CFO 4.0: Essential competencies for digital transformation in manufacturing

By OEM Update Editorial June 12, 2018 1:47 pm IST

New research from Siemens Financial Services (SFS) identifies five key competencies required of the new genre of manufacturing CFO

Siemens Financial Services (SFS) has released a new research paper that describes ‘CFO 4.0’ – the genre of Chief Financial Officer in the manufacturing industry. The CFO 4.0 has a deep, holistic understanding of the competitive advantages of digital transformation, the competencies required to identify, evaluate and implement new business models for Industry 4.0, and the essential capability to drive and enable the transformation process.

Respondents to the SFS research identified five key competencies that the CFO 4.0 needs to exhibit, in order to enable successful digital transformation in manufacturing. They are:
1. A comprehensive understanding of available financing options that can enable a commercially sustainable transition to Industry 4.0
2. The ability to introduce relevant financing options at an early stage of the strategic Industry 4.0 process, in order to access and take advantage of the full range of potential solutions
3. Specific Industry 4.0 knowledge and expertise – related to financial, technology, operations and market analyses – in order to accurately assess digitalisation opportunity vs digitalisation risk
4. The capability to build predictive Industry 4.0 business models, return-on-investment metrics and performance monitoring processes