The challenge was issued by chief financial officers and chief information officers at a roundtable discussion on the future of finance and IT, hosted by specialist recruitment company Robert Half.
The 11 participants, including senior executives from several business sectors, said the relationship between finance and technology was undergoing a fundamental shift. IT was now more than just a tool to automate financial accounting functions – it had become an integral part of every aspect of business.
That meant IT professionals needed to understand not just the technical implications of their decisions, but also the business ramifications, they said, especially at senior executive level.
CIO of Ports of Auckland, Pieter Bakker said, “To really participate at the executive table and the board table, you really need to speak the language of business, you really need to understand the business... being able to participate at an equal level in terms of business strategy development.”
CFO of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, Kelvin Wong, mentioned senior finance executives faced a similar change in emphasis.
But participants said that while finance professionals were immersed in business throughout their careers, constantly focusing on profit and loss, that was not the case with IT professionals.
IT professionals started out by focusing on IT – exposure to the business view happened much later in their career path. IT was also a much younger industry, still lacking the over-arching professional organisation and career development of finance and accounting.
The challenge for the education sector was to encourage more IT students to take a business focus, combining business and technology in their qualifications, said the participants.
Although some institutions, such as AUT University, offered conjoint finance and technology degrees, that combination was not yet popular.
GM - Finance & Resources at AUT University, Judith McKay said she had been told by AUT’s Dean of Business that the university was revamping its business and IT qualifications for business students.
“We intend to replacing the existing IT and eBusiness majors with a new business information systems major, which better matches the needs of the students and industry.
“The intention is not to train students for the IT industry, but rather IT-savvy graduates for business.”
The finance and IT industries faced another similar challenge, the participants said. Not every technical specialist wanted to be promoted to CIO or CFO level, where they must take a generalist’s view.
One answer, for both industries, was to develop dual career paths – one leading to technical speciality, with remuneration that genuinely rewarded individuals for their true benefit to the business, the other leading down a generalist management track.
CEO of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, Terry McLaughlin, said the issue of technology and education was a crucial one.
“New Zealand’s single biggest economic problem is labour market productivity and the solution is education and technology, so it’s vital really. That’s the only thing that’s going to get us up the OECD rankings.”
