How can the CFO provide the board with short, digestible, and consistent data and information for context and benchmarking?
Then the CFO is a key company strategist that can deliver both data and context for smarter decisions.The annual CFO-Agenda in Mumbai offers a platform for leading Indian finance professionals to discuss, engage and question the accounting, finance, data, -visualization, - integration, -security and other governance, risk management and compliance processes, that are fundamental for CFO Innovation and creating value for the organization.
The role of the CFO is to ensure that accounting, finance, risk and compliance issues are regularly on the plate of the board and thereby the audit committee. However for these questions to become focus areas and on the board agenda, CFO's need to provide deep and meaningful reports on the pending dangers, risks and exposures to the company.
The board's role, duties, responsibilities and personal liability
Prompted by the global financial crisis, and the negative public opinion on corporate oversight the directors and senior management, they are looking for CFO's to take the lead on risk and compliance issues and to provide reflective knowledge of potential threats and dangers the company may be disposed to.
The board and senior management is accountable and must have a clear view of its role, duties, responsibilities and personal liability. Therefore has prompted these GRC issues to move on the top of the boards agenda.
Such reports need to contain more than just numbers or analytical data and information derived from these figures. The CFO must put on the hat of a key strategist, and provide the board with numbers that are linked with narratives. Such reports will provide the board with enough information to assess, evaluate and determine e.g. how much risk the company is willing to assume when, it tracks its and company's responsibilities on certain accounting, finance and GRC activities on the agenda.
The board prioritises its involvement
Providing unfavorable information on these issues, that may result in a lengthy discussion that may limit the scope of the information presented by the CFO. However, this can be a way to report risk and compliance issues, to encourage an open, and develop a dialogue-based approach to promote understated risk and compliance issues to and from the board of directors.
A board member is not an expert in everything
We suggest that PowerPoint presentations on governance, risk and compliance and IT security issues are banned from the board presentations. Thereby spending more time for dialogue around these issues to facilitate the assessment, evaluation and decisions on e.g. the risk appetite to the level of the risk bar or insurance.
The keynote speaker at the conference is Mr. Torben Nielsen, ex. Governor of the Danish National Bank and currently chairman of SydBank, The 4th largest Danish Bank and the audit committee of Tryg (Insurance and pension). One of his keynote speech is:
Both the Stockholm and the Mumbai event will address the issues related to; 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
For more information see: http://www.copenhagencompliance.com/2015/indiacfo2015/
http://www.copenhagencompliance.com/2015/stockholm/register.htm
