Agenda* - November 5th 2015



09:15-09:20 Welcome & Introduction To The Conference
09:20-09:50 How can the CFO improve the financial reporting to the board of directors?
The CFO must recognise the value of data submitted to the board of directors. Often the CFO is stuck using spreadsheets as a reporting solution rather than a technique for effective communications.
  • Deliver more than just numbers
  • Linking numbers and narratives
  • CFO as a key company strategist

Torben Nielsen, ex. Governor of the Danish National Bank, Currently chairman of SydBank and Audit Committee of Tryg (Insurance and pension), Denmark
09:50-10:20 Challenges and opportunities for the CFO function in a highly regulated global environment
The CFO must recognise the value of data submitted to the board of directors. Often the CFO is stuck using spreadsheets as a reporting solution rather than a technique for effective communications.
  • Strategic Issues -how does the CFO fit in and interact with the Strategic Pillars of the organisation?
  • Stakeholder management - employees, shareholders, regulators, customers -both existing and potential
  • Change- and Vendor management - processes, people and policies

R. Kannan, Head of Corporate Performance Management, Hinduja Group
10:20-10:35 Coffee Break
10:35-11:05 Setting up an audit committee to meet the regulatory reporting requirements
What is the role of the CFO in providing the data and information to the audit committee
  • Internal controls, oversight of the financial reporting and the audit process
  • Good governance, risk management, compliance and IT-Security issues?

Torben Nielsen, ex. Governor of the Danish National Bank, Currently chairman of SydBank and Audit Committee of Tryg (Insurance and pension), Denmark
11:05-11:35 GST for business – From the CFO's perspective
  • GST – A game changer Tax Reform
  • Challenges, Opportunities and Issues - A Business Hack
  • Early Mover's Advantage - Be ready for GST!

Pratik Shah, CPA, Partner, Indirect Tax
11:35-12:05 Embarking on a Regulatory Compliance Journey
  • The typical approaches to addressing the regulatory IT initiatives in financial services
  • Approach compliance from being a check-the-box exercise to an integrated & proactive part of IT/business alignment and strategy
  • What are the components of a holistic financial regulatory compliance approach that service KPI's and satisfy the oversight authorities and all stakeholders?

Kersi F. Porbunderwalla, Secretary General, Copenhagen Compliance®
12:05-1235 7 Essential elements of Modern Business Systems
Jitendra Somani, CEO, Sage Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
12:35-13:05 Panel discussion and Q&A Session
Panelists:
- Pratik Shah, CPA, Partner, Indirect Tax
- Torben Nielsen, ex. Governor of the Danish National Bank, Currently chairman of SydBank and Audit Committee of Tryg (Insurance and pension), Denmark


Moderated by
- Kersi F. Porbunderwalla, Secretary General, Copenhagen Compliance®
13:05-14:00 Lunch Break
14:00-14:30 Effectiveness and Efficiencies through Business Process Management
  • The phenomenon of process decay, when controls cease to be controls
  • 'Active' management of processes for robust governance
  • Transactional due diligence and data analysis as tools

Prakash Hamirwasia Partner - Offshore Taxation, SKP Business Consulting LLP
14:30-14:50 The Power of a CFO to inspire, drive and transform business activities
Does the CFO have the right mindset to motivate his accounting and finance organization to offer ideas and challenges of the required 'game change' in the business?
  • how to avoid a status quo or business as usual approach and push accounting, finance, as well as it, to bring more value to the functions, organization and the company.
  • how can the CFO drive business development programs used outside of finance?
  • the CFO's role so that the business benefit from a closer alignment to the it department?

Jitendra Jain, Chief Financial Officer – Corporate Finance, GMR Group
14:50-15:20 Role of CFO in ethics and compliances of the organization
  • Walk down the road - CFO's who bared it all for ethics
  • CFO's role in driving ethics and compliance policies
  • Embedding controls in ERP to prevent frauds
  • Finance as a key contributor to anti-corruption compliance

Sundaraparipurnan Narayanan, CPA, Certified Fraud Examiner, Head of fraud investigation and compliance review
15:20-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-15:50 How can internal audit discover the material issues faced by the company that might have a financial, disclosure, regulatory, or audit impact?
  • What are the different ways to maintain stringent Governance Risk Management and Compliance standards
  • Components of financial leadership & control in a fast paced corporate environment
  • How to obtain superior results by maintaining, monitoring and improving internal controls

S. Bhaskar, Chief Internal Auditor, Tata Capital Limited
15:50-16:10 How to Address the rising Fraud in the Indian Corporate World
  • The role of CFO as Frauds Investigator
  • Examples of Fraud in Indian Financial Sector.

Rahul Magan, Corporate Treasurer, EXL Service Holdings
16:10-16:20 CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Sustainable Solid Waste Management
Suhas Dixit, Designated Partner, Pyrocrat Systems LLP
16:20-16:55 Panel discussion and Q&A Session
Panelists:
- S. Bhaskar, Chief Internal Auditor, Tata Capital Limited
- Rahul Magan, Group Corporate Treasurer, EXL Service Holdings
- Jitendra Jain, Chief Financial Officer – Corporate Finance, GMR Group


Moderated by
- Nabomita Mazumdar, Partner, Cite.Community
16:55-17:00 Conclusion
*subject to changes.





The CFO is increasingly seen as a strategic business partner. What does that mean in practice and what are the key components that need to be updated on the CFO role and responsibilities. The current Indian economic environment requires that all business decisions be made effectively with a thoughtful approach to the right input, data, organisation, and strategy.

Since the financial and credit crisis, the role of the CFO has evolved significantly. Earlier the critical decisions of he CFO function was focussed on the outsourcing of back office functions and transformative projects as the principal components. However now the CFO is expected to make strategic business judgments and provide comparable opportunities to drive accurate provide guidance on Financial Planning and Analysis, optimise cash flow and mitigate risks and ensure that the entire organization can use advanced analytics and big data for prudent decision making.

The challenges facing a CFO in 2016 will be covered with a series of relevant topics, Q&A sessions and discussions that provides a holistic overview of the challenges facing the CFO in 2016.

Addressing shareholder activism and creating a platform for dialog for creating value and efficiency
Throughout the world, influential investors and stakeholders are more assertive, visible and express powerful presence at the annual meeting. Based on their experiences with the financial crisis and the support from EU directives, Dodd-Frank, and Say-on-Pay the CFO has to comply with new stakeholder demands.
  • what is the dynamics between CEO/CFO and shareholders to address the corporate governance and disclosure issues?
  • what are the steps a CFO must take to manage and safeguard shareholder activism?
  • how to comply with stakeholder's voice on what they want from the companies that they invest in.

How can the CFO Advance the Organization's Innovation Agenda Deflation and the related risks and implications of the shrinking global growth, negative price pressures, etc, have been on the corporate agenda for a few years.
  • what are the steps the CFO can consider contributing to the innovation agenda?
  • what is the CFO's response to deflation's impact on demand, pricing and margins?
  • what are the strategic A&F issues the deflationary pressures that affect the performance of the company?

CFOs Are Tasking Treasurers with a New Mandate: Think Strategy
On the one hand, the CFO wants Treasurers to be strategic in liquidity risk management, efficient capital markets access and risk management. On the other hand, Treasurers face significant challenges such as cyber threats and navigating emerging markets. How can they cooperate to achieve higher levels of mutual efficiency?
  • how can the CFO partner and add value in an merger &aqqusition transaction
  • how can the CFO integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as an IT tool, to respond to treasury functions with timely, reliable, complete and consistent data
  • how can the CFO assist in implementing management systems for all business activities

What are the updated Best Practices for Enterprise Performance Management in Budgeting, Forecasting, Reporting and Consolidations?
  • steering the business around macro-economic trends
  • big data and the CFO
  • securing the positive effects of unrealized profits
  • what are the alternative plans for equity

The Strategic Nature of the Modern CFO is more than capturing Greater Financial Value from Global Payment Programs
  • maintaining margins in the volatile market and adapting to changing consumer tastes
  • financial leadership & control in a fast paced environment
  • the transformation of A&F business processes to fuel growth

How Financial Leadership is Helping Prepare for the New, Dynamic Digital World
  • providing new, better and faster information with predictive analytics on the most important drivers of business success

3 Practical Business Cases.
How to improve governance in Accounting and Finance Departments: 3 practical client cases
  • improve governance around executive management's use of management cockpit and KPI's
  • improve governance of global business process management
  • improve governance of staff management in international expansion

Management of Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) as a Core Competence.
Delivering Effective Support for International Compliance

How can the CFO ensure Effective Compliance in a Shifting Regulatory Environment
  • profitability and GRC transformation through analytics
  • corporate capital expenditures: consciously uncoupled from tax incentives
  • how to step up your financial reporting (and deliver more than numbers)

PARALLEL SESSION ON WORKIN G CAPITAL MANAGEMENT Part I

Companies are involved in surveys on the corporates' approach to improving working capital, as well as their approach to dynamic discounting and reverse factoring. Improving working capital is high on the agenda for many organizations. However few of them have implemented a supply chain finance programs.

Achieving Higher Performance in Working Capital Management I
  • The concept and context of an efficient working capital organization
  • Working capital is required to finance company growth and increase competitiveness. The financial and economic crisis has overhauled the manner in which companies handle the working capital. Most companies have picked the low-hanging fruits of streamlining the working capital processes. Now the time has come to review the core business of dealing with working capital issues with a more integrated way of improving working capital.
  • Several surveys have shown that less than 10% of the businesses perform a working capital strategy to optimise the working capital utilisation.

  • Focus on working capital is enhanced if the tone-at-the-top requires a direct involvement from the entire value chain.
  • How to implement an exacting working capital strategy.
  • Taking stewardship and ownership of working capital.
  • How to develop your working capital benchmark analysis
  • How can key working capital improvements can be initiated from each value chain component

PARALLEL SESSION ON WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT Part II

Achieving Higher Performance in Working Capital Management II

Obtaining superior results in working capital management means maintaining and improving controls to keep costs down. How has improved working capital generated funds to invest internally regardless of the current economic condition of the business?
What are the different ways to maintain a more stringent working capital standards, through internal process improvements
Can the use of cloud-based software tools permit a more efficient, cost-effective procurement, inventory management and accounts payable automation?

Key Takeaways
  • A methodological approach to reflect and monitor continuous improvements
  • Decentralised ownership of improvements that are based on centralised policies on all business transactions; from sales to delivery
  • How to unravel the tied capital needed for continued growth.
  • How to uproot and identify problems in working capital management
  • How to develop Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) + Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) - Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) to = cash conversion or the operating cycle (CCC) performance metrics that permit degrees of flexibility
  • How to restrict unconventional high flyer spending without hurting the bottom line
  • Why does it makes sense to leverage cloud-based technology tools to manage company spending, suppliers, contracts, sourcing, inventory and accounts payable more efficiently