Business Radar | April 2026

RADAR

Understanding the businesses driving Australia’s economy

EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN CFO

About this report

Each year, Pitcher Partners’ Business Radar looks into the trends, challenges and opportunities facing Australia’s middle market business leaders with independently commissioned research.

Our most recent survey, conducted in March 2026, captured the sentiment of 300 middle market business owners and leaders across a range of growth stages, states and industries, focusing specifically on how the role of the CFO is evolving – expanding beyond a financial lead and encompassing everything from IT and AI, to data and analytics and ESG.

Here, you’ll read how leaders are showing a remarkable spike in confidence in the face of mounting cost pressures. The latest confidence figures were collected just days before US-Middle East tensions sharply increased, so we eagerly await our next survey results to see how this disruption could affect these historically optimistic leaders.

With the CFO quickly becoming the ‘catch-all executive’, we examine how middle market businesses approach the role, how the scope of responsibility is continuing to grow and the risks that come with blending major strategic responsibilities into one position. We also unpack the evolution of CFO from finance lead to strategic coordinator, exploring the top skills that leaders see as critical for future CFOs, including the technological skillsets, cross-functional capacity and consistent skill development.

Key findings

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Middle market confidence continues to rise despite ongoing cost pressures: Business leaders showed a notable increase in both current confidence (8.14 from 7.80) and future confidence (8.35 from 8.05) compared to August 2025.

CFOs are increasingly acting as ‘Chief Figure-it-Out Officers’: 82% of respondents say their CFO is responsible for strategic and commercial leadership – and this expanding remit is reinforced by blurred executive structures. 57% of businesses operate with blended or overlapping roles, with unresolved accountability defaulting to finance.

Businesses may be underestimating the risks of over-reliance on CFOs: While leaders see benefits in expanded CFO roles: diverse thinking, cross-departmental alignment, faster decision-making, less than a third of respondents express concern about finance leaders operating in technical areas outside their core skillset.

Expanding CFO remits heighten succession risk: Only 35% of respondents identify succession risk as a concern, despite the increasing breadth of the CFO role making replacement more complex and narrowing the pool of suitable successors.

Read on to learn how the CFO role is evolving and steps you can take to position your business and leadership team for sustainable success.

Business leaders remain resilient amidst a turbulent economy

Surprise confidence spikes in the face of evolving expectations –how long will it last?

Given the changing economic landscape, the latest confidence numbers from middle-market business leaders may be a surprise. Current and future confidence spiked, bringing the figures close to the highs seen in 2023.

Local, global and industry growth prospects

While numbers are up across all categories, confidence in the 12-month growth prospects of the global business economy spiked from 6.63 to 7.08. However, timing is everything.

The latest confidence figures were collected just days before US-Middle East tensions sharply increased. At that point, an increase in confidence would not have surprised. Previous Business Radar reports have shown sustained confidence levels supported by continued and strong customer demand, with cost pressures able to be absorbed by customers and along supply chains. We eagerly await our next survey results to see how this disruption has affected these historically optimistic leaders.

Middle market business confidence over time

When asked what is influencing the strong confidence, our respondents offered similar responses to past reports, naming increased demand (48%) and technology (46%), with changing customer preferences (35%) and supply chain changes (22%) rounding out the top drivers.

Negative factors impacting business confidence

Labour market conditions were named as a major confidence driver for the first time in the last year

E-commerce growth, strong consumer demand, improved logistics, better infrastructure and advancing technology are boosting deliveries. Survey respondent

Cybersecurity impact remains steady, mirroring our October 2025 report, but geo-political pressures are rising, with a 5% increase

Cost pressures continue to loom large

When asked about the biggest threats to confidence, it’s clear that the cost of doing business is the driving concern. Inflation has jumped 10% from our last survey to 41%, taking the top spot. Moreover, the second and third most influential factors are increased operating costs (32%) and increased labour costs (24%, +8%).

People are seeking more personalised experiences and are increasingly open to AI capabilities.

Survey respondent

The new CFO: the Chief Figure-it-out Officer

The (ever-expanding) role of the middle market CFO – and the challenges of a growing remit

The modern CFO: More than a finance leader

While all C-suite executives are essential to successful business management, the CFO’s oversight relates to business performance in the most direct way. Cash flow, margins and runway define whether a business can operate or not. CFOs, therefore, set hard limits on what’s possible. They also work within tight regulations, making them comfortable navigating compliance and governance frameworks.

Given this broad position in the business and breadth of foundational skills, it’s no surprise that 82% of our middle market business leaders say the role is taking on responsibilities beyond traditional finance.

Almost half of respondents said their CFOs took care of risk, governance and compliance, and a further third named data and analytics, tech and digital oversight.

It seems that the CFO role and associated accountability are rapidly extending into areas that don’t ‘belong anywhere else’ in lean middle market management structures. These expanding responsibilities tend to cut across the organisation and demand central accountability.

This cross-functional role growth can see them managing everything from architecting and integrating AI-driven finance operations, leading strategic resource allocation to fuel growth and innovation, and embedding ESG and sustainability metrics into financial reporting and decision-making.

82%

of business leaders say the role is taking on responsibilities beyond traditional finance

This highlights the expectation that CFOs are more than ‘the numbers’ – they are expected to lead in a strategic, crossfunctional capacity

The catch-all exec

This step-change in responsibility is coming from increasing regulatory and compliance requirements (62%), growth and business complexity (60%), and advances in AI and automation (59%).

Finance tends to be the catch-all, handed anything that doesn’t neatly fit into the remit of other departments. Leaders rely on finance experts when it feels like there’s no one else to go to.

Jyotika Rangel, Partner, Pitcher Partners Sydney

Split by organisation size, the picture changes, with role definition increasing in larger businesses. However, even at this end of the middle market, only 60% have clearly defined C-Suite roles.

Blurred executive structures drives more default responsibility

Although distinct executive roles remain the most common structure among surveyed leaders (43%), a majority of organisations (57%) operate with blended or overlapping roles. In the absence of clear role boundaries, accountability for cross-functional issues often gravitates towards finance, reinforcing the CFO’s position as a default point of responsibility.

How executive teams are structured today among middle markets

Distinct executive roles (e.g. CEO, CFO, COO with clear responsibilities)

A mix of specialist and hybrid executive roles

Mostly hybrid roles, with individuals covering multiple functions

Very lean leadership team, with limited formal role separation

Who’s the CFO?

More than half 57% of businesses have either a dedicated CFO or another senior finance leader overseeing financial leadership and decision-making in their businesses. In 35% of organisations, that responsibility fell to the CEO or owner.

Responsibility for finance leadership and strategic financial decision making in organisations

It’s clear that future success will need financial leaders who can become more robust project managers, combining expertise with EQ and skilled stakeholder management.

Future CFOs need to build on accounting foundations

The CFO’s role expansion is not seen as a short-term solution, but a long-term evolution. While strong accounting capability remains fundamental, the role of the CFO is increasingly defined by responsibilities beyond traditional finance.

Of those surveyed, 78% expect CFOs to assume greater accountability for technology, data and automation, and 63% expect them to engage more deeply in broader, non financial leadership roles. This expansion is even more pronounced in larger organisations, where expectations rise to 87% and 73% respectively. This shift is reflected in the skills that leaders expect will be needed by a successful CFO: technology, data and AI literacy (54%), cross-functional working (33%) and ongoing skills development (31%) as the top three.

All roles, including CFO, will be affected by the rising use of AI. I think this will grow exponentially as the technology improves.

Respondents expect these future changes to be driven primarily by AI efficiency gains

Survey respondent

Key action

Prioritise soft skills

Don’t train or hire finance leaders on financial literacy alone. A strong finance leader needs communication skills, project management capacity and EQ. Modern CFOs must also have the self-awareness to know when an issue is outside their expertise, and the confidence to bring in specialist external partners to support business growth.

The modern CFO acts as the conductor of an orchestra, requiring strong communication skills and the ability to coordinate diverse teams with different areas of expertise. These capabilities are now a baseline requirement, whereas in the past, the role could be fulfilled primarily through strong accounting and finance expertise.

The viability of fractional and outsourced CFOs

Over half of business leaders see fractional or outsourced CFO models as a viable option, with leaders in NSW and those within larger organisations even more open to the idea (61% and 64% respectively).

Leaders said they would leverage an outsourced CFO to fill capability gaps – either when recruiting for a permanent CFO (39%) or to bring in specialist expertise (39%), especially during periods of transformation or growth phases (39%).

Regional differences

51% 60%

Businesses in New South Wales are much more likely to outsource while they are in the process of recruiting a key finance role.

Queensland businesses are twice as likely to access outsourced support on an ongoing part-time basis (vs 37% national average).

We’re definitely seeing this trend in Sydney with both local and international businesses increasingly looking to outsource all or parts of their finance function. This lets them take advantage of deeper expertise while reducing the costs and risks that can come from maintaining a skilled in-house finance team.

Jyotika Rangel, Partner, Pitcher Partners Sydney

Risk of overreliance

Many organisations manage well with their finance leader overseeing everything from IT to ESG reporting. Our respondents see benefits in such blended executive roles: diverse thinking (86%), improved cross-departmental alignment (84%), faster decision-making (84%) and strategy that’s grounded in operational and financial reality (81%).

However, respondents appear less cognisant of the downsides, with only 39% naming unclear accountability, 35% succession risks and 32% difficulty replacing talent.

Just over a third of respondents highlight succession as a risk, despite the broadening remit for finance leaders – but with growth in responsibility comes a greater challenge to find a replacement

With roles like CFO, in a role that have broad touchpoints across the business, proactive succession planning is important – consider any triggers for organisational change like team changes, regulatory updates or changes in systems you use and start planning early around how you will support the business to keep running smoothly.

Role expansion and expertise gaps

As CFO remits extend into increasingly complex and technically specialised areas, often with a material impact on long-term business performance, fewer than a third of respondents express concern about the risk of finance leaders operating outside their specialist depth.

This may reflect an underlying assumption that CFOs can bring sufficient expertise across emerging domains beyond their core skill set.

A lag in specialist depth is to be expected given the growing breadth of responsibilities now falling under the CFO’s remit. As finance leaders are asked to integrate technology, data, automation and broader enterprise leadership alongside traditional stewardship, their value increasingly lies in orchestration and judgement rather than technical mastery in every area.

These capability gaps become most consequential during major initiatives – such as systems transformations, large‑scale projects or shifts in strategic direction – where access to specialist expertise and clear ownership can materially influence outcomes.

We’ve encountered situations where an integration was implemented internally, often by an accountant, but without sufficient visibility or control. As a result, when issues arise, the organisation lacks the capability to diagnose or resolve them.

Jyotika Rangel, Partner, Pitcher Partners Sydney

Key actions

Deliberately position CFOs as strategic leaders

This empowers your finance head to lead across the business, not just within finance.

Don’t let finance become the default owner of everything

Proactively define accountability for areas like ESG, IT and compliance. Clear ownership helps avoid unstructured scope creep and ensures responsibilities sit with the right leaders.

Supplement capability with specialist support for major shifts

While an experienced CFO can competently manage day-to day complexity, large projects or strategic pivots often require deep specialist expertise. Engaging targeted support can reduce risk, relieve unnecessary pressure on the CFO, and improve outcomes.

Warning signs of an overloaded

CFO

Don’t wait for a complete system failure or missed obligation. Leaders should monitor for signs of an overstretched finance function. Early signs often surface through systems, processes, or decisionmaking quality before they appear in financial results. Common indicators include:

Extended close cycles and unpredictable year-end outcomes: Month-end closes continue to drift, and year-end processes regularly uncover unexpected issues.

Multiple versions of the truth: Decisions rely on reconciliations between competing reports, or outputs that require frequent rework before they are trusted.

Organisational congestion: Despite sustained executive effort, projects progress slowly or fail to complete, indicating capacity constraints or unclear ownership.

Over-centralised decision making: The CFO is in every decision – to the extent that their absence would materially slow or stall the business.

Unstructured ownership of specialist projects: the CFO is embedded in IT, data or transformation work with no specialist support.

Growing expectations with no added capacity: You’re entering a period of growth or change, and the CFO is expected to manage the extra workload.

Persistent system shortcomings: New or upgraded systems require ongoing fixes yet never seem to fully deliver their intended outcomes.

Succession risks

As CFOs assume responsibility for multiple critical functions across the business, key-person risk increases. This concentration of knowledge and decision-making often becomes most visible only when a CFO exits, taking with them significant institutional knowledge, capability and context.

Where the scope of the role becomes too broad, succession planning becomes more complex, narrowing the pool of suitable successors and increasing transition risk for the organisation.

Losing a key person can result in immediate operational chaos and puts the future of the business in jeopardy, especially when there is a plan to sell. Mitigating dependency on a single person is essential.

Key actions

Map the capability gaps deliberately

List the ‘homeless’ tasks that currently fall to the finance department. Identify which of these areas should be shifted to another team, kept with finance, or be supported through outsourcing or specialist input.

Document and diffuse knowledge

Capture key processes, systems dependencies and decision logic to ensure essential knowledge is not concentrated solely in the CFO’s head.

Start succession planning early

Consider the operational and strategic risks that would arise if your CFO were to depart. How would the business function during the transition period? Early planning builds confidence that the organisation can continue to operate effectively while a successor is identified and onboarded.

Insights for business Actions to take

For many organisations, the role of the CFO or finance leader has already expanded well beyond finance into technology, strategy, and cross-functional leadership. While this evolution brings clear benefits, including faster decision-making and more integrated perspectives, it also introduces new risks that need to be actively managed.

Key actions to take:

1 Deliberately positioning the CFO as a strategic leader

Formally recognise and enable the CFO’s enterprise-wide leadership role, expanding their influence beyond the finance function. Clear mandate and support are critical.

2 Build capability beyond finance

Identify capability gaps created by the CFO’s expanding remit and invest in hiring and development accordingly. This includes strengthening interpersonal capability, commercial judgement, data literacy, and technology leadership, alongside, strong financial expertise.

3 Avoid finance becoming the default owner of everything

Clearly define accountability for areas such as ESG, technology and compliance. This helps prevent unstructured scope creep and ensures responsibilities sit with the most appropriate leaders.

4 Use specialist support to bridge capability gaps

In complex or high-risk areas – particularly during periods of growth, transformation or leadership transition – consider outsourced or specialist support to reduce pressure on the CFO and materially improve delivery outcomes.

5 Monitor early warning signs of overload

Indicators such as stalled projects, delayed reporting, limited insight into business performance, lack of real-time data, or key talent attrition may signal that expectations on the CFO have outpaced capacity. These signs should prompt a reassessment of structure and support.

6 Reduce reliance on any one individual

Mitigate key-person risk by documenting knowledge, building team capability, and planning succession early.

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