Abstract
Digitalization has considerably transformed the finance functions of large multinational corporations. As researchers of the Stockholm School of Economics, the authors have been witnessing this transformation for several years and received insights into how companies expect digitalization to affect the finance function in the future.The last couple of decades have shown tremendous change with regards to the roles of the finance function and the way different tasks are organized. For instance, transactional accounting was first centralized and later outsourced, often to low cost countries. Also, the controller function was divided into a statutory dimension and a more business-oriented controller function. We have been following the development of the finance function for several decades as teachers, as researchers and as program directors of an executive education program for senior business and financial controllers in large Nordic multinational corporations. We understand that one of the major challenges the finance function is currently facing is the digital transformation, which many companies embrace as a do-or-die mantra. As a new set of skills is needed and new professions such as that of the data scientist emerge, the profession of the controller is increasingly questioned and challenged. The main question we examine is how the finance function, given its fundamental responsibilities, which we believe cannot change, will maneuver into new domains and into the unknown.