Sit-Down | CFO | September 2023 | Melbourne
Navigating Uncharted Waters: Empowering Australian CFOs to Steer Financial Success Amidst Economic Uncertainties in 2023
Hosted by Factor
- 537 attendees
- 31500 hours
Agenda
- Welcome Coffee & Registration(CFO)
- Welcome address and introduction by Sit-Down(CFO)
- CFOs as agents of change: driving organisational reinvention in an evolving economy
- Unlocking Success: Navigating the Challenges of Mergers & Acquisitions in Logistics Finance(CFO) This presentation delves into the experiences and insights of Gavin Norman, the CFO of Blue Star Global Logistics, as he shares his journey during a recent acquisition and consolidation of multiple businesses. The session will focus on the intricacies of being a CFO during an acquisition, the challenges of combining multiple entities into one, and the strategic vision to establish a seamless one-stop-shop approach for customers. Key takeaways include: 1) Navigating the complexities of an acquisition and its financial implications. 2) Strategies for effectively integrating and consolidating diverse businesses. 3) Overcoming customer pain points through a unified service model. 4) The role of CFOs in representing their companies and contributing to the CFO community.
- Driving Transformation and Innovation in Finance: A Journey of Automation and Stakeholder Management(CFO) Join three accomplished leaders, James Osborne, Head of Finance for Jemena Networks, and Yingying Li, Group Chief Financial officer, Narain Viswanathan, Head of sales for ANZ at Workiva as they share their experiences in driving transformation and innovation within their respective organisations. James, the head of finance of a leading Energy Distribution company, will discuss his passion for placing Finance at the heart of decision making and keeping things simple utilising reporting tools. He will highlight how automation has revolutionised their financial operations, leading to increased efficiency and better decision-making. On the other hand, Yingying, a seasoned finance professional, will shed light on the challenges and strategies involved in stakeholder management. She will emphasise the importance of engaging stakeholders effectively to implement transformative changes successfully. Key Takeaways: Ensuring Finance bring value-adding partnering skillsets. The power of automation and AI tools in accelerating financial processes and decision-making. Strategies for implementing automation in finance departments and driving business transformations. Overcoming challenges in stakeholder management and maintaining strong business partnerships. The role of finance leaders in fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
- Morning Tea & Networking(CFO)
- Modernising Your Financial Close(CFO) What are the risks of your current Financial Close process and how do leading organisations modernise mindset and the tools they are working with to complete key control activities.
- Transformative Finance: Maximising Automation for Business Partnering Excellence(CFO) Join Tim Brown, the Vice President of Asia Pacific FP&A at Wells Fargo, as he shares his journey in streamlining and automating financial processes to enable successful business partnering. Discover how his team leveraged existing tools to achieve transformative results, delivering financial and management reports within five days of the month-end. Key takeaways include: 1) Unlocking efficiencies and redeploying resources through automation. 2) Strategically leveraging existing technology for transformational change. 3) The role of automation in enhancing business partnering capabilities. 4) Building a culture of value-added finance functions through streamlined processes.
- Leveraging Process Automation to Transform Financial Operations(CFO) Thriving in this modern yet disruptive environment requires leaders to strategise their innovation processes. Therein lies the opportunity for finance leaders to leverage intelligent automation and focus on the broader impact AI, ML and RPA can bring to any organisation. While the rate of adoption is still relatively slow, it is widely accepted that a proactive automation approach can inevitably assist forward thinking finance heads to help: • streamline processes • improve efficiency & accuracy • maximise compliance • reduce costs • improve productivity.
- Exploring the Impact of AI in Finance and Healthcare: Leveraging Analytics and AI for Future Transformations.(CFO) This fireside chat will delve into the exciting possibilities of AI in finance and healthcare, focusing on leveraging analytics and AI to drive transformations in organisations. Join us as we discuss the potential impacts of AI on finance, healthcare, and the broader organisation, with an emphasis on data analytics and trend identification. Key Takeaways: Understand the potential of AI in finance and healthcare, including its role in data analytics and trend identification. Explore the transformative power of AI in finance systems, ERP implementation, and reporting tools like Power BI or Ocnos. Discover the use of AI in healthcare, particularly in medical imaging and aiding doctors in diagnosis. Discuss the challenges and opportunities in adopting AI for finance and healthcare, and how to navigate the journey towards a data-driven future.
- Peer Connect(CFO)
- Lunch & Networking Break(CFO)
- Prioritising visibility and data driven planning to pave the way for growth.(CFO) Amidst the economic impacts, the political tensions and supply chain challenges over the past year, when we close in on the Australian landscape, specifically in the finance function, our research at Sit-Down shows an interestingly even split yet overwhelming emphasis on organisations tackling: Talent, Retention, Hybrid/Remote Workforce Management Planning & Performance Management Growth and Maintaining Healthy Cashflows.
- Peer-Led Roundtable Discussions(CFO)
- Navigating Challenges and Transformation in Asia Pacific's largest privately-owned logistics company during COVID-19.(CFO) In this fireside chat, we will delve into the experiences and insights of Dave Crawford, the CFO of Linfox, specifically focusing on his role at Avalon Airport and the associated challenges and opportunities. As a key player in a high-net-worth family-run company, Dave Crawford’s journey has been shaped by the need for transformation and diversification, especially during the tumultuous times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Key takeaways: Adapting to Challenging Environments. Diversification Strategies. Deal-Making and Negotiation. Balancing Leadership Roles.
- Driving Financial Transformation through Automation.(CFO) Joining us as the General Manager Finance and Company Secretary at CARS24, Mahmud Rahman, will be discussing, focusing on automating and transforming financial processes. Mahmud will share his experiences and insights on the challenges and advantages of implementing automation in finance, hiring the right team for a lean and efficient structure, and the critical role of automation in enhancing the company's valuation and competitive advantage. Key takeaways include: 1) Strategies for successfully navigating the transformation journey in start-ups. 2) The importance of hiring specialised finance teams for optimal automation implementation. 3) The impact of automation on the company's valuation and competitiveness. 4) The role of CFOs in ensuring compliance and governance in a rapidly evolving industry.
- Closing Remarks(CFO)
- Networking Reception(CFO)
Speakers
Willem Boshoff · Executive Director, Corporate Performance Management, Tridant Willem Boshoff is an Executive Director of Tridant and leads the Performance Management practice, focussed on improving FP&A and S&OP. Willem has combined his passion for technology and interest in finance, recognising the need for organisations to respond faster, particularly in recent times, to help them do more with less, ensuring that the solution set for senior finance stakeholders addresses optimisation in their monthly finance cycle.
Yingying Li · CFO, Group Four Building Surveyors
Mahmud Rahman · General Manager Finance & Company Secretary, Cars24
James Osborne · Head of Finance - Networks, Jemena
Tim Brown · APAC FP&A leader, Wells Fargo
Bob Boyne · Lead, Tridant
Barry Cairns · Solutions Engineer, Nintex Barry Cairns is a process automation consultant and solution engineer at Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation. He has over 15 years’ experience implementing initiatives related to digital transformation projects. Including, continuous improvement, change management and system integration across industries. Barry is passionate on helping customers bring to life their automation strategies through revamping outdated, often paper-based processes with workflow and robotic process automation.
Jonathan Beeby · Managing Director, Australia & New Zealand, SAP Concur
Partners
- SAP Concur SAP® Concur® is the world’s leading brand for integrated travel, expense, and invoice management solutions, driven by a pursuit to simplify and automate these everyday processes. The highly-rated SAP Concur mobile app guides employees through business trips, charges are directly populated into expense reports, and invoice approvals are automated. By integrating near real-time data and using AI to analyse transactions, businesses can see what they’re spending and avoid possible blind spots in the budget. SAP Concur solutions help eliminate yesterday’s manual tasks, make today’s work easier, and support businesses to run at their best. Learn more at concur.com.au
- Nintex Nintex is the global standard for process intelligence and automation. Today more than 10,000 public and private sector organisations across 90 countries turn to the Nintex Platform to accelerate progress on their digital transformation journeys by quickly and easily managing, automating and optimising business processes. Learn more by visiting www.nintex.com and experience how Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the future of Intelligent Process Automation (IPA).
- Tridant www.tridant.com.au
- Enable
- Workiva
- BlackLine
- Anaplan Anaplan, Inc. (NYSE: PLAN) is a cloud-native enterprise SaaS company that enables enterprises to orchestrate business performance. Based in San Francisco, Anaplan has over 20 offices globally, 175 partners and 1,600+ customers worldwide. Business leaders rely on our platform to connect supply chain, finance, workforce planning, sales & marketing teams, systems, and insights from across their organisations to continuously adapt to change, and transform how they operate, create, and accelerate business success. At Anaplan we challenge legacy thinking and software that isn’t flexible for the modern organisation. We put our customers first to create heroes, unlock potential, build trust and confidence. We have architected the only platform offering that will take the time from planning to decision to zero. Together with an ever-growing number of users, a rich partner ecosystem and an active community, we all work together to deliver business value with the power of Connected Planning at every level within in every organisation. To learn more, visit anaplan.com
- Oracle Make every customer interaction matter by connecting all your business data across advertising, marketing, sales, commerce, and service. Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience (CX) offers a connected suite of applications that goes beyond traditional CRM to help you create, manage, serve, and nurture lasting customer relationships. Build a complete view of your customer and their every interaction—no matter how, when, where, or with whom they engage. Empower your entire business to deliver exceptional customer experiences—from acquisition to retention—and everything in between.
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