The impact of Covid-19 could push organistions to cut back on compliance, risk and internal controls which will be counterproductive as a lack of these measures will make the operating environment vulnerable to fraud and misconduct, especially in emerging economies like India” reveals India Risk Survey conducted by FICCI.
Explaining the imperatives of modern CFOs and the possible ways for conquering the conventional challenges of managing finance of the companies; Vivek Ganesh, Regional Director, SAP Concur Shares his valuable insights through a presentation at the recently organized 4th Edition of BW Businessworld Best CFO Summit and Awards 2020 organized by BW Businessworld in association with SAP Concur celebrating and recognizing India’s Best CFOs.
Ganesh while revealing some data analytics shares that 44 percent of financial leaders reported that increasing operational efficiency is their top growth strategy and on the other end; 43 per cent of decision-makers want to improve reporting and analytics of spend data as 60 – 70% of business data goes unused.
Having spoken about the business challenges and key findings from the market; now the question remains - what are the solutions for these new-age challenges? Building on the same; Vivek Ganesh while sharing the solutions says, “Early detention is the weapon for any organization.” Adding more to the same lines he presented a structured flowchart for “easy steps to attain a flaw-proof finance system” in the company. The major steps he emphasized are;
Areas of Focus in Post COVID Era
CFOs being the change-makers need to assess the situations and identify the room for transformation in the demanding areas. Moreover, it is much relevant to close these gaps ‘executing the relevant and extremely effective solutions’ in the post-pandemic era. Ganesh tried to convey that for unconventional challenges it is important to meet the demands with unconventional efforts and solutions. He categorized the areas of focus in broad categories which are;
As experts affirm that the new era demands creating values and supporting priorities through intelligent finance. One of the major roles of “Modern CFO” would be to ensure and prioritize the increase of direct spending towards the growth of the company which will in return reduce the expense processing cost down by 50per cent.
Concluding on an optimistic note; Ganesh States, “All of us can achieve business efficiency by using the right data, making the right decisions, and adopting the technology.”