01. STORY SELLING

Simply sharing the numbers and telling the story behind them doesn’t cut it anymore. Now, CFOs also need to be able to sell the stories they’re telling with numbers. “CFOs have a helicopter view of what’s happening in business. As such, we need reeducation around the role and how we become a more active voice in the boardroom,” said Mohammed Shaikh, partner in digital controllership and finance transformation at Deloitte.

Speaking about how the brand tried to keep its head above water in the last two years, Tiger Brands group CFO Deepa Sita said they looked at things that they were able to control like cost management and elimination of waste in production. She encouraged other CFOs to adopt revenue growth management practices to be resilient.

For Liberty Africa Insurance, resilience included expanding its offering by creating more diverse and innovative products for the country. “We looked at how we can be innovative and change our cost structure, and we also spent a lot of time on acquisition opportunities,” said CFO Ravi Singh.

Kumba Iron Ore CFO Bothwell Mazarura shared the three new strategies he implemented to ensure that the business could survive the tough times. “The first one was operational efficiency, how efficiently you move waste is key in terms of containing costs. The second one is absolute costs. So this is about looking across the entire value chain, and seeing how you can optimise costs. Lastly, compete in a global market.”