Henrik Johansson, CEO Grant Thornton, Sweden
ImageMattias PetterssonWith the high regulatory pressure within the ESG space, not the least within ESG reporting, and with the urgent need for business to cut carbon and reduce dependencies on scarce resources and materials, the audit/finance/business management industry will significantly change. Auditors, controllers, and analysts will see new capabilities becoming mainstream in the profession, and abilities to understand and manage environmental, social and governance related insights, data and disclosures, will be key going forward. These roles will broaden and will require ability to work across several functions and business areas, orchestrating and driving transformational change. Auditors and analysts must possess understanding of how to assure robustness and relevance of data as well as understanding how various impacts and KPIs are interconnected.
A programme like this is much needed and it’s a prerequisite to cater to growing demand of competence in the market. Controllers and auditors of tomorrow must be able to manage and control both financial and “non-financial” data. For businesses to present a balanced and correct view of its performance and current state, the financials must be complemented with environmental and social performance as well as detailed disclosures on how the business is managed. As ESG is becoming integrated into business strategies and operations, the need to understand also how the ESG agenda is managed will be critical for correct analysis of value at risk or ability to capture business opportunities.
Several. With more than 50 various regulations within the ESG space in Europe alone, and more than 2800 on a global scale, various roles are likely to develop and occur in the intersection between sustainability reporting and financial analysis. There is a growing demand for “ESG-controllers” to support the Chief Sustainability Officer as well as the CFO with data management – reporting and analysis as well as forecasting and modelling. Decision makers across all disciplines in a business, will need solid advice and understanding of sustainability risks and opportunities. And as ESG integration into core business becomes more common on a broad scale, ESG controllers will support the M&A team, the Product Developer, or the Sales team with analysis of material economics, carbon cost/efficiencies and added value/unique ESG selling points with various products/investments etc. Auditors will also need to fully understand ESG data, how to assure this broad spectrum and which aspects are material to which business and why. All these professions will fundamentally change/develop during the coming 3-5 years.