A chief financial officer (CFO) at a multinational telecommunications group was directed to investigate how to optimize cash flow at customer contact centers, where clients also go to settle their bills.

By looking deeply at the operations of the five sites, the finance chief concluded that the solution was to drive performance among the employees at the centers to create better efficiency.

Such is a typical scenario that many CFOs will recognize.

Traditionally seen as the person who watches over the company's cash, finance chiefs are seeing their job scopes expanding, with finance also now overseeing projects in other departments across the companies.

More than ever, they are getting deeply involved in business strategies from issues such as where to invest capital to looking at company's operations. They are also taking on new responsibilities: managing information technology projects, managing uncertainties, forecasting business trends and overseeing human resources.

In addition to the expanded scope of responsibilities, 79 percent of the more than 1,000 senior finance executives surveyed by consulting firm Accenture across Asia, Europe and the Americas, said they need more flexibility in their operations to more readily respond to ongoing market changes, and 59 percent of them said this increased flexibility will be needed across their operations for the next six to 18 months.

This change is now more evident in local Chinese companies, State-owned enterprises and multinationals with subsidiaries in China, arising from a strong consciousness among Chinese finance chiefs that they are deeply connected to the global market, said Paul Boulanger, global managing director, finance and performance management, at Accenture.

"They are taking actions to build this capability to have better management of data and systems for forecasting and standardized processes. This will create the ability for them to manage costs and better manage uncertainties," he said.

"We see no lack of vision. They know where they want to go by figuring out how to go from local to global."

With the intensifying role, finance chiefs in China are now required to have a sharper focus on driving profitable growth through pricing, managing capital and managing growth.

A far cry from their previous focus on finance, book-keeping, taxes and cash flow, "today, the finance chiefs in China have to look at global and local trends, environment and labor issues, and have an understanding of technical know-how", said Catherine Lu, vice-president, Accenture Greater China.

In the Accenture survey, more than three out of four respondents (78 percent) said flexibility is needed in their planning and forecasting, rather than the traditional annual process. More than half of them also said they needed greater flexibility in their cost management, transaction processing, cash management, performance reporting, capital expenditure management and asset management.

To enable greater market responsiveness, 84 percent of the executives said they need to update their processes, data or content (including analytics), IT systems and/or workforce centralization.

The Accenture survey was conducted from October through November 2010 in eight countries - Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Spain, the UK and the US. Accenture surveyed 1,054 senior finance executives and nearly all report to the CEO, president or CFO of their company. The respondents worked in the banking, communications, pharmaceutical and media equipment, consumer goods and services, electronics and high tech, insurance, and retail sectors. The majority of the companies for which they work (82 percent of them) have revenues of $100 million or more.

While finance chiefs have been groomed for bigger leadership roles by expanding their responsibilities, the recent trend is more about how to navigate through change and implementing the changes, said Alvin Wee, a Beijing-based financial services consultant with recruitment firm Michael Page International.

Following a recent assignment with an investment bank, his feeling is that the finance chief is part of a strategic team concerned with overseeing risk management - such as political risks, market risks and budgeting risks including opportunity costs and non-performing loans.

The challenge for finance chiefs, according to Wee, is also implementing the changes on the ground. "It's tough to balance the day to day accounting with a visionary role in the company - an equilibrium which it is increasingly critical for CFOs to maintain."

Typically, finance chiefs spent the bulk of their time on accounting, investor relations, financial planning and analysis. Now a different skill set is in demand, said Samuel Lee-Bapty, manager of Michael Page International in Beijing. "There's a distinct need for strategic CFOs, who speak Chinese and have a deep knowledge of Greater China coupled with solid international experience, said Lee-Bapty.

"We talk about business partners, and today finance chiefs act like business partners for their companies.

"Finance chiefs have gone from a stereotypical position to a more visible, influential role. This is a broad trend across companies and is ever more evident in joint ventures involving foreign partnerships."