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Finance and accounting professionals must lead the strategic conversation around high-quality, data-driven insights.
Within any organization, a leader's role is to identify and clearly communicate the organization's vision, mission, and value proposition. Based on that vision, short-, mid-, and longterm strategic objectives are determined, and the vision is seen through into execution. As part of the strategic initiative, contingency plans should be proactively developed for conditions when the business environment changes unexpectedly. Employees are then empowered to tie the strategy to key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to every vital part of the organization. As Alexander Peiniger, CEO of quintly, says, "In the end, you should only measure and look at the numbers that drive action, meaning that the data tells you what you should do next."
Data is the operative word there. Outcomedriven data strategy is the key to the success of this entire process. Jim Johnson, a former CFO of Adaptive Insights, takes Peiniger's advice one step further, saying, "Data is the lifeblood of an organization. It separates opinions from facts and can provide a competitive advantage for an organization. From knowing who your customers are and what they are doing with your products, to understanding how profitable a line of business or geography is, more companies are looking to the CFO to define the metrics and measurements that will be tracked to manage growth, enable agility, and ensure long-term sustainability."
It's essential to create a solid data management system to ensure timely access to highquality organizational data to produce these financial and nonfinancial KPI measurements and other necessary high-quality information. When data is missing, it should be a priority to create processes to systematically capture the data, focusing on timeliness, quality, and all the other data-management aspects.
DATA EVOLUTION
The digital revolution began around the world in the latter half of the 20th Century. Current conversations about data...