Study: CFOs must find balance.

A recent global study reveals that chief financial officers (CFOs) are too bogged down with profits reports and compliance work to focus on expanding their companies or driving shareholder value.

The study of 900 senior financial executives by IBM and the Economist's intelligence unit shows that only one-third of CFOs believe they are highly effective in supporting their chief executive's efforts to grow their companies. Almost one-half of those surveyed said their finance staff is tied up in transactional and processing activities, while only one-quarter said their staff members are able to focus on using financial data to improve company performance.

CFOs are "excelling at reporting historical financial results, they are meeting their compliance requirements ... but they haven't been able to unlock from all the exploding data the real hidden gems of information that would help them uncover new business opportunities, identify trends, or identify costly problems ahead of time," said Nancy Thomas, head of IBM's Business Consulting Services financial management practice, in a statement.

The study also shows that CFOs who are able to focus more on getting insight into their organizations are better able to determine successful growth strategies and...