Develop strategy, Deloitte partner John Kiarie tells chief finance officers

Chief finance officers are spending much of their time doing routine work instead of strategy.

According to Deloitte partner John Kiarie, high-volume transactions that consume much of their time can be detrimental to a company’s growth as little or no time is left for officers to help in decision-making and to strategise on the future growth of their employers.

“What ought to be done is to invert that pyramid. CFOs ought to spend a lot more time shaping decisions, strategy and the way value is delivered by businesses in aspects such as growth or consolidation,” Mr Kiarie said on Monday during an industry meeting on shared services in Nairobi.

The Financial Shared Services forum, which brought together chief finance officers, was organised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank, Deloitte and PwC.

Shared services is a cost-effective way of consolidating business operations by multiple units of the same organisation with the aim of eliminating redundancies.

Finance experts say this concept has a positive impact on countries’ economies as it supports export promotion of services that drive foreign exchange inflows and encouraging competitiveness of firms in a unified world.

“As businesses operate regionally and as they become conglomerates and operate in more sectors of the economy, you cannot afford to leave the strategy of shared services as a CFO,” Mr Kiarie noted. 

According to ACCA’s country head Anthony Kariuki, cities the world over are increasingly becoming hubs for shared services with an emphasis on their comparative advantages.