All eyes are on corporate-finance departments as they are asked to cut costs, reassess risks, and cope with the deep uncertainty generated by the current economic crisis. In this survey,¹ we asked finance and other senior executives how their finance departments have changed since the crisis began: what new challenges these departments are facing; which activities are taking up more, and less, of their time; whether their centralization or outsourcing plans are being modified; and how the CFO’s focus has shifted.

The results suggest that, at least so far in the current economic crisis, not many companies have made the kinds of structural changes that could most help the finance organization to boost its performance. Few respondents report that their companies have modified the organizational structure to give CFOs formal responsibility for more activities through solid-line reporting relationships. Fewer still report any increase in the degree or pace of centralization. Moreover, few respondents report plans to increase the outsourcing or offshoring of finance activities.