The much awaited FE CFO Connect Conclave, 2024 is to unfold on Thursday in Mumbai with some of the leading and finest minds from the Indian business and finance arena brainstorming, swapping insights and sharing perspectives. This happens at a crucial juncture when India is in a spotlight globally and the performance and practices of its businesses is under closer scrutiny than ever before.
The trends globally clearly have been reshaping the role of the chief financial officer or the CFO in organisations. They are no more the bean counters of the yore or financial controllers peering into spreadsheets to maximise profit and minimize loss.
Today, a CFO is expected to not just think out of the box but also tick every box in addressing the various competing claims on his or her time. A chartered accountant today cannot say he or she does not understand technology or is not able to comprehend the implications of climate change and the investment imperatives that follow for his or her company.
While the traditional role of the CFO is necessary and will only need strengthening with newer options now available to raise capital and deploy funds, they need to now get involved in product design, investment and marketing. If required, he or she is expected to be a liabilities master and more generally, a strategic partner in managing the organizational future.
It is therefore with good reason that the conclave will be looking at various elements where the knowledge and insights of the CFOs could be leveraged well beyond their traditional functions.
For instance, it takes off with industry leaders sharing their perspective on the CEOs and CFOs alignment in the light of the newer expectations from the CFOs. Here sharing a promoter’s insights would be Ameera Shah, who has not just built and grown Metropolis Healthcare as its promoter and executive chairperson but also has a deep understanding of the new business imperatives and the changing landscape. We also have Nilesh Shah, the markets guru and part time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, share his thoughts. Shah’s business card off course describes him as the group president and managing director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company. Ravi Chawla, the managing director and CEO at Gulf Oil Lubricants India, will share a CEO’s perspective.
There will be sessions looking at the role of technology and its interface with the CFO and the finance function, the journey to digital transformation that organisations need to undertake.
Equally crucial will be the session devoted to ethics, governance and sustainability, where inputs from the CFOs, who in some organisations today, also wear the hat of a compliance officer, become important.
One area which also carries a lot of weight is the role of CFOs in balancing growth and profitability as also their efforts at trying to marry the long-term business goals and the short-term investor goals.
The long list of distinguished speakers and genuine practitioners also includes some of the finest minds who have travelled to Mumbai just for the conclave. For example, there is Param Reddy from TAFE, Rahul Mahashabde from Forbes Marshall, Rajendran Arunachalam from Thermax and Mandeep Mehta from PB Fintech. Jay Galla, the co-founder and chairman at Amara Raja Group, travelling from Tirupati, will share his insights on the organizational structures that can nurture the new role of CFOs and how their strengths could be leveraged better.
The conclave is to also have some interesting fireside chats. For instance, there is one with Vyom Doshi, the CFO at AZB Partners, India’s leading law firm, sharing his insights on the new imperatives.