Challenges the finance profession has been facing following the 2008-2009. A multi-country research

摘要

In the successful strategic management of the modern companies each function plays their specific role.udWhile today’s businesses in many ways are different from their ancestors, the key fundamentals are derivedudfrom the same roots. Their main purpose of existence is to serve the needs of their shareholders and stakeholdersudby creating value (Pike et al., 1993). To achieve this effectively and efficiently the various functionsudneed to work in close cooperation with each other. The global crisis, starting in 2008, proved that volatilityudis higher for the financial markets and the ordinary businesses that have been anticipated before. As theudrecession started as a financial crisis many people started to blame – amongst others – banks and financialudinstitutions for excessive risk taking and taking short profits ahead of long term sustainable growth.udAccordingly the lost confidence in the financial institutions has taken a toll on the reputation of other Finance professionals such as accountants, book keepers, treasury, tax people and others. The finance function’sudstrategic importance is linked to its ability to help interpreting the business performance and provideudtransparency. In order to restore the trust the finance profession is now facing one of the biggest challengesudof its history, the need to reinvent itself. This paper presents the findings of a recent international researchudconducted in the United Kingdom, France, Hungary and Poland interviewing 169 executives of the businessudsector plus the review of 237 job descriptions of finance professionals in order to understand the challengesudof the modern finance function. The findings of the study could provide relevant answers and help to overcomeuda very current problem that Finance is facing today, how to rebuild reputation and to stay a trustedudpartner and enabler for long term business strategy.