Future of Finance: Post-Covid finance bears no resemblance to what it was
With Sebastien Malgat from Sagemcom, we made an uncompromising assessment on the Future of Finance show: the Covid crisis has definitively buried traditional financial management methods. What worked before March 2020 no longer works. And those who still ignore this are taking a major risk.
November 2021: the moment of truth
When we met on the Future of Finance set, we had barely emerged from 18 months of chaos. The perfect opportunity to take stock with Sebastien Malgat, who concretely manages finance at Sagemcom, and compare his field reality with our publisher’s vision.
Our diagnosis was unanimous: the companies that performed best were not those with the best forecasting budgets, but those that were able to adapt most quickly to disruptions.
What Covid broke definitively
On the show, we identified the collateral victims of the crisis:
Traditional long-term planning. Sebastien experienced it at Sagemcom: impossible to project 12 months ahead when everything changes every week. Annual budgets developed at the end of the previous year became obsolete as early as March 2020.
The rear-view mirror logic. Basing yourself solely on history to predict the future? This approach showed its limitations dramatically. The companies that survived were those that were able to capture weak signals in real time.
Organizational silos. The crisis demanded a reactivity that only cross-functional organizations could achieve. Finance, sales, production, HR… everything had to be aligned instantly.
The emergence of CFO 2.0
Faced with these findings, we explored together this emerging figure: the CFO 2.0. No longer just a controller, but a true strategic pilot of the company.
This new CFO no longer settles for producing reports. He anticipates, simulates scenarios, challenges strategy. He becomes the guarantor of the company’s agility in the face of uncertainty.
Sebastien Malgat embodied this perfectly: a finance manager who no longer settles for following numbers, but uses them to illuminate strategic decisions in real time.
The new weapons of the post-Covid CFO
In Future of Finance, we discussed the tools that enable this transformation:
Continuous planning replaces annual budgeting. No more waiting until year-end to revise forecasts.
Real-time data integration to escape the famous “Excel chaos” and finally have a consolidated view of activity.
Scenario simulation to quickly test the impact of different assumptions on performance.
What the show didn’t allow us to explore in depth
TV format allowed us to alert about this necessary transformation, but not to detail all its aspects. How do you concretely move from traditional CFO to CFO 2.0? What are the pitfalls to avoid? What internal resistance to overcome?
The exchange with Sebastien revealed change management issues, team training, process evolution that we could only touch upon.
The warning we wanted to issue
Our message in Future of Finance was clear: finance departments that don’t evolve are doomed. The next crisis – because there will be one – will sweep away those who haven’t learned the lessons of Covid.
This transformation is no longer a luxury or cutting-edge innovation. It’s a survival issue in a world that has become structurally unpredictable.
Three years later: our predictions are confirmed
Today, in 2025, we must acknowledge that companies that have made the leap to Finance 2.0 navigate uncertainty better. They have developed this agility we were already advocating in 2021.
The others continue to suffer each new turbulence as if it were the first time.
Do you recognize yourself in this post-Covid finance? Has your organization really learned the lessons of the crisis? The details of this transformation, concrete steps, and field testimonials are developed in the complete interview.
Because the post-Covid era has already begun.
David Bena, Country Manager France at Jedox