Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
The CFO's growing influence
Leadership | Strategy
May 12, 2022 – The role of the chief financial officer is expanding. Our latest CFO survey found that these execs have increasing influence in organizations, with more roles reporting directly to the CFO. Between 2018 and 2021, the share of roles reporting to the CFO rose in functions including procurement, investor relations, and digital.
To read the interview, see “In conversation: The new CFO mandate,” April 8, 2022.
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Visual form
Paired-dot ranking chart.
Layout / body structure
The chart is one ranked list of roles running from top to bottom, with paired dots for 2018 and 2021 connected on each row and a percentage-point change column on the far right. Read each row left to right to compare the earlier and later reporting share, then scan down the list to see which functions gained or lost CFO reporting influence.
What is being compared
The chart compares the share of roles in direct reporting relationships to the CFO for a set of corporate functions. It compares the 2018 share with the 2021 share for each role, so the reader is seeing both cross-functional differences and change over time.
Measurement system
The horizontal scale is percent of roles reporting directly to the CFO, with black dots for 2018 and blue dots for 2021. The far-right numbers translate the movement into percentage-point change, making the direction and magnitude of change explicit for each role.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Each row contains two dots joined by a thin connector, and the dot positions either shift right for growth or left for decline. The arrangement makes the display read like a ladder of reporting influence, with the largest gains clustered at the top and the largest declines concentrated toward the bottom.
Main takeaway from the visual
More roles are reporting directly to the CFO, especially in functions tied to procurement, investor relations, transactions, and digital work. At the same time, some traditional governance or strategy functions move the other way, so the picture is not a universal rise across every role but a clear expansion in selected areas of influence.
Key standout values or extremes
Procurement posts the largest increase at plus 16 percentage points, followed by investor relations at plus 14 and both M&A transactions and execution and digital at plus 10. On the downside, internal audit falls 13 points, pricing and regulatory compliance each fall 9 points, and corporate strategy falls 8 points.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.