CFO ANZ HYBRID SERIES - AUGUST EDITION 2021

Overview

As CFOs chart their role in supporting the organisation’s next wave of growth, important cross-functional initiatives aren’t nearly as prominent as they should be: organisational changes that might at first glance be seen as hype or buzzwords, but are in fact important, foundational changes for the enterprise. These changes are being led by the CFO’s peers, who have started to chart an entirely new course for the organisation’s workplace; the organisation’s digital business portfolio; and even the employment deal we have with our workforce. In all of these transformative agendas, the CFO will be asked to make difficult spending choices. They will be presented with potentially game-changing investments in people and technology that they know they can’t say ‘no’ to, but won’t be confident in the cost and risk implications of saying ‘yes’, either. Without strategic changes to their operating style, CFOs will place their careers at risk by not imbuing these transformational agendas with strong financial rigour from the start. CFOs must get in early to shape the success of these initiatives, or they become an obstacle to progress on these mission-critical priorities. Join Dennis Gannon and your peers at Gartner’s opening keynote to learn about the extent of these transformative changes taking shape around the enterprise and the critical actions CFO need to take to be a catalyst, not inhibitor for positive change.

What to expect

• Roundtables 5+
• Speakers 10+
• Virtual Attendees 200+

What we will cover

• Rebuilding Finance Processes and Talent Profiles to Meet Digital Needs Finance leaders need to build a different, digital set of talent and processes. This track highlighted which competencies are needed, how to accelerate skill development, and how to take advantage of digital technology advances to automate more processes and enhance judgment across the finance organisation.
• Data, Analytics & Technology Projects to Build a Digital Finance Footprint Most finance leaders believe the finance organisation must significantly accelerate its application of advanced digital technologies to effectively serve their business. This track highlighted how to effectively unlock the promise of the data, analytic and technology landscape.
• Positioning the Finance Org for 2025 using Comparative Advantage Three trends are changing the course of finance forever: the democratisation of data, increasing organisational complexity and the rising sophistication of digital technology. This track showed the impact of these trends on the finance organisation’s comparative advantage.
• Rethinking Costs that Drive Growth in a Digital World The best CFOs catalyse rapid growth by determining the right costs to bring back in and how to protect the organisation’s most-critical investments. This track focused on how to update the governance, and the data and analytics that drive these decisions.

Agenda

• 9:00 am The Last Mile of Digital Transformation(Plenary) Companies today are recognizing that a shift in their digital strategy is required. Increasingly, they are reshaping their digital presence to focus on the “last mile” – the hardest part of the customer journey that requires an individualized experience.
• 9:25 am Driving Cultural Change as a Finance Leader(Plenary) Attend this session to understand how CFO's and finance leaders can drive cultural change across their organisations, and drive growth. Join CFO from Accolade Wines Tejvir Singh as we explore: Growth, how to scale and implement transformation initiatives How to manage data complexities, ensure executive stakeholder buy in How cultural transformation can drive business growth
• 9:48 am Digital Laggards: Accelerate Your Digital Transformation and Take Advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution(Plenary) E-invoicing, justified trust, payment times reporting are all mandated tax reforms which require growing levels of automation across business networks and within business accounting systems. The sum aim of this is to accelerate the adoption of these systems and bring Australia up to the productivity and automation of other OECD countries. By digitising processes around payment frameworks, it’s expected this will have a trickle-down effect from 1 July 2022, as the government commits to 5-day payment terms when their supplier uses e-invoicing. This will have an upswing impact on wider business networks within Australia by streamlining payment times, improving process automation and intelligence, and providing data-driven insight across purchasing and supplier networks. These benefits aim to increase productivity across the Australian economy, as well as boost our commercial potential in the new opportunities created in the fourth industrial revolution. However, in addition to the collective outward economic benefits, there are several inward benefits to organisations who are early adopters of hyper automated finance and accounting practices, only one of which is e-invoicing. Business leaders are fast realising that the competitive advantage of this disruption lies in the interconnectedness and collective governance renaissance occurring across industries. Consequently, core systems of record such as ERP are being optimised and shifted to the cloud. The key driver for digital transformation is often a reaction to external forces placed on the business, but the benefits can include exponential innovation and the discovery of new value drivers. Join this roundtable to better understand the benefits of e-invoicing for your business, how to best capitalise on the opportunity to optimise your core IT and Finance systems of record, why this should be a cloud first approach, and how to ensure scalability, flexibility and risk minimisation across your business transformation. Lastly, learn the steps and considerations to not only deliver value in the near term, but set yourself up for a future where change is quick, disruption is unpredictable and consumer expectations are laser focused.
• 10:11 am Reframing Finance: Smart, Open and Ready for a Superfluid Future(Plenary) The COVID-19 pandemic is a time of great uncertainty, but it is also an opportunity for Financial Leaders to demonstrate the critical strategic role they can play in helping transform the future of the enterprise. However, doing so will likely require major changes in how CFOs act and think — their “DNA.” Join Head of Financial Excellence, Peter Lim as we explore three fundamental ideas for CFOs to consider: Be smarter about the emotional intelligence that underpins collaborative leadership • Reframe what value means for the organisation Make bold and innovative choices to reframe finance for a very different future While the COVID-19 pandemic has come at a huge humanitarian and economic cost, it has also changed how we think about the world. As well as protecting their people and their communities, innovative and bold companies are also pioneering new business models, accelerating digital priorities and transforming how they work.
• 10:34 am Integration of Process and Systems- How automation Can Help(Plenary) Hear from Bradley Kyne , Financial Director of East Kimberly Services.
• 10:48 am Gearing Your Business for Growth in Uncertain Times(Plenary) Join Chief Strategy Officer from Aon, Athena Manley as we explore: Risk appetite during times of crisis Strategy and transformation initiatives The changing nature of finance leadership role and education opportunities
• 11:12 am The Future of Digital Finance and What it Means for Your Organisation(Plenary) Join this session to explore: The current business climates essential to driving finance transformation, integrating data and digital to operate on new levels The top challenges faced by the CFO and the finance team when setting out to redefine finance processes, and the steps towards streamlining them Business partnering – an essential for finance transformation and how to equip people with the necessary skills and technology to build solid relationships The required skill shift in the finance professional – will future finance professionals require an accounting qualification?
• 11:37 am Understanding Risk to Build a More Resilient Financial System(Plenary) Attend this session to explore insights around governance, risk and compliance, including: What technology & architecture can help drive your business reporting A risk temperature check and support for finance leaders to determine better ways to consider and manage risk Cost vs efficiency insights to help your organisation

Speakers

• Gareth Lewis · Content Creator, Factor Creatively driven, strategic thinker, with a passion for story-telling & story-doing. Working to helping business leaders connect through meaningful and engaging experiences.
• Athena Manley · Chief of Strategy, AON I am an adaptable and energetic executive with 20 years of experience in the Financial Services industry. My greatest strength is my track record of leading complex businesses on the journey of growth and innovation. I have successfully held senior roles leading a range of functions in ASX top 10 , Fortune 500 and not for profit organisations and excel at leading national and international divisions, transformation programs, building diverse teams and driving strategy to create brilliant results. I am currently completing an MBA from the University of Queensland including studying leadership on campus at Harvard University on exchange in 2019. My mission is to lead and inspire exceptional businesses that improve financial wellbeing.
• Robert Warren · National Leader, Risk Strategy & Technology, KPMG I am a Partner and National Lead, Risk Strategy & Technology for KPMG, a global leader in Risk Consulting. As the National Lead for RS&T, I advise CEOs, CROs, COOs, and senior business leaders on how to transform their risk functions and operating models. I'm also a Client Lead Partner to large financial services organisations in Australia. As part of my role, my team and I provide the full suite of KPMG's consulting and advisory services to our clients. I am a Registered Company Auditor, Associate of the ICAA and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. I have a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment (FINSIA). KPMG is a global leader in the field of Risk Consulting. In Australia, KPMG employs over 6,500 people, including over 400 partners, with offices around the country. We work with Australia's leading brands, helping them solve complex challenges, steer change, disrupt sectors, and grow revenue.
• Mike Vorias · Regional Director Finance & Risk Solution - Asia Pacific Japan, SAP Australia Mike has been working in the Finance space for over 40 years covering both technology and business aspects of Finance. An expert in finance transformation, he has led multiple finance transforming programs cutting across different industries and geographies. In his current role with SAP, he works across the regional office of CFO solutions team spread across Asia Pacific Japan
• Wes Self · Chief Financial officer, GMHBA I’m 36, Chartered Accountant, father of 3 and work/live in Geelong. Yes I go for the Cats. Worked at KPMG in Melbourne for half of my career, GMHBA the other half. Spent 2 years of my time at GMHBA outside of Finance and running two of our digital businesses. Being thrown in the deep end of agile, operations, marketing etc. was a big learning curve however it has shaped how I CFO and connect finance with the customer.

Partners

• GoCardless A global leader in bank-to-bank payments, GoCardless was founded on the belief that the way businesses collect recurring payments is broken. Companies of all sizes spend too much time and money trying to collect what they are owed – whether due to manual processes relating to credit transfers, or high costs and failure rates from credit cards. GoCardless is passionate about payments and dedicated to helping solve this issue. GoCardless democratises bank-to-bank direct debit, commonly known as Direct Debit, and makes the ‘pull function’ capability accessible and easy to use for small businesses while bringing automation and operational efficiencies to enterprise organisations. With 60,000 customers globally across a range of industries, GoCardless provides access to a Global Bank Debit Network that covers 35 countries and nine Bank Debit schemes across the UK, North America, ANZ and Europe.
• Sage Sage is the global market leader for technology that helps small and medium businesses perform at their best. Sage is trusted by millions of customers worldwide to deliver the best cloud technology and support with our partners to manage finances, operations, and people. We believe in doing everything we can to help people be the best they can be, so the combined efforts of 13,000 Sage colleagues working with businesses and communities make a real difference to the world.
• SAP Australia SAP is one of the world’s leading producers of software for the management of business processes, developing solutions that facilitate effective data processing and information flow across organisations. At SAP, our purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Our promise is to innovate to help our customers run at their best. SAP is committed to helping every customer become a best-run business. We engineer solutions to fuel innovation, foster equality, and spread opportunity across borders and cultures. Together, with our customers and partners, we can transform industries, grow economies, lift up societies, and sustain our environment.

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