Our mission
Empower your Finance team to deliver on its promise.
CFOs agree that an effective Finance team has never been more important in driving commercial success, but our research shows that Finance functions typically underperform and underdeliver.
The platform Finance leaders use to raise their teams' performance
The Global CFO Network is the platform Finance leaders use not only to drive their own success, but also to equip their teams to deliver on the promise of a great Finance function.
Our mission is to use the network to share Finance best practice across companies and industries, to learn leadership lessons from within and outside the commercial world, and to stay informed on, and ahead of, the operating landscape.
With the high cost of capital, actionable Finance insight is critical
Capital is no longer cheap, and global companies are applying ever more stringent hurdle rates to business cases. What can you do to help your region or business unit win the investment it needs for profitable growth? Is your team ready with the data the business needs to make decisions, when it needs to make them? Can your function say it is the kind of business partner that drives performance?
Implied cost of equity and the risk-free rate, 2015 to 2025
Source: Professor Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern, implied equity risk premium data, January 2026. Cost of equity is the Treasury rate plus the implied equity risk premium at the start of the following year.
What CFOs tell us about their Finance functions
Findings from the Global CFO Network's research with regional CFOs of multinational companies.
How important is Finance in driving commercial success?
Global companies have been highly successful in deploying standardised processes and technology, but much less effective in building human capability within the Finance function. Some of the world's largest companies rely on the Global CFO Network to drive their people development agenda through peer connections, the sharing of best practice, and individual mentoring and development programmes for leaders and high-potential staff.
How effective is Finance in driving decision-making?
CFOs continue to wrestle with the effectiveness of their Finance teams. Two in five describe their team as only moderately effective in influencing the business, a worrying figure when multinational companies face so many challenges. The Finance leaders of some of the most successful global companies use Global CFO Network development programmes to close that gap.
How do Finance budgets compare with three years ago?
Most CFOs are being asked to do more with the same, or more with less. While automation and offshore service centres are generating savings for Finance, onshore business partnering teams are under greater pressure. The Finance leaders of some of the world's biggest brands use their membership to share lessons on Finance productivity and make the most of the investment they have in their teams.
Understand the operating environment, learn from peers and build a high-performing team
Richard McLean, SVP and Head of Global Commercial Finance at SAP, on what membership gives his function.
Watch Richard