Welcome to the Good to Great CFOs Insights Hub.
To be a GREAT one in the next foreseeable significant inflation after four decades in history is not something written in your management textbooks. Obviously, the way CFOs lead your companies to overcome past economic downturns might be quite different from the way to manage technology-accelerated demand associated with a slowed-down global economy, high inflation, and right-skilled talent shortages.
In this series of Path to GREAT CFOs series, we are going to bring along GREAT MINDS, GREAT INSIGHTS and GREAT SOLUTIONS to spark you with innovative aspirations to lead, freshly baked reports, articles, trends and latest success of the industry players. Get on board with your peers, thought leaders and technology leaders on the latest research, strategies, and tactics to win and grow during this unprecedented time.
Perhaps the biggest challenge through the pandemic period for CFOs, has been providing quality data to support decisions. Good CFOs provide historical data. Great CFOs provide predictable insights. Changes in supplies, workforce availability and demand have been for the most part unpredictable. The capability of your finance teams to make meaningful data available to decision-makers real-time is the key driver of resilience and growth.
Finance teams also sit at the center of the digitalization movement, swiftly adopting technology for the team’s data power and helping to establish tech priorities and ROIs for teams throughout the company for data-driven decisions.
The goals of the massive technology adoption because of the pandemic are clear:
- meet customers where they are
- make it as easy as possible for them to buy from you,
- improve instantaneous visibility and understanding of business operations and
- improve efficiency and bolster trust and confidence in business decisions through data analysis.
Even as economic conditions roil, in the survey with 500 executives and managers in companies with under HK$2 billion in annual revenue, most companies say they’re expecting to grow this year, and they’re planning to bring in even more technology, in many cases.
Benchmark your finance department’s digital technology adoption plan with these 500 senior executives. The Future of Finance: CFOs Steps Up in the Quest for Productivity and Efficiency
More Hand-picked readings for CFOs:
Path To Great CFO Webinar Series
#1 CFOs 2023 Outlook and enterprises responses with automation and AI
Steering a company during uncertain times requires an analytical approach with an emphasis on visibility, control and agility. Great CFOs have visibility into cash flow, receivables, projects, inventory, and operational risks. You need prudent advice, a list of potential sources of capital and a single-minded forward-focus. Real-time visibility also reveals potential risk and control issues, like fraud and credit risk in the economic downturn.
In this Path To Great CFO session, we have invited experienced speakers in digital transformation to share:
Plunged by 19%, equivalent to 3% of GDP on average, this decline in after tax profits in US Corporates that will likely lead to a U.S. recession in 2023 was revealed in a recent report of Fitch. Given the close economic ties between Hong Kong and US corporates, the butterfly effects definitely impact majority sectors of the Hong Kong that CFOs here are to take actions without delay.
Responding to this predictable downturn the resilience of the finance function not only depends on the finance and accounting infrastructure, data and capability to generate insights for prediction and crisis management. The extent in which a corporate and its staff equipped with in automation also a key factor in contributing the organisation’s agility for an conservative outlook. In this Path To Great CFO session, we have invited experienced speakers in digital resilience to share:
Agenda:
- 2023 Outlook
- Automation as a response to 2023
- Actionable Analytics thru Artificial Intelligence as a response to 2023
- Practical Scenario Planning for 2023
#2 Reimagine Finance with Artificial Intelligence and Automation
According to the author of Digital Darwinism: Survival of the Fittest in the Age of Business Disruption, Tom Goodwin says,
“Businesses are living in a time of “digital Darwinism”1 – an era where technology and society are evolving faster than businesses can naturally adapt. Fortunately, this can make it easier to gain backing for change. The stage is set for a new era of leadership, a new generation of business models – it’s time to lead change rather than continue to operate in a reactionary model, always on the back foot. The mantra of “adapt or die” should be ringing in the ears of the C-Suite.”
Progressing from a functional role of internal control and traditional money-only matters, Great CFO is a business-wide leader and advisor on the adaptation to the pace of the latest market disruption and technological innovation for both new business model and internal operation from various global leader surveys.
Great CFOs’ dashboard is moving from purely financial figures to strategic cross functional insights that help one to lead in the time of disruptive change. Thanks to the latest finance automation enabling seamless data and process integration for real-time, accurate information from every corner of the multi-national company.
In this Path To Great CFO session, we have invited experienced speakers in digital transformation to share:
Agenda:
- Reporting reimagined with Artificial Intelligence: Great CFO’s Dashboard
- Traditional to Strategic: Modern accounting’s continuous close
- Multi-national companies real-time consolidation
#3 Automation as a Solution – 2023 Mid-market Cashflow & Bottom line Challenges
- Heading to end of financial year: managing your working capital
- Automating your AP/AR process
- Automating your demand planning and inventory management (NetSuite)
- Automating your cashflow management (NetSuite)