With the 2020s taking its first steps, the world is already looking at what will happen in 2030 or even 2050. We live in a time when innovations happen exponentially, and unexpected milestones involve disruptions that completely change the way we work, relate, and ultimately live.
In context, the business world as a whole wonders how tomorrow’s company will be shaped. And because of its specific role in organizations, the CFO is a position especially exposed to different technological innovations and their consequences in the business world.
NFTs
The acronym that responds to the Non-Fungible Token concept is being one of the topics that is giving you the most to talk about in recent weeks. Based on Blockchain technology (more specifically Etherum), Non-Fungin Tokens are cryptographic tokens representing unique, differentiated and non-exchangeable assets. To simplify it as much as possible: before the emergence of Blockchain everything (or virtually everything) existing in the digital realm was susceptible to showering. Thanks to Blockchain and, more specifically, NFTs, unique non-copyable assets can be generated.
This fact, whose initial applications are focusing on the concept of cryptocolsives or digital art, can become impacto at both the micro and macro level. The possibilities that NFTs host can range from generating new lines of business or activity, to offering new financing or investment possibilities. Options that, if made a reality, will force CFOs to find new possibilities and ways of working.
Quantum computing applied to finance
Quantum computing is one of the elements that could most change the world in which we live (from a technological point of view). Complex design to understand unless a physical basis is available, quantum computing is part of quantum mechanics or phenomena, and operation at the microscopic level. What will be the impact of quantum computing? To explain it in a simple way we can use the difference between the elementary units of information of classical computing versus (the bit) quantum (qubit). While, by simplifying it to the limit, the bit would work in binary form, the qubit could work over the entire range between 0 or 1. This, which may seem anecdotal, is called to revolutionize technology and computing. And that the fact that quantum computers can operate in parallel or overlaid goes beyond operating faster: it opens a door to a world of possibilities.
For example, in the field of finance some entities are working on the concept and development of quantum finances. In this context, the CFO of the future could find, in the quantum field, answers and new solutions to all those current needs that are based on the analysis of large volumes of data and probabilities. New investment opportunities, advance trends, projections, forecasts, scenarios… Quantum finances could offer solutions that we still don’t even imagine today.
Virtual Economy
Although we add some brushstroke of this reality when talking about NFTs, the development of virtual reality will also have important consequences for organizations and, more specifically, CFOs. The increasing implementation of this type of typologies is generating what is already known as the virtual economy. We are increasingly living in virtual worlds which, coupled with milestones that no one could expect just a year ago as the COVID-19 pandemic, makes a new market, digital, which applies both to services, of course, but also goods as digital objects.
If a few years ago it might seem unheard of for someone to pay for something that doesn’t exist in a “real” way, today there are millionaire digital markets like buying and selling items for video games. In this context, elements such as the virtual real estate already become something existing and palpable (for example, Decentraland, a virtual world in which users own the land). If this line continues to develop, in the future CFOs will have to face a reality that will require a different mindset (understanding finance as holistic and global, not always linked to the trust factors that until now governed our world),specific training and also requirements of compliance and cybersecurity adjusted to the characteristics of this virtual world.
Smart Contracts
Although everything that carries the smart schoolgirl can sound to us already out of date considering the development of recent years, the ‘smart contracts’ can become another of the great innovations that changes the way CFOs develop their role in organizations. A smart contract is a code or inform attic protocol that verifies and executes compliance with an automatic forma contract. This technology would facilitate process times and eliminate intermediaries. But above all, it would have significant benefits in everything related to investments (especially those linked to futures), acquisitions of companies, would facilitate everything related to payments and, in general, will make much more efficient and generate value throughout the supply chain.
Datacracy: data and its use
As we have seen, we are heading to an increasingly decentralized world where the importance of data, as more and more technological disruptions reach the corporate world, will be greater. At the C-Suite level there are several profiles that play an important role in the handling of data. Of course, the CTOs, CHRS, and CEOs… and also CFOs, perhaps being the profile that has the most opportunities before it as we move towards a model in which the data plays a greater weight.
And there’s one important element here: we’re not just moving towards a more technological world. We do this in the face of a more responsible, sustainable and inclusive world. Gone are the days when progress was only important for progress. Facts such as ESGs becoming increasingly important show that the behavior of organizations must be immaculate and beneficial to the world in which we live. Since data can play a decisive role in this regard, the CFO is facing the opportunity to become a kind of data compliance officer, in which it makes information and technology two key levers of its function, to be one of those responsible for the strategic contribution of value of companies.
In short, the different technological innovations that we seem to be experiencing offer challenges, but also opportunities for the corporate world, C-Suite and the CFO.
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Founded in 1979, Auxadi is a family-owned business working for multinational corporations, private equity funds and real estate funds. It’s the leading firm in international accounting, tax compliance and payroll services management connecting Europe and the Americas with the rest of the world, offering services in 50 countries. Its client list includes many of the top 100 PERE companies. Headquartered in Madrid, with offices in US and further 22 international subsidiaries, Auxadi serves 1,500+ SPVs across 50 jurisdictions.
All information contained in this publication is up to date on 2021. This content has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only, and does not constitute professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this chart without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this content, and, to the extent permitted by law, AUXADI does not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this chart or for any decision based on it.