Finance 2035: Return to investment

Return to Investment revealed the increasingly strategic role of the CFO and their critical impact on business investment.

Leading enterprise finance management platform, OneStream, challenged Man Bites Dog to create a global campaign that would champion its mission to ‘Take Finance Further’ and position it as a trusted advisor to the office of the CFO. The result was Finance 2035: a multi-year thought leadership platform that uses pioneering research methods to explore the future of finance and create a community of engaged CFOs. 

The first campaign in the programme – Return to Investment – envisioned the future of finance and demonstrated the increasing importance of a strategic CFO to secure business investment. We found that investors consider the competence of the CFO more important than that of the CEO when making investment decisions. Moreover, they increase their initial investment in an organisation where the CFO is the main strategic growth driver by an average of 2.6%, rising to 3.6% among the world's largest asset managers.

Prior to the launch, OneStream partnered with key media partners to host a series of exclusive CFO dinners in London, New York and San Francisco. Attendees received an early look at the research findings and participated in intimate fireside chats exploring the evolving role of the CFO and the critical role of technology, particularly AI, in overcoming barriers and unlocking their strategic potential.

The Finance 2035 programme launched with a flagship report and a series of market- and sector-specific reports – all housed on a dedicated landing page – as well as a suite of striking infographics, videos and social cards for a social media campaign. The campaign content featured heavily at the company’s annual event series, OneStream Splash, framing conversations on the future of the finance function across the US and EMEA.

As OneStream’s first major thought leadership initiative, Finance 2035 marked a significant shift from product-led messaging to a visionary, insight-driven platform designed to engage today’s finance leaders and inspire the next generation.

You can read the full report here.

You can also hear Tim Minahan, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at OneStream, discuss the campaign as part of our Thought Makers webinar series.