More broadly, Dickinson sees threads from the survey responses as weaving together into a major shift in the way finance professionals at large companies perceive their role. "They're looking at how they spend time between the roles of operator and steward, versus catalyst and strategist," he says -- a division of responsibilities that the Deloitte research attempts to follow quarter-by-quarter.

Right now, indications are that CFOs see themselves as "the stabilizers" in a time of economic and corporate shifting. But there's a "shift to CFOs being pulled into the strategy resetting." That will require a change in the type of finance staff that finance chiefs will have to bring in -- "technical people, but really good facilitators, too."