Pulling Out From The Traditional Finance Function Concave

Maximizing Long-Term Corporate Growth And Shareholder Value

CFOs in the recent times are playing a bigger role in developing and implementing key strategies within their company. Lately, CFOs are closely working with their CEOs to generate
sustained growth opportunities for the future. Successful CFO leadership would entail a holistic approach wherein he or she would need to be closely aligned with the company’s strategy. This enables him to effectively communicate his financial acumen and knowledge to colleagues
from non-financial backgrounds, thereby cultivating a finance-cent ric approach and mindset throughout the organization. CFOs are also increasingly becoming responsible for putting systems in place to enable the company grow its topline and maintain healthy profitabilit y, thus helping create value for investors in the process.

"Financial prudence coupled with a good understanding of the business always comes in handy"

The Future Of Forecasting

We have been putting in place various systems and processes to help forecast both our revenues and costs. We have firstly under taken an exercise to assess current revenues and understand the possible changes for the quarters going forward. We have classified revenues
and expenses appropriately so that there is better visibility and evaluation. Accordingly, we have been planning our expenses and working on collecting receivables in a timely manner to ensure minimum st rain on fut ure cash flows.

Furthermore, forecasting is only beneficial when it is a continuous process and businesses are nimble enough to re-planbased on forecasted changes. Doingboth requires a solution that promotescollaboration throughout the company.

Driving Better Business Results

Earlier, the CFO was seen as a passive participant in the functioning of the company and used to focus more on maintaining the finance functions. Nowadays, the CFO is a key stakeholder
in the new business ventures of any company and works closely with the CEO in giving inputs on the financial aspects of the latter’s role, keeping in mind the culture and focus of the  company at an operating level. The finance team can closely monitor and give strategic inputs on the various initiatives being taken by different departments such as, in our case, marketing, film dist ribution, etc. and thereby improve the viability of the projects leading to better value creation.

Budgeting For Innovation

In the backdrop of the current dynamic market conditions, a CFO needs to move beyond the traditional scope of work and take on more strategic responsibilities to enhance business performance. He or she has to work closely with the CEO and the Board to strengthen the proposals and evaluate the same from a financial perspective, while keeping the business goals in mind. Moreover, the CFO has to bear in mind the risks associated with the business by using a prudent approach based on the understanding of the business dynamics. Financial prudence coupled with a good understanding of the business comes in handy in such
cases. For instance, if a project in the initial phases of its implementation does not show the desired results and the prospects going forward look unfavorable, I would look to pull the
plug before it leads to cash burn.