Finance Monthly - January 2022

have their management teams been able to train for. The food retail sector was able to operate throughout the pandemic, thanks to our heroic frontline colleagues. However, many businesses would not have survived without the support of the government and the support of their communities. Organisations should take away two main lessons: Do the right things even if nobody is watching. If your organisation is unable to prove that it contributes positively to society and conducts its business in an ethical and sustainable way, society might not be willing to support you during the next crisis. It is important to communicate with government bodies and the communities you serve and to acknowledge the important role these stakeholders play for your organisation. Second, as one can’t prepare for everything, the way we responded to the pandemic was based on the experience and the training of our senior leadership team in crisis management. The generic response methodology has worked very well, and it is the duty of the CFO to ensure that the processes and the people are fit for a robust response to any crisis an organisation could go through. Our investment in crisis management training has paid dividends. Howwill theproliferation of big data and machine learning impact the role of the CFO in the coming years? A great CFO should be able to cut through today’s noise of data and provide relevant and timely insights for colleagues and enable them to excel at their jobs. Finance teams have always helped top management to focus on making fast and good decisions based on clear and true information. With more data than ever being available and coming from different sources, from both inside and outside the organisation, the CFO and their teams will have to work harder to remain the single source of truth and the go-to business partner. Machine learning and big data might make it appear to be easier for the end-user to create their own reports, but it will need data experts to understand the quality and reliability of such information. The CFO will have to ensure that big data is used for the right use cases and in the best quality. What are your key goals for the next 12 months? Now that I’ve stepped down from the Executive Board of Lidl Great Britain and have joined the board of our international head office, taking on the global responsibility for accounting and financial reporting for the Schwarz Group, I am excited to be working alongside an international team of outstanding experts for Europe’s biggest retailer which alsooperates substantial food production and significant recycling activities across Europe, the US and Asia. I will continue to play my part to support the GB business, by chairing the Audit Committee of Lidl GB. This will allow me to remain closely connected to Lidl GB, an outstandingly ambitious organisation that is so close to my heart. Finance Monthly. Bus i ne s s & Economy 29