CFO ANZ Hybrid Series - October Edition 2022

Overview

In recent years we have seen a clear shift in the role of CFO, moving beyond just the traditional focus on the numbers and figures but to one that is really a core guider in the company strategy, not just at board level but throughout the business.

There are so many questions to tackle... What are the key factors that are driving these changes for CFO's and what are the new capabilities and factors that finance leaders need to master?

How can CFO's and financial leaders think beyond business partnering to create a holistic approach that allows for a 360-degree perspective and offer deeper insights and value back to the business?

Join this months edition to learn:

Cultivate an innovation-driven mindset

Ensuring the right financial systems and processes are in place to achieve a clearer, more accurate view of your business

Focus on predictive analytics to help make informed, critical business decisions and revenue projections based on current demands, rather than relying solely on past performance

What to expect

• Attendees 200+
• Interactions 1:1
• End User : Vendor 20:1
• Executive Roundtables
• Sessions 20+

What we will cover

• Finance Automation Finance's role in intelligent automation and effectively leveraging the power of technology
• IT Transformation Cost optimisation and how to fund IT Transformation and maintain control over your organisation’s finances
• 360 in Finance Thinking beyond business partnering - 360-degree view across your organisation
• The Future of Finance The future of finance until 2025 - emerging trends for CFOs and Finance leaders

Agenda

• 8:30 am Driving Digital Transformation: How Financial Software Optimises Your Close(Plenary) The heightened need for software solutions to connect employees and departments over the last year has resulted in a new level of acceptance and expectation for digitization across every aspect of an organization. For finance teams specifically, digital transformation is no longer an aspirational goal but instead is a requirement to building resilience and effectively supporting the wider business. What is needed is financial software that is flexible enough to accommodate ever changing requirements— a solution that allows CFOs and Controllers to track what their team is working on, what the status of those tasks are, and enables real-time visibility and access to documentation and commentary during the entire close cycle.
• 8:55 am Evolve: Becoming MORE(Plenary) The demands on leaders have never been greater. However, constantly DOING MORE is unsustainable and leads to burnout, unless leaders are on a pathway to BECOMING MORE. Personal growth is essential on the leadership journey and the good news is that everyone can BECOME MORE. During this session we get together with John Drury to discuss importance of focus on yourself as a leader and the strategies to achieve your vision. Join us as we dive into a 25 minute transformation journey on evolving not only as a leader but more importantly as a human.
• 9:20 am The Future of Accounting and Finance(Plenary) Join us as we get together to discuss the future of accounting and finance and the skills of the future. During this session we talk about the evolution of the skills needed in the finance function that not only are the means to our success as finance professionals but also can be the make or break for us as businesses. According to a report recently released by the world economic form, we will see a drastic change in the type of skills needed from financial teams with shift towards soft skills vs technical skills needed today. With that in mind, As finance leaders, what does that mean for us and what skills do we need to begin to cultivate? Join us as we get together with Cissy Ma of Grow and Sell Your Business to find out more.
• 9:45 am Morning Tea & Networking Break(Plenary)
• 10:15 am How your organisation can benefit from Integrated Business Planning(Plenary) Integrated Business Planning is a process that aligns senior management around their long-term strategic and shorter-term tactical plans for effective decision-making that satisfies customers in the most profitable way. In short, it aligns business goals and financial targets with decisions and execution across your entire business. In this session, we discuss the key benefits of Integrated Business Planning for your organisation and why it is much more than a nice-to-have.
• 10:40 am Risk: The Power of the People(Plenary) As senior officers, CFO’s and financial leaders have a responsibility to care for and nurture the viability and commercial outcomes of the entity; to build on and support an environment which can deliver maximum benefit to its Shareholders. Risk is a major threat to the commercial viability of all enterprise, and it comes in many forms. There has never been a time in business history where managing risk has been more urgent. People Risk… how confident are you this threat is being mitigated effectively? Join this session to gain insights into: The commercial power of the people A deep dive into basics and discuss what’s really required to provide a resilient sustainable framework to produce maximised returns How does a business love its people and ensure it is loved back
• 11:05 am Where to start from when you don’t know what you don’t know(Plenary) It’s no secret that transparency and visibility is the bread and butter of the CFO yet an astounding number of organisations are at the very beginning of achieving a 360 degree view. During this session we dive into where to start from in this journey and discuss the use of data assets to increase transparency as a CFO and effectively optimise resources across all business units. Join us as we get together with David Harreveld of Ascern to discuss: The effective leveraging of data assets and business intelligence as a CFO Increasing transparency and visibility business wide Stepping towards effective optimising all efforts and resources across the business
• 11:30 am Lunch & Networking Break(Plenary)
• 0:30 pm How the Right Technology Helps Overcome Obstacles to Achieve Business Success(Plenary) Having access to transparent, real-time performance data, including cashflow and financials is more crucial than ever before. With the right information, leaders can make data-driven decisions quickly, adapting to evolving markets demands, jumping on opportunities, and navigating periods of economic uncertainty with a clear strategy backed up by the numbers. Technology is central to modern enterprises, which is why business leaders must invest in systems that drive efficiencies and provide rock solid insights and up-to-date information. Christophe Verstreken, General Manager of exquisite chocolate Belgian Delights, will explain how they overcame a variety of growth challenges, including integration and reporting challenges, as well as revealing how a single, cloud-based solution provided the foundation for business success.
• 0:55 pm From Flightdeck to Financial Management: A tale of two worlds(Plenary) For many people navigating the last couple of years will be remembered as a challenge. Lessons have emerged from these hardships, it’s almost impossible to imagine any leader or employee who didn’t experience some substantial shift in the way they operate. Here are my insights, learned from personal and professional experience both as an airline pilot and financial manager. Join us as we get together with Nicola to discuss: Contingency Planning Is Critical You Always Face Risks Assumptions Should Be Challenged Regularly
• 1:20 pm Using the STAY Conversations to Craft a Leadership Experience(Plenary) What career experiences do senior leaders want? What could their career pathway look like as a leader of leaders in the business? The answer is... by using data to pull together themes, and craft a career pathway with experiences the enables leaders' growth and development. After all, how do we expect them to be good leaders if they do not get the opportunities to develop themselves. During this session we cover a journey that has grown significant interest from leaders at EY and we talk about how it can be replicated in organisations. Join us as we get together with Liz Heathwood to dive into: How we are thinking about their career experiences and pathways. How to have a good leadership / career conversation. What does it look like and how do you break down the walls, so people get vulnerable and tell you what they really think rather than lip service. A new way of thinking for an innovative and practical practice to take back to your organisations.
• 1:45 pm Afternoon Tea Break(Plenary)
• 2:10 pm The CFO’s role in Transformation and enabling transparency across the business(Plenary) During this session we get together with Alix Hetteling of Accenture to discuss the synergies between the CIO and the CFO. What does it take to go through transformational journeys and come out the other way still standing? Join us as we take a close look at financial transformational use cases and the needed harmony between the finance and IT teams.
• 2:35 pm Evolve: Leadership and Communication Effectiveness for the Modern CFO(Plenary) Behavioural competencies are key to every business partnership role. A "seat at the table" must be earned. A stable and an effective business model requires the business leaders to wear multiple hats. What do you need to be a visible leader in the business, an excellent communicator, and an influencer. Without the essential leadership skills, certain key elements of a business transformation lacks value and credibility. Deep dive with Linda Scott as she outlines the need for effective communication to build rapport, relationships and contributions towards key business decisions. How do you build effective leadership behaviours to create high performance teams? What does a strategic leadership role look like post pandemic? How do you adopt a modernistic mindset and embrace change?

Speakers

• Liz Heathwood · Global People Strategy Lead, Strategy & Transactions, EY Liz is an expert in Talent Strategy, Talent Development, Transformation and Change as well as Talent Communications. Liz leads and works with teams globally and is known for her creative thinking style and ability to bring out of the box thinking to the talent projects she leads. Liz regularly speaks at events both internal and external about the Future of Work and strategy writing, her work also talks to the communication and engagement required to engage a global audience in the strategic talent agenda.
• Karen Hildenbrand-Allery · Chief Financial Officer, CFO Centre A skilled commercial finance leader and trusted strategic business partner to Executive teams, particularly in times of significant business growth, turnaround or transformation. An experienced and successful risk mitigator and change agent specialising in industry with complex footprints. Dedicated to commercial excellence and a fearless advocate and champion of people centric environments.
• Gemma Alker · Director, Innovation Central Brisbane, QUT
• Linda Scott · Managing Director and Founder, Thinking Leaders I work with CEOs, business owners, executives and senior leadership teams to unlock their potential, achieve high performance, and fast track growth and results, for themselves and their businesses. I have worked in and for businesses as a finance executive for nearly 30 years. After a very successful career both locally and internationally, I founded Thinking Leaders to focus on leadership, career and business growth, decision making, time management, productivity, communication effectiveness, problem solving, increasing profits and results, and creating professional businesses to maximise monetisation value, through changing the way you think, behave and respond. A speaker and facilitator in the space of self-leadership and perspective, and how this impacts your environment and results, I teach strategies to help you understand that you have choice about your thinking, which in turn impacts how you respond and the results you create.
• Dean Lee · Sales Director, Wolters Kluwer Dean Lee, Sales Director at CCH® Tagetik – Australia and New Zealand, is a sales professional with a passion for helping others. He graduated from The University of Queensland’s business school in 2012 and was inducted on the Dean’s Honour Roll. From there, he found his footing in banking and eventually finance transformation, applying strong business acumen to help customers find the best solutions to their problems.
• Nicola MacPhail · Chief Financial Officer, Hover As a chartered accountant, I believe that simply counting the gains and losses and saying who won at the end of the day is an easy and useless task. I was always excited by roles that provided value to the company. I jumped on opportunities to improve productivity. I have worked on projects that improved the accuracy of reported financial information by linking data feeds directly to reporting, creating more time for analysts to understand information. A large chunk of my accounting career has been spent on developing and designing management reports to highlight key business drivers and areas of risk. Accountancy became the wind beneath my wings when I started flying. I was given my first job because I could help out with the numbers a couple of times a week, eventually I was flying full time. I’ve flown the big jets and the little ones. I’ve also flown unmanned planes. Along the way, I got interested in safety - and became a Safety Officer, which is all about capturing data and making sense of it. I met some inspiring people along the way, and now I’m working towards a PhD in Safety and Resilience.
• John Drury · Business Mentor, John Drury
• David Harreveld · External CFO, Ascern Advisers
• Alix Hetteling · SAP Finance Practice Lead, Accenture
• Cissy Ma · Managing Director, Grow and Sell Your Biz CEO | I help scaling businesses find investors & increase valuation multiples | 25 years $17bn M&A | SheEO Activator | Impact Investor | Deputy Chair CPA QLD | The Boardroom Finance Chair | Capital Raising Show Host

Partners

• 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.
• Trintech At Trintech, we pride ourselves on providing enterprise-class financial solutions for the Record to Report process to organizations committed to transforming their financial process to best in class levels of efficiency and effectiveness. We understand the deadlines, dynamics and challenges of managing the Record to Report process.
• Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the health, tax & accounting, finance, risk & compliance, and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. CCH Tagetik, a part of the Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting division, provides solutions to CFOs for Corporate Performance Management. For over 20 years, CCH Tagetik has collaborated with finance organizations to optimize multiple business processes including budgeting, planning & forecasting, consolidation, reporting, analysis and disclosure management in one unified platform, available on Cloud and On-Premise. We have implemented a full range of Corporate Performance Management processes including more than 2500 applications at more than 1300 customers across various industries. Recently recognised by Gartner as the Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Planning & Analysis Solutions (FP&A) and 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Close Solutions (FC), and we are ranked among the highest level of customer satisfaction in the market every year. CCH® Tagetik is one of the fastest growing global software companies in the industry. A global vendor exclusively focused on simplifying and streamlining business processes for the CFO and the Office of Finance.

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