on finance, both in terms of cost and efficiency, but it also has a huge impact on teams, processes and culture. Designing requirements and understanding the end-to-end impact of new tools is the most important phase in a digital transformation journey because it has long-term impact.
Additionally, the finance systems roadmap must be well integrated into the enterprise-wide technology roadmap to create a unified blueprint for transformation and ensure that finance operations drive business innovation, efficiency, and long-term success. It is essential to maximize business value and ensure sustainable growth.
