“One Thing Which We Hadn’t Prepared for Was Businesses Suddenly Going Down To Zero”

Amidst all the uncertainties and economic challenges, India Inc. has been identifying opportunities, and more importantly, seizing these opportunities for growth and value creation and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is a key stakeholder here. On the  4th edition of the BW Best CFO Awards 2020 - Deepak Kothari, Co-Founder & COO FT Cash, Ramesh Swaminathan, Executive Director & CFO Lupin, and  Lalit Malik CFO Dabur India participated in the panel discussion on “COVID 19 and remote Financial Management: CFO managing Risks and Uncertainties.” The Panel was moderated by Ruhail Amen from Exchange 4 media and BW Everything experiential.

The discussion started with the current hot topic – COVID and how are the CFOs dealing with the covid impact. All panelists agreed on how technology has played a very important role in felicitating this crisis. While Lalit said “Managing liquidity became extremely important for us, whether it is working capital or longterm” Kothari stressed on “cash flow management has been primary during these times, but we being a fintech company we have been trying to provide working capital to small businesses in this time of need.” Swaminathan from Lupin said “Although the pharma sector has been declared as essential by the government but it's not completely immune to the crisis, there was a shortage of inputs from suppliers and china and that impacted the supply-chain” 

While talking about Key learnings from this pandemic for a CFO, Lalit stressed control while working remotely “There always a risk with regard to data abuse, control is imperative and that has been great learning. In the business side digital has played a very big role where we have seen the eCommerce, digital communication and digital launches going up” Kothari from FTCash said “One thing that we all didn't prepare for was businesses suddenly going down to zero, we always factored in 10-20% sensitivity analysis, we have now learned there are a lot of situations where everybody needs to come together and collaborate” Swaminathan also stressed on Cyber Security – “ Whilst we are becoming wiser, the hackers are becoming more experienced and With so many things happening virtually, data backup, vulnerability assessment, and cybersecurity is extremely important and these fundamentals need to be implemented across organisations” 

All panelists agreed on the benefits of virtual meetings and technology is no more a support function, it is leading the way in certain areas. Lalit said “The Finance function is no more about reporting, today it is about analytics as well, Using AI and RPA to predict the future and have alternatives has become very important,” Mr. Kothari said “Covid has actually broken the mental barriers, it has made everyone realize we can do without everything, you have to think from scratch this has been the single biggest shift” talking about the pharma sector Swaminathan said “We are Data using for a host of things now, and secondly we are now working on contingency plans and scenario planning proactively”