The CFO Rising conference yesterday morning was right up my alley with sessions on Creating Alignment in the C-Suite, A New Dynamic in the Boardroom, and ... particularly ... Finance Skills for a New Decade. My next few blog posts will talk about what I heard, but I’ll start with some interesting stats that opened the morning.
The CFOs in attendance were polled around critical issues they are facing, and here are some of the results ...
--89% felt the worst was over but do not anticipate a turn around anytime soon
--Only 4% felt growth was likely to happen in the next several months
--70% were concerned and VERY concerned (35%) around the cost effectiveness of proposed government regulations
--When asked about the proposed health care legislation, 69% were very concerned about the tax impacts and 62% were very concerned about the quality of care
Conversely, the attendees felt there was some good that came out of the economic downturn ... it has forced finance to go back to basics.
--32% said they now had a core business focus
--25% were focused on increasing productivity
--3 out of 4 indicated they would be preserving cash as a hedge against economic uncertainty
--77% indicated their focus would be on organic growth ... which means ...
--Only 10% indicated M&A was a core business focus
