The fans of inflation are diverting focus for many CFOs from pursuing innovation and growth strategies to curtailing possible runaway costs as organisations push forward their digital strategies.In 2021, 60% of organizations were experiencing wage inflation. Since then, mentions of inflation on earnings calls have increased eightfold. There’s little question that inflation will be a big theme in 2022 or that it will present challenges.“CFOs have little control over inflation itself, but it adds cost pressure that they must navigate their businesses through,” says Alexander Bant, Practice Vice President, Finance at Gartner. “When faced with challenges that could harm profitability, the instinctive CFO response is to reduce costs near-term or delay spending until inflation subsides.”Well-planned and implemented digital initiatives must have a long-term deflationary effect on business costs and, subsequently, the price of products or services. Gartner calls this digital deflation – investment in technology to permanently reduce the cost of doing business, said Bant.In this PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Chris Huff, Chief Strategy Officer at Kofax.1. Inflation is rising in many economies in Asia. At the same time, we are still in the middle of uncertainty with COVID impacting revenue and growth of businesses. How are CFOs responding to the two trends?2. Digital transformation, including finance digitalization, is a forward-looking initiative that costs money and resources. Similar, ESG is a new buzzword but it will cost companies money they might not afford in the near term. Do you expect CFOs to recommend scaling back on these initiatives?3. How should CFOs, and the finance team, plan table stake finance activities like FP&A, budgeting, cash management, investments, M&A, etc to reflect rising inflation and the uncertainties of the time?4. Finance transformation has been on the plan for some time now. Can finance teams continue their transformation while being cognizant of pressures to focus on more pressing issues like rising inflation?5. What is your recommendation for CFOs to help them balance the need to innovate, meet customer expectations, to deliver shareholder value in the face of rising inflation?

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