The CFO as a Driver of Transformation: How Finance Chiefs are Funding the German Reboot

9 min read

In autumn 2025, Siemens CFO Ralf P. Thomas announced a record free cash flow of €10.8 billion. Meanwhile, SAP CFO Dominik Asam warned that companies slow to adopt AI would pay a steep price. Two CFOs, two messages – and both signal that in Germany, the CFO is no longer just the numbers person. Today, the CFO is the engine of corporate reinvention.

Image source: Pexels / Vlada Karpovich (px:74

Why the CFO is suddenly the transformation leader

For years, the division of roles was crystal clear: the CEO set the direction, the CTO built, and the CFO kept the books. That hierarchy will be obsolete in Germany by 2026. Why? Transformation costs money – and the money isn’t where it needs to be. Or rather, it’s locked up in the wrong places. The debate over Germany as a business hub and the €735 billion Made-for-Germany initiative lays this bare: the capital exists, but it’s not flowing to where it’s needed most.

In manufacturing, the investment index stands at minus 11 percent, according to the Deloitte CFO Survey Autumn 2025. Mechanical engineering and automotive firms are planning job cuts – over three-quarters of surveyed companies expect to reduce headcount. Meanwhile, transport and logistics are investing at plus 56 percent, and technology at plus 33 percent. The gap is widening. And the CFO sits at the center of it all: they must decide where the money for the future will come from while the core business contracts.

This isn’t just a theoretical challenge – it’s existential. Deloitte reports that 49 percent of German CFOs face rising costs due to delayed transformations. Moving too slowly means paying twice: once for the postponed transition and again for the competitive disadvantage. The question is no longer *whether* companies will transform, but *who* will finance and steer that transformation. And that person is the CFO.

Sources: Siemens Q4 FY2025 Earnings, Deloitte CFO Survey Autumn 2025, Deloitte CFO Signals Q4 2025

The Siemens Case: How a CFO Rewired an Entire Corporation

Siemens CFO Ralf P. Thomas delivered a line every finance chief should pin to their wall: *“Cash generation is the ultimate yardstick for business performance.”* What sounds straightforward carries radical implications. When cash is the benchmark, every investment is measured by its payback horizon – and that reshapes portfolio strategy from the ground up.

In fiscal 2025, Siemens put that principle into action. The results speak volumes: €10.8 billion in free cash flow (a record), €11.8 billion in industrial profit (up 3 percent), net income of €10.4 billion (up 16 percent), and a dividend increase to €5.35 per share.

Behind those numbers lies a strategic bet placed nearly two decades ago. Since 2007, Siemens has invested over $10 billion in digital acquisitions. Cloud annual recurring revenue now stands at nearly 50 percent – an original year-end 2025 target achieved well ahead of schedule. More than 1,200 digital offerings now run on the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace.

The lesson for other CFOs? Shifting from CapEx-heavy industrial logic to cloud-based recurring revenue is possible – but it requires endurance and a finance chief who optimizes not just quarterly results but decades-long value creation. To see how this ripples through CIO priorities, look closer: the CFO and CIO must share ownership of the same investment thesis.

SAP: When the CFO Demands Disruption

Dominik Asam, SAP’s CFO, speaks a different language than his counterpart at Siemens. In an interview with Fortune last fall, he didn’t mince words: for SAP – and every other software company – AI is a massive catalyst that can be “a game-changer” or “a disaster.”

What’s striking is that CFOs are usually the voice of caution. Asam flips the script: he isn’t pushing for cost control; he’s pushing for speed. Get it right and move faster than rivals, and the upside is enormous. Lag behind, and the downside is inevitable. “We’re working around the clock,” he said, “to avoid falling behind.”

The numbers back him up. SAP Cloud revenue climbed 24 percent in Q2 2025; its Cloud ERP suite surged 26 percent in Q3 to €4.59 billion. The cloud backlog hit €77 billion at year-end 2025 – a record – up 30 percent in constant currencies (reported: +22 percent). This isn’t just financial fine-tuning; it’s a business-model transformation the CFO is driving because he understands the numbers better than anyone else on the board.

Three Levers for Germany’s Corporate Revival

German CFOs have three key levers in 2026 to fund transformation – and none works in isolation. The real skill lies in combining them.

1. Shifting from CapEx to OpEx via the cloud

According to the Bitkom Cloud Report 2025, 90 percent of German companies now use cloud applications. Forty-seven percent of all IT applications run in the cloud – up from 38 percent a year ago. Sixty-two percent of companies say: without the cloud, they would grind to a halt. This is no longer a strategy; it’s a necessity.

For CFOs, this shift fundamentally changes balance-sheet dynamics. Instead of large upfront investments in servers and data centers (CapEx), funds flow as recurring operating expenses (OpEx). That boosts free cash flow in the short term and makes investments easier to plan. The trade-off: recurring costs rise permanently. And 78 percent of companies see Germany as too dependent on US cloud providers. The debate over digital sovereignty and European cloud alternatives is therefore heating up for every CFO who must factor long-term supplier risks into the equation.

2. Public Grants: KfW and Special Funds

Since July 2025, KfW has launched a three-tier grant programme for digitalisation. The basic grant offers loans of up to €7.5 million for standard digitalisation projects. The LevelUp tier provides up to €25 million with a 3% grant on the loan amount (capped at €200,000). For complex AI projects, the HighEnd tier includes a 5% grant. Target group: companies with annual turnover of up to €500 million. For SMEs in the basic tier, the mandatory KfW Digitalisation Check – a free digital maturity assessment that documents the current state and identifies areas for action – is required.

The €500 billion special fund for infrastructure has been available since October 2025. For CFOs, however, it is only indirectly relevant: €300 billion flows into federal investments, €100 billion into the Climate and Transformation Fund, and €100 billion to states and municipalities. Companies benefit through induced demand – broadband rollout, administrative digitalisation, and transport infrastructure create contract volumes for B2B providers. But: these are not subsidies; they are contracts. CFOs must position themselves to win the tenders.

Reality is putting the brakes on progress: by the end of 2025, only €24 billion had been disbursed – just 4.8% of the total. The IW Köln institute criticises that 86% of the funds were misallocated. The Ifo Institute even estimates that 95% of the new debt was not used for additional investment. CFOs should therefore not wait for a major state push but build their own financing routes.

3. Green Bonds: Sustainability as a Gateway to Capital

Green bonds are becoming a cornerstone financing tool for German companies. The federal government issued green bonds worth €17.5 billion in 2024 and €14.5 billion in 2025, with plans for another €16–19 billion in 2026. By the end of 2025, the Green Bund curve included eight different securities with maturities ranging from 2027 to 2053. This creates a benchmark market that corporate issuers can use as a reference.

Siemens Energy demonstrated how it works in 2023: a €1.5 billion green bond split into two tranches (€750 million each, with 3- and 6-year maturities and coupons of 4.0% and 4.25%) was oversubscribed more than three times. The order book reached €5.5 billion. The takeaway for other CFOs: sustainable financing instruments attract investors – provided the framework is robust and governance is transparent.

Why German CFOs Must Rethink Their Strategy Compared to US Peers

In the US, the CFO Confidence Score stands at 6.6 according to Deloitte – the highest since late 2021. Sixty-three percent report increased M&A interest. The mood is aggressive. In Germany, the picture is starkly different: more than half of CFOs consider the business environment less attractive than two years ago. Inflation expectations average 2.5% over the next twelve months – moderate, but not a game-changer.

This isn’t due to a lack of skill but structural differences. German CFOs face a triple challenge: regulatory density (CSRD, NIS2, AI Act), energy costs, and a shortage of skilled workers. Forty-two percent report declining employee engagement, while 39% cite resistance to digital technologies. In the consumer goods sector, 69% of staff actively resist digitalisation.

Many CFOs are responding – correctly, but not ambitiously enough: two-thirds plan to automate knowledge-work processes. This cuts costs and reduces reliance on hard-to-fill roles. Yet it doesn’t address the core issue: without investment in new business areas, automation remains an efficiency play, not a transformation lever. That’s why mid-sized firms are increasingly charting their own course – often outside the strategies of corporate CFOs.

50 Percent Cloud, 87 Percent AI: How Finance Is Reinventing Itself

This transformation isn’t just for the companies CFOs lead – it’s for the finance function itself. Half of North American finance chiefs cite the digital transformation of their own department as a top priority for 2026. A staggering 87 percent expect AI to be extremely or very important for finance operations by then. Only 2 percent consider it irrelevant.

54 percent plan to embed AI agents into finance processes, fundamentally reshaping the CFO’s role – from guardian of historical data to architect of future scenarios. When AI takes over accounting, reporting, and cash-flow forecasting, CFOs gain bandwidth for strategic decisions: portfolio allocation, M&A valuations, and capital-structure optimization.

The question is whether German CFOs will seize this opportunity or get bogged down in regulatory red tape. SAP’s Asam doesn’t mince words: work relentlessly to avoid falling behind. This isn’t just a warning for software firms – it’s a call to action for every CFO who wants to not just navigate this reboot, but lead it.

What CFOs Should Do Now: Four Actionable Steps

Step 1: Reinvent the finance function first. If you want to transform others, start with your own team. AI-powered forecasting, automated reporting, and real-time cash-flow monitoring aren’t futuristic – they’re baseline requirements. Those still relying on manual Excel consolidations are wasting CFO time on routine tasks instead of strategic oversight.

Step 2: Systematically leverage funding opportunities. Apply for the KfW Digitalization Check (free of charge), identify the right funding tier, and assess whether a Green Bond Framework aligns with your company’s goals. Lead time for a Green Bond is 6 to 12 months – if you plan to issue in 2027, start now.

Step 3: Take control of cloud costs. The shift from CapEx to OpEx doesn’t happen automatically. Without FinOps discipline, cloud costs can spiral within 12 to 18 months. Dedicated cloud-cost management pays for itself within the first quarter. Siemens has proven that cloud ARR and cash flow aren’t mutually exclusive – only with rigorous governance.

Step 4: Define your investment thesis. Every CFO should have a clear, documented investment thesis: Why invest in Germany despite headwinds? What’s the return horizon? Which metrics define success? Siemens’ Thomas adhered to this principle for 18 years. The result: €10.8 billion in free cash flow.

The Flip Side: What Could Go Wrong

Not every CFO-led transformation succeeds. The cautionary tales are real: companies that migrate to the cloud too early and too aggressively, only to become dependent on U.S. providers – 78 percent already see this as a problem. CFOs who issue green bonds but fail to meet sustainability targets risk more than reputational damage. And finance chiefs who over-invest in automation at the expense of innovation are optimizing their way into irrelevance.

Geopolitical risks add another layer of complexity: 50 percent of German cloud users are rethinking their strategies in response to U.S. policy shifts. The IW Köln and the Ifo Institute warn that the special fund is generating little additional investment. Margins in manufacturing remain stagnant – only the service sector is seeing modest relief.

A transformation without a CFO at the helm won’t happen. But a CFO who ignores the risks merely delivers a more expensive version of the status quo. The most effective CFOs of 2026 will be those who can do both: recognize the opportunity and understand the cost of failure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read more

• How German CIOs are financing the reboot: €245 billion and the question of where the money goes
• Digital sovereignty as a boardroom priority: GAIA-X and Europe’s response to the cloud oligopoly
• Reboot Germany: €735 billion, three mid-sized companies, and the question of whether the crisis is really that dire

Further reading

• AI as a digitalization catalyst: What’s truly powering the German economy now
• The invisible bottleneck: Why PMOs often derail AI rollouts in 2026
• Sovereignty over price: The new procurement signal