cfo
“As we grow into a much larger entity in India it is critical for me to make sure we remain agile and nimble as an organisation despite the fact that a larger entity will need more processes and systems in place” RISK
MANPOWER
Traditionally companies have always measured risk as a static thing. But today increasingly, business is being exposed to a range of outcomes. So we need to move to an approach that is more dynamic in nature. It has to be done in a way so that a company can look at more than just two options. Then there is reputational risk, liquidity risk...When you tackle reputational risk for instance, are you triggering off your liquidity risk as well? As a CFO, one needs to synergise and understand the value of interdependency very clearly so that you are able to trigger off multiple action plans.
The area of manpower and talent management needs more of a multipronged approach. A lot of money and time is spent now-a-days in training and re-training manpower and so a CFO and his team will also have to have a strategy in place to make sure that returns on such investments are maximised. In other words manpower retention is a challenge that needs to addressed by going deeper in the issue and understanding the psychology of employees across age groups and geographical locations. One big question is: how are you developing your talent? Talent pools
12
CFO india
september 2012
are becoming increasingly polarised today. People are way too ‘specialised’ in one area, sometimes to an extent that they have neither the inclination nor the skill to understand associated areas of business. The need of the hour therefore is to develop well-rounded leaders. This is a big challenge for all leaders of today. We need to leave a legacy, we need to ensure that the good work done, is continued over the years and to do that, we need to understand the nature of the next generation of workforce and then, train and guide them accordingly. Of course, there are other challenges associated with this. We will have to increasingly deal with situations where a person backs out of a job just a day prior to joining since he or she has received a better offer. The norms of acceptable behaviour and the definition for what is proper and of etiquette seem to be changing. And when this has an effect on the budgets as well as on the returns on investments, a CFO needs to step in. One of the reasons for polarisation of the workforce talent pool perhaps also lies in the over-dependence since bigger parts of the value chain including finance and accounting are being outsourced. Per se I am not against shared services, or outsourcing some work. But when key areas of finance are outsourced, there are inherent risks. And one of them is that you are not developing an internal chain of experts. You are not grooming people to step in in tough times, people who have an overall view of the finance function and who are adept at deputing for a colleague in an associated function. No outsider will step in at such times. As a CFO we should realise this risk and so, while I have nothing against shared services, I would advocate that every team should have enough well-rounded executives and leaders who are multiskilled and have a 360 degree view of the business.
Jiten Gandhi
i think