I Abstract
This paper discusses the how the finance function will drive business excellence in a global environment with emerging challenges in the areas of regulation technology, risk, globalization, talent capability.
The CFO's will have to operate in a global economy which is significantly volatile giving the future CFO's and the finance function new challenges and opportunities. The CFO's will need to work in collaboration with the business process owners and help in create sustainable growth.
Business excellence is about achieving excellence in what an organization does including strategy, leadership, customer focus, information management ,people and process which will help in achieving superior business results. The key to maintain
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Efficient Operations
• Standardizing and automating processes
• Deploying common global ERP platforms
• Achieving a global operating model with high shared services leverage
CFO's have access to data from ERP systems ,line of business applications and management reporting tools. This is a gold mine of information that can be translated into performance insight and meaningful value. The CFO will have to look beyond finance to identify value across broader enterprise and provide insights to the organization to improve performance and manage risk. To achieve this the CFO's will have to focus on the
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Technological developments will serve to gather, organize, and standardize to make data timely.CFO and the finance function will need to be very adept to leverage technology and improve decision making.
Big data and Predictive Analytics predicting future performance based on past data will be a key enabler for the future CFO and finance operations. Finance professionals are going to be the business's natural analysts in the future and once can expect analytics to be part of the CFO organization.
The CFO's will be under greater scrutiny for the effectiveness of the Risk management process and higher expectations will be set on the adequacy of long term financial plans from the board and other stakeholders. Investors will look at financial viability of business strategy for long term financial success
The financial department requires highly adept employees with thorough knowledge and/or experience with accounting and bookkeeping. This is a department that should be managed keenly ...
Achieving world class business performance is a major challenge in today’s society. Manufacturing companies continue to face increased competition and globalization from its competitors. (1, p. 148). The automotive industry is one of the most volatile manufacturing industries that we have, which was evident in the 2008 – 2010 automotive industry crisis. (2) This global financial downturn served notice to the American automotive manufactures to raise the bar, in order to achieve word class business performance. General Motors, one of the country’s largest automotive manufactures, had to receive a government bailout to survive. During this time many with the corporation asked themselves, if we were a world class business, would we be facing this pending crisis. The answer was a resounding “NO”. General Motors has come out of bankruptcy and is focused on being a world-class business organization.
A financial manager does not only take care of the day to day accounting assignment, but is expected to be involved in every financial decision within the company. A financial manager will normally be seen working with other managers on matters that will affect the financial state of the company. He or she is not only a financial projection expert, but is also in charge with overseeing the finances of a company and carries out all strategic financial planning and reports, delivers statements and summarizes the company’s financial activity to stakeholders and other interested out and inside party’s. The financial manger holds authority over decisions such as, costs, payroll, investment, mergers and acquisitions. They also oversee employees who work in the financial department. Financial manager’s work in the private as well as the public sector and their work environment varies. They have different responsibilities depending on who they work for and how big the company they work for is. Financial attention is the foundation of all major business decisions, and finance managers are responsible for making sure that all financial obligations are being met. Planning the short term as well as the long term budget is needed, and companies need to be aware of the consequence of their decisions before they proceed. They have to ensure that financial practices are in line, they are expected to follow the rules set by the company, and they also have to follow national and local rules and regulations. It can result in some serious consequences if the rules and regulations aren’t followed.
All financial information and notes are used to asses a company’s health and predict what the coming year may hold. The information found on the financials contains a large amount of information and once one understands how to interpret it then one has a visual of the company’s health.
The overall purpose of cost accounting is to advise top administration and the management team on the most suitable and cost effective methods and actions to employ based on cost, capability and efficiencies of a given product or service. It can be defined as the method where all the expenditures used during execution of business activities are gathered, categorized, examined and noted down (Horngren & Srikant, 2000). Once these numbers are gathered and recorded the information is used to determine a selling price and/or to identify possible investment opportunities. Although the principal aim or function of cost accounting is to help the business administration with their decision making and business planning process, the cost accounting data
In today’s society, technology has become more advanced than the human’s mind. Companies want to make sure that their information systems stay up-to-date with the rapidly growing technology. It is very important to senior-level executives and board of directions of companies that their systems can produce the right and best information for their company to result in a greater outcome and new organizational capabilities. Big data and data analytics are one of those important factors that contribute to a successful company and their updated software and information systems.
Currently, businesses want to use the information effectively for competitive advantage to make better decisions that improve and optimize business processes, predict the market dynamics accurately, optimize forecasts to adequately maintain resources to name a few reasons.
This scenario is used to show that accountants of today must continue to seek training opportunities on new and emerging technological advances. Continuing education is important in many professions, but is especially important in the accounting field. According to an interview with Mats Olsson of Sweden, who is a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), Small and Medium Practices Committee (SMP) by Giancarlo Attolini, who is the Chair of IFAC: We need to be more open-minded about emerging technologies as our work will likely become more computer-based. Ultimately, what differentiates one accountant from another is not their ability to manage IT, but rather their ability to better communicate with clients, to use the time saved by technology to develop client relationships and become a successful, trusted business advisor. (Attolini, 2014, quote by Olsson) Accountants who fail to stay in step with technology will find themselves out of step with their peers and clients.
The opportunities available to someone with a degree in finance are limited to only a few facets of the business world, but according to Job Outlook 2004, a finance degree is one of the top ten degrees in highest demand. Employers are starting to seek graduates with a master’s degree as well as a bachelor’s degree, which makes competition tough among applicants. Technology plays a major role in the financial world and applicants that possess strong computer skills will have a better chance of being hired in their desired field. In the Occupational Outlook Handbook, it says that financial managers must possess critical thinking skills and work well in a team environment. We are part of a global economy, which means that it is essential for applicants to have knowledge of international finance, and be willing to travel to other business markets around the world.
Companies have transformed technology from a supporting tool into a strategic weapon.”(Davenport, 2006) In business research, technology has become an essential means that many organizations use in their daily operations. According to the article, Analytics is a major technological tool used. It is described as “the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions."(Davenport, 2006) Data is compiled to enhance business practices. When samples are taken, they are used to examine research and understand how to solve problems or why situations are as they are. Furthermore, in this article, Thomas Davenport discusses analytics from a business standpoint. He refers to organizations that have been successful in their usage of data and statistical analysis. In addition, he also discusses how data and statistics can be vital in the efforts to improve the operations of businesses.
Maintaining a company’s financial assets is a daunting task. Cash management techniques and short-term financing provide accounting executives with the tools needed to survive the constant changes within the economy. The combination of these tools and the knowledge of the world economy will assist companies in maintaining current assets and facilitates growth.
Keeping up with technology is difficult, tiresome, and firms find it very costly to keep at pace with it. Technology rapidly and constantly keeps on changing. Being at par technologically requires extensive research and strategic analysis of acquiring new innovation. Enforcing new technology requires staff retraining and in some cases making employees redundant.
...curate financial data for the future. Without financial data for the future, financial managers use data analyses and educated guesses to approximate the value and costs (Boundless, 2014). Financial managers must set the cost of capital, the cost of money over time, for their company to determine to cost of financing projects (Boundless, 2014). While performing all these roles, financial managers must also ensure that the business has enough money available to pay for upcoming financial obligations without hoarding assets that could otherwise be invested (F2.washington.edu, 2014). The roles of financial managers are lengthy and complex and require numerous hours of work on a daily basis. Not only do financial managers have to carry out their daily roles, but they also have to be prepared for random assignments or activities that can pop up in a company at any time.
Never have I ever climbed a mountain peak. As a child, I imagined myself conducting expeditions in deep-frozen pathways, leading amateur explorers to the top of the world, and instructing rookies in surviving harsh blizzards. Even though slightly altered, my childhood dream has been achieved. I led a team of fellow classmates, in my Strategic Management course, to the success summit of a financial competition. Over the course of a semester, I and my teammates were supposed to create and manage a company of the IT industry, in a computer-simulated environment, along with other four rival teams. I dealt with strategy and financial matters of our virtual enterprise, while my colleagues were working on marketing and manufacturing. During the four months of the exercise, I have experienced finance from various aspects: capital budgeting, through selecting favorable investment for upcoming quarters; debt management, by assessing the necessary amount and efficiency of loans; profitability analysis and dividend policy, which had been used to compile the company’s general performance index. Working in a multinational team, which included an American, a Norwegian and a Moldovan, strengthen my negotiations skills, as well as flexibility and cooperation. But above all, this experience intensified my passion for finance. Of course, a pleasant bonus was the fact that, in the end, our company’s financial performance was six times the performance of second-best team.
Owners and managers require financial statements to make important business decisions that affect its continued operations. Financial analysis is then performed on these statements to provide management with a more detailed understanding of the figures. These statements are also used as part of management's annual report to the stockholders.