CFO ANZ Hybrid Series - October Edition 2021

Overview

No crisis has been as challenging in recent years as the COVID-19 pandemic, testing the strength of all organisations and the business guidelines under which they operate. For CFOs and finance leaders, it has accelerated the need to create agile, resilient businesses with higher levels of digitisation to better equip their finance teams to deal with today’s rapid pace of change.

Our series will focus on:

How to lead with empathy and agility

Investing in your people to enhance performance, create future leaders and promote organisational growth

How to understand and harness the power of technology, automation, AI & ML to drive innovation and gain key insights into emerging trends

What to expect

• On-site Attendees 150+
• Virtual Attendees 70+
• Speakers 10+
• Partners

What we will cover

• Becoming A Data-Driven CFO How Data Science And Machine Learning can be incorporated In financial forecasting, planning and analysis
• Leading with Agility Keeping agile in times of high demand, understanding where the opportunities exist for CFO’s to be truly agile.
• Adversity, Resilience and Opportunity How CFOs can, identify persisting challenges, and forecast valuable opportunities that lie ahead.
• Workforce Management Support for CFOs under the current changing circumstances, how to continue to adapt to this new way of working.

Agenda

• 9:00 am Building a Resilient Organisation with Collaborative Planning(Plenary) The Finance Department is at the core of every business. Finance professionals are increasingly becoming more involved in business decision making and with new developments in technology such as predictive analytics and automation, finance professionals are in a unique position to bring all departments of the business together, facilitate collaboration and support the business to become more agile and improve decision making. Join Thales Silveira from Jedox to talk about real life examples of how finance professionals are supporting the business to become more resilient and improve decision making. We will uncover ways to share timely data, plan real time scenarios, develop more accurate forecasts, introduce time saving automation and bring together all departments across the business, including Sales, Operations, Production and HR. How organisations can break down silos and bring all depts to the table for better decision making How to leverage internal and external data to support more accurate planning and forecasting How to achieve collaborative, integrated planning for your organisation
• 9:17 am Keynote: Developing Your Own Authentic Leadership Skillset to Unlock Business and Personal Growth(Plenary) Join thought leader and CFO Lorna Raine as we journey through her remarkable career, explore her current role with George Weston Foods, as well as gain insights into: Why authenticity and leadership matter more now than ever Why working on ourselves will underpin our ability to handle complexity and ambiguity How to drive personal growth and business outcomes
• 9:43 am Set Yourself Up To Scale: ERP for Fast-Growing Companies(Plenary) Software and technology companies are built on innovation, and their success depends on creating visionary solutions that set them apart. When things go right, this can lead to rapid growth, due to the scalable nature of these products or services. But what happens if these forward-thinking companies don’t have the right business systems in place to support international expansion? The most innovative companies can be held back if they don’t have a rock solid foundation that supports sustainable growth overseas. Join us for a conversation with Michael Eves, Director of Finance at leading software company, Deputy, and Jason Toshack, VP & GM - ANZ, at Oracle NetSuite, where they’ll discuss: Challenges that arise when scaling a business overseas Managing multiple entities, multiple currencies and differing taxation requirements Building systems and processes that are easily duplicated when entering new markets
• 10:07 am Keynote: Growing Finance Teams and Business Acumen(Plenary) Attend this session and hear from Chief Financial Officer at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Mistelle Jack as we gain insights on: Identifying the value each individual brings to the team Building the business financial acumen to support better decision making Growing talent and growing your business at the same time
• 10:24 am Financial transformation : 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.
• 10:48 am Networking Break(Plenary)
• 11:08 am The Future of Digital Finance and What it Means for Your Organisation(Plenary) The Future of Digital Finance and What It means For Your Organisation 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?
• 11:35 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.
• 11:59 am Keynote: Equip Finance Teams to Thrive in the Face of Change(Plenary) Join CFO and thought leader Francoise Merit as we explore insights on: The importance of having a clear vision and transformation strategy Connecting performance and culture when driving change Ensuring leaders are at the heart of change

Speakers

• MIstelle Jack · Chief Financial Officer, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Mistelle Jack is the CFO of economic development and trade promotion agency New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, which has 700 staff across 40 international offices. Mistelle has held a number of strategic finance roles in both the public and private sector. Returning from working for one of the world’s largest banks in the United Kingdom I found my passion and strength was turning financial strategy into tangible outcomes. From 10 year infrastructure projects to building finance team culture and a developing capability, at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment I was seconded to design and deliver the finance function for the new Ministry of Housing and Urban Development which was established and operational in nine weeks. Now in the role of CFO at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise the focus has been building capability and capacity for the Finance function and creating a global finance team across 40 international offices. Navigating many cultures and many processes in order to optimise operations and give back time for the organisation to spend on growing NZ companies internationally. My focus has been on developing finance talent and supporting leadership’s agile decision making especially in the response to Covid-19.
• Lorna Raine · Chief Financial Officer, George Weston Foods Lorna joined GWF in 2014 as Chief Financial Officer. She has extensive experience in finance, operations and leading transformational change teams, having held senior roles in multinational consumer and quick service restaurant businesses. Prior to joining GWF, Lorna was Chief Operating Officer with Fairfax Media and CFO of their Metro Media Division. She held senior leadership roles with Yum Restaurants International (Australia), and in South Africa, was CFO for McDonalds. Lorna holds a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours, is a member of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
• Melanie Holdsworth · Head of OPEX, Mutual Trust Pty Ltd Melanie is passionate about people, processes and innovative technologies across both the commercial environments and within community and Not for Profits. Melanie is the Head of Organisational Process Excellence Manager for Teachers Mutual Bank LTD, she has over 20 years experience in the Financial Services Industry. Melanie has held a number of senior operational, people and change management roles. In her current role Melanie leads the OPE team using systems thinking and technologies like Robotic Process Automation & AI to improve internal & external experience, create competition while maintaining a 21st Century business design focus. In addition to this she is creating a new bank that is not just digital and based on human centre design but perhaps most importantly ethical and responsible. Melanie's industry experience is broad and varied, it includes leading teams in the development and delivery of solutions, process improvement initiatives, sales and service distribution, product development, risk management and business management and strategies. Melanie's focus is people and to lead, motivate, coach and mentor people to be the best they can be and to build high performing agile teams. As a qualified and experienced health professional and change practitioner, Melanie is a visionary in the area of youth, education, culture and disadvantaged groups. A believer in using pragmatic solutions for positive outcomes.
• Lisa Weber · Chief Financial Officer, ETC Lisa is an innovative c-suite executive with extensive experience managing financial, IT, HR, risk, and corporate governance functions. She is a strong leader that develops stakeholder relationships with customers and Board alike. Lisa has scoped, implemented and project managed HR, Finance, and IT software solutions that have produced efficiencies and driven results. As the CFO at ETC, Lisa has been instrumental in the creation of a financially stable business that achieved a 300% growth over a few years, with revenue exceeding $38 million. With unwavering integrity, Lisa brings professional advice to the organisation, that continually improves business performance and sustainability. Throughout Lisa’s career, she has shown an aptitude for developing new processes, policies, and frameworks that guide the business through any corporate governance requirement. As a key member of the Executive leadership team, she has been an invaluable resource for the C-suite and Board of Directors. With a career that commenced as a Tax / Business Advice specialist with large accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, Lisa has accumulated an exceptional 25 years of experience. This experience has been developed within numerous professional services firms, not-for-profit businesses, State Government enterprises, and SME businesses.
• Thales Silveira · Sales Director, Jedox Thales has over 20 years of experience with technology, has worked in 2 of the Fortune 500 biggest companies and has helped organisations of every size around the world to make the best out of their IT investment. Throughout those years Thales has gained extensive experience with sectors like FMCG, Financial Services, Construction, Manufacturing and others. At Jedox, Thales works side by side with organisations with the goal of understanding their business end-to-end and with a consultive approach to developing bespoke solutions that drive outcomes and growth. With an unparalleled understanding of sales & operations, supply chain, logistics, brand development and management. Thales is passionate about analytics and the cultural power of technology. "It's not about the numbers, it's what lies behind those digits that intrigue me, is what is behind the data. People often say that data is the new oil, but remember oil on its own is nothing, is the added value to it that moves the world, literally."
• Mike Vorias · Regional Director Finance & Risk Solution - Asia Pacific Japan 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
• Gareth Lewis · Head of Production, Factor Creatively driven, strategic thinker, with a passion for story-telling & story-doing. Working to helping business leaders connect through meaningful and engaging experiences.

Partners

• Jedox Jedox is a leading global Enterprise Performance Management solution provider. Over 2,500 organizations in 140 countries use Jedox for real-time planning on the web, the cloud, and on any device. Jedox’s unified planning, analysis and reporting empowers decision-makers across your organization. Jedox helps business users work smarter, streamline business collaboration, and make insight-based decisions with confidence.
• Netsuite Founded in 1998, Oracle NetSuite is the world’s first Cloud Business Software Suite company. For more than 20 years, NetSuite has helped businesses gain the visibility, control and agility to build and grow a successful business. First focused on financials and ERP, we now provide an integrated system that also includes inventory management, HR, professional services automation and omnichannel commerce.
• 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.
• 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.

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