Financial expert discusses the top skills accounting and finance professionals need to build successful careers in leadership.
/ AN INTERVIEW WITH KIMBERLY ELLISON-TAYLOR
The following summarizes an interview facilitated by Capterra team member Kyle Rich and global finance expert Kimberly Ellison-Taylor. This conversation was edited for length and clarity.
The accounting and finance (A&F) function is no longer only about closing the books, paying invoices, or other day-to-day tasks. Today, A&F leaders play a strategic role in the direction the business takes and critical decisions—thanks in large part to the capabilities provided by modern accounting and finance technology. Successful A&F transformation and a foundation for A&F’s strategic role, then, requires new skills and perspectives.
We spoke with Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, technology and finance, to discuss the essential skills necessary for today’s chief financial officers (CFOs) and other leaders.
Thanks to more than 30 years serving in both accounting and technology-focused leadership roles, Ellison-Taylor helped lead Oracle customers through the initial transition from on-premises software to cloud computing—and she doesn’t think the change is going to stop there.
“Traditionally, accounting professionals who aspire to be CFOs would have thought it was about cost control, expense management, and similar activities.” says Ellison-Taylor. “But now it is absolutely about people leadership, transformation, strategy, and understanding technology.”
Four areas of consideration for today’s CFO
Organizations that think of digital transformation as just an IT or some other department’s initiative are not going to be able to sustain a competitive edge. Every function within an organization, especially accounting and finance, needs to shift gears and adopt new ways of thinking and leveraging technology.
Four areas, in particular, should be considered. Let’s dive in.
#1: CFOs need to take a leadership role in the business
While the CFO’s role has changed into one that demands a strategic business view and strong leadership skills, that doesn’t mean the core functions of finance and accounting are left behind.
The statistics confirm this as 93% of senior finance leaders told Gartner[1] they agreed that their 2025 vision included a “high concentration of business acumen, digital and complex problem solving skills.”
By focusing on developing those skills now, aspiring finance leaders can achieve their goals and current finance leaders can transform their organizations into one built for the digital age.
#2: Operational excellence needs to extend beyond traditional A&F processes
Operational excellence as a concept can be thought of as two separate parts. The former, as it pertains to accounting and finance, encompasses the baseline that all A&F departments must meet.
“What I would also characterize as operational excellence,” Ellison-Taylor says, “is making sure we can perform the basic functions like we can close the books, we have a single source of truth for management decisions, we're able to comply with regulations, and pay timely both employees, and all our bills.”
Once these baselines are met, that’s where “excellence” comes in. As finance leaders look to digitally transform their business, they can’t just move legacy processes over and call it “done.”
“Don't just take what you did for 20 years and move it over to a new system. Instead, really ask, do we need to operate this way? Are there better business partners that could do it with us? How do we leverage that?”
Kimberly Ellison-Taylor
Global technology and finance leader
For an example, let’s consider invoice submission from a vendor.
The original process an AP professional for decades has been something like:
Verify that the invoice is accurate and hasn’t already been paid.
Check that the invoice is approved and within the terms of the purchase order or contract.
Ensure that the company has sufficient funds to pay the invoice.
Record the invoice in the company's accounting system.
Prepare and issue payment, notifying the client.
Automating that process would probably eliminate nearly all the above steps except those that fail to pass one or more of the steps. Depending on the volume of invoices submitted, this could save an organization with many third-party vendors a huge number of hours spent just processing paperwork.
None of this can be done, however, without understanding what technologies are available on the market to automate these processes and how to do it.
#3: Up your organizational digital intelligence
Every type of technology is designed to solve a specific type of problem. Understanding what problems your organization has and how to solve them is key to improving your organization’s digital intelligence.
AI, machine learning, and other digital technologies are seemingly evolving by the day. They are streamlining previously manual tasks and allowing people to focus on more strategic initiatives—at least for those who can implement them properly.
“For instance, KPIs, budgeting, and forecasting are still so often done with a brute force combination of spreadsheets and pivot tables,” says Ellison-Taylor. “To be fair, those with a mastery in the realm of spreadsheets can perform feats that are beyond impressive but, in the end, they have their limits.”
“Improving your organization’s digital intelligence means adopting technologies that enable your teams to spend less time crunching data and more time doubling down on the strategic analysis of what that data tells you. That will determine your future.”
Kimberly Ellison-Taylor
From there, you can start to make key, oftentimes critical decisions: What do we stop doing? What do we start doing? Where do we manage our costs? Expanding from there isn’t something that can be done solely by finance teams. It involves a whole-organization approach.
#4: Let business leaders drive the process
The leading question today’s finance leaders should be guided by is this: How do you make it so that the people who are generating revenue are able to do so? The answer is simple but not easy: Co-leadership.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks organizations face during digital transformation is siloed processes. As an example, the CIO of the organization should not be driving business context problems—the business leader should be.
“If it's HR, the finance department, the supply chain,” says Ellison-Taylor. “They should absolutely be involved in the context and all of the ‘what’ of the process, with the ‘how’ being handled by the CIO’s team.”
Having a strategic view of the whole organization is vital regardless of the organization’s size. It might seem like this is only something that applies to larger organizations, but you should always plan for the future. Your organization might be just one or two contracts or networks away from being a large company. It's time consuming, expensive, and difficult to go back and retrofit your technology.
If you’re planning for growth the entire time and collaborating, it instills the principles needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world and economy.
Prepare for the ongoing transformation in accounting and finance
If you need additional convincing that finance leadership is undergoing its own transformation, you need look no further than the CPA exam. Launching in January 2024, the AICPA announced that it will be testing different criteria including more critical problem-solving simulations, analytics, and technology[2].
One point that we’ve already mentioned that bears repeating: Everything we’ve talked about is not just a big, enterprise-level challenge. Even the smallest companies can benefit from adopting these four skills.
As you’re developing a plan for growth and leadership, be the one that's driving change inside the organization. That, more than anything, is a reason to build the pillars you need in place to lead, manage, and drive future change.
To read more of Kimberly’s thoughts on digital transformation in accounting and finance, check out her latest for Capterra: