The Finance Professional for Tomorrow
MARKET VIEW
Produced by:
The Finance Professional for Tomorrow
MARKET VIEW
Produced by:
About Kadir Karaman
Kadir Karaman is a seasoned finance executive with over 20 years of experience across consumer goods and technology sectors. With a strong background in strategic finance leadership, he has held multiple senior finance roles such as Regional CFO, Vice President of Finance and Finance Transformation Lead in global organisations. Currently the Founder of Karum Financial Advisory, Kadir provides strategic financial guidance to venture capitals, private equity firms and scale-ups, specialising in M&A, revenue growth strategy and fractional CFO services.
How is the finance professional's role changing in today's business environment?
The finance function is transitioning from operational to increasingly strategic. We're seeing finance professionals becoming more vital in helping executives navigate volatile business environments.
In today's uncertainty, CFOs play a crucial role in guiding capital decisions and investment options, addressing everything from shareholder changes to financing structures. These concerns are now consistently on board agendas – no longer just about executing plans but adapting to changing conditions.
Technological disruption is another major factor. Whether it's AI or new market competition, the barriers to entry across industries are lowering significantly. This trend has been evident in consumer sectors with indie brands gaining market share, but the pace is accelerating. CFOs must now guide investments, determine strategic directions, and develop technology roadmaps.
The finance role isn't just about managing the current portfolio – it's about anticipating where to go next in an uncertain landscape.
How are you seeing traditional finance tools and practices evolve with technological advancement?
Just a few years ago, the default approach was implementing comprehensive ERP systems like SAP with shared service centres – projects that typically took years to complete.
Today, that paradigm is shifting dramatically. For many businesses, especially tech companies without inventory or manufacturing needs, those heavyweight systems may not be the right fit. Instead, we can create ecosystems with different specialised tools implemented in months rather than years.
This approach offers tremendous advantages – greater flexibility, easier changes, and stronger negotiation power by avoiding dependence on a single vendor. The integration between modern platforms is becoming easier, particularly with AI capabilities increasingly embedded.
This creates tension between standardisation and flexibility. The benefits of a unified system must now be balanced against the agility that modular solutions provide. For high-growth companies where products are evolving quarterly and business models are shifting, rigid systems often struggle to keep pace.
I've seen cases where companies create workarounds with inflexible systems, resulting in manual adjustments at month-end just to close the books. Finding the right balance remains a key challenge.
What are the biggest pain points in financial operations that technology could address?
Manual processes remain prevalent throughout finance operations. While some countries are moving to e-invoicing, many internal company processes still involve significant manual intervention. In invoice processing, scanning is just the first step – classification, booking, payment and spend analysis often remain manual.
During finance transformations, I've encountered persistent issues: invoices not paid or booked correctly because teams attempt perfect processing – individually classifying each invoice to specific purchase orders. This perfectionism creates bottlenecks.
AI presents an extraordinary opportunity. Instead of rigid algorithms handling only repetitive tasks, generative AI can intelligently allocate costs based on descriptions and underlying logic, with human review for validation. From my experience, such systems could accurately process at least half of transactions immediately, improving speed and efficiency.
Beyond transactions, I see technology transforming financial forecasting. Many current systems require excessive manual inputs – I've seen models requiring data entry across 40 different tabs just to generate one revenue number. By contrast, I've worked with machine learning models for advertising forecasting with remarkable accuracy, providing more reliable projections with less effort.
How should finance professionals prepare for tomorrow's financial landscape?
Finance professionals need a blend of strategic thinking and technical expertise. While accounting skills remain essential, we must recognise that many traditional roles are evolving – some becoming automated, others more strategic.
I've observed a concerning gap: some ambitious professionals focus exclusively on becoming strategic partners without developing the necessary technical foundation. They aspire to CFO roles without experiencing accounting, treasury or M&A. Conversely, technical specialists often struggle to translate their knowledge into strategic insights.
My advice is to seek diverse experiences early in your career. Don't limit yourself to one specialisation – rotate through different finance functions. Expose yourself to accounting, audit, treasury and M&A. Change companies and industries to accelerate your learning curve.
For those already in specialised roles, find cross-functional projects that force collaboration. When implementing financial planning systems, ensure your FP&A team understands the data flow from source systems.
I've implemented programmes like structured shadowing where team members spend time with colleagues in different locations, and mentorship initiatives where specialists help each other develop complementary skills. These create a ripple effect as participants share their experiences throughout the organisation which also fosters upskilling talent and scaling-up best practices easily.
What role will data literacy and analytical skills play for finance professionals moving forward?
The importance of data literacy varies by position. At CFO level, understanding data concepts is crucial, but technical execution can be delegated. What's essential is developing the ability to identify data inaccuracies, ask the right questions, and translate information into actionable insights.
I experienced this challenge when a CFO colleague introduced a new forecasting tool. During the first meeting with their Chief Sales Officer, the sales leader didn't recognise the numbers. Rather than clarifying in simple terms, the finance team sent over a 30-tab Excel file expecting the sales director to navigate it independently. This communication failure shows where many finance teams still struggle.
Finance professionals must develop skills to clean data, recognise patterns, and transform technical information into clear narratives that business leaders can act upon. The technical aspects are increasingly automated, but the ability to derive meaningful insights and communicate them effectively remains distinctly human – and increasingly valuable.
