From Keeping Score To Adding Value: Global CFOs on the Art Of Constructive Change
Changing times call for changing skills—in the CFO’s office, in particular.
During the downturn, companies pushed themselves to the limits of efficiency, becoming leaner and more productive. Most companies have little left to cut—leaving growth as the primary path to profitability. But grindinglyweak and uncertain economic conditions are pressuring companies to expand into new and unfamiliar markets in order to achieve that growth.
Finance executives are preparing to build on the gains they made in efficiency and productivity during the depths of the recession, redirecting their skills toward deploying scarce resources to extract the greatest growth gains. “For us, 2008 and 2009 were very much a fight for survival,” notes Tomas Hedström, CFO of Rottneros, a Swedish paper-pulp producer. “Starting perhaps from the second half of last year, we really started to look at the future again: investment projects, how we can improve the business.”
Hedström is not alone: senior finance executives in this study reveal a renewed commitment to improving the contribution of their finance groups—an undertaking that will, in turn, help their companies grow under challenging business conditions.
To download a free version of KPMG’s white paper, “From Keeping Score to Adding Value,” click here http://www.epmchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/From-Keeping-Score-to-Adding-Value-The-CFO-Art-of-Constructive-Change.pdf